Quantum for Everyone

Fall 2025 Review in Tweets

Happy first day of school! This semester, I'm teaching:

1. #PHY131 Quantum Physics and Technology for Everyone #QuantumForEveryone, a new 2-credit general education course

2. #PHY201 General Physics for the Life Sciences 1 #GenPhys1

3. #PHY531 #QuantumMechanics

— Tom Wong (@thomasgwong) August 19, 2025

Today in #PHY131 #QuantumForEveryone: "Quantum" in ubiquitous in popular culture, but it just means the smallest amount of something. Quantum science explores these quanta and their properties, and established quantum technologies leverage them for huge economic impact. pic.twitter.com/fNc5Qwk3ja

— Tom Wong (@thomasgwong) August 19, 2025

Today in #PHY131 #QuantumForEveryone: Quantum information science promises advanced quantum sensors, computers, and networks. Most important applications are likely undiscovered. National quantum initiatives spur R&D on these critical and emerging technologies. Image: @qureca. pic.twitter.com/S24CSCVnVp

— Tom Wong (@thomasgwong) August 21, 2025

Today in #PHY131 #QuantumForEveryone: 2025 is the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology #QuantumYear. Many jobs in quantum do not require quantum expertise. Scientists felt that the laws of physics were largely settled, but investigations into light upended that. pic.twitter.com/BVNMrXSzE7

— Tom Wong (@thomasgwong) August 28, 2025

Today in #PHY131 #QuantumForEveryone: Students conducted the two-slit interference experiment, demonstrating the wave nature of light. Then, we covered blackbody radiation and Planck's solution by quantizing energy. This was the birth of quantum science. pic.twitter.com/7tKMQCX6R2

— Tom Wong (@thomasgwong) September 2, 2025

Today in #PHY131 #QuantumForEveryone: Planck's constant now defines the kilogram. Einstein explained the photoelectric effect by interpreting Planck's quanta as particles of light, or photons. Blackbody radiation and the photoelectric effect underpin two forms of night vision.

— Tom Wong (@thomasgwong) September 4, 2025

Today in #PHY131 #QuantumForEveryone: We built spectroscopes and observed the spectra of various atoms. Bohr's model of the atom explains the spectra, where electrons orbit in quantized shells and jump up or down shells by absorbing or emitting photons. pic.twitter.com/ZnOkDn6Pz0

— Tom Wong (@thomasgwong) September 9, 2025

We also had story time and read from The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip (Rutherford's nuclear model of the atom), Optical Physics for Babies by @csferrie (dispersion), and Quantum Physics for Babies by @csferrie (Bohr model).

— Tom Wong (@thomasgwong) September 9, 2025

Today in #PHY131 #QuantumForEveryone: The quantized spectra of atoms has many applications, including neon signs, fireworks, and spectroscopy (identifying elements in the sun's atmosphere, rotation of the sun and expansion of the universe with Doppler shift). pic.twitter.com/0VacoimRP1

— Tom Wong (@thomasgwong) September 11, 2025