- #1
Demon117
- 165
- 1
I recently took an exam in which the professor asked the following question:
Suppose an object of mass 2 grams were incident on a rectangular barrier of height 20 cm and width 2.0 cm. What is the probability that the object will quantum mechanically tunnel and appear on the other side?
I argued that since this object has a mass on the order of 10^27 times greater than the electron that qualitatively the probability would be negligible. Furthermore I argued that such a macroscopic object could be described classically so why would we describe such an object by a wave-function propagating in space? I'd like to hear your ideas on the matter and see what others say. Thanks!
Suppose an object of mass 2 grams were incident on a rectangular barrier of height 20 cm and width 2.0 cm. What is the probability that the object will quantum mechanically tunnel and appear on the other side?
I argued that since this object has a mass on the order of 10^27 times greater than the electron that qualitatively the probability would be negligible. Furthermore I argued that such a macroscopic object could be described classically so why would we describe such an object by a wave-function propagating in space? I'd like to hear your ideas on the matter and see what others say. Thanks!