Concept
Version 9
Created by Boundless
The Wave Function
Trajectories of a Harmonic Oscillator
This figure shows some trajectories of a harmonic oscillator (a ball attached to a spring) in classical mechanics (A-B) and quantum mechanics (C-H). In quantum mechanics (C-H), the ball has a wave function, which is shown with its real part in blue and its imaginary part in red. The trajectories C-F are examples of standing waves, or "stationary states. " Each standing-wave frequency is proportional to a possible energy level of the oscillator. This "energy quantization" does not occur in classical physics, where the oscillator can have any energy.
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