Geometric Quantization (Part 8)

 

Let’s start with a puzzle:

Puzzle. You measure the energy and frequency of some laser light trapped in a mirrored box and use quantum mechanics to compute the expected number of photons in the box. Then someone tells you that you used the wrong value of Planck’s constant in your calculation. Somehow you used a value that was twice the correct value! How should you correct your calculation of the expected number of photons?

I’ll give away the answer to the puzzle below, so avert your eyes...

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Published on January 20, 2019 18:25
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