Students to learn about Quantum mechanics
An Eastern professor will be giving a lecture today on quantum mechanics and its place in the world.
Donald Pakey, a physics professor, will be giving the lecture “The Many World’s Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics,” which he gave at Eastern about three years ago.
The lecture will take place at 4 p.m. today in Room 2120 of the Physical Science Building.
Pakey said he has added some new material to his lecture since the last time he gave the presentation.
“I have been reading a biography about the primary inventor of ‘The Many World’s Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics’ and am going to be discussing (the biography) in addition to the lecture material,” Pakey said
The main topic of the lecture will be quantum mechanics and how society applies it to the world.
Pakey said he will start out the lecture with an introduction to quantum mechanics and then move on to discussing the fundamental idea that there are myriads of worlds in the universe in addition to the conscious world society is aware of.
Pakey said even though the title of the lecture sounds intimidating, anyone can understand the material.
“While there are some very technical concepts included in the lecture, the general audience should be able to understand about 90 percent of the material discussed,” Pakey said.
Pakey’s lecture is one of the five to six lectures the physics department holds each year.
The presentation is free and open to anyone and is expected to be an hour long.
The presentation will also include a question and answer session.
Pakey has been a teacher at Eastern since 1990. He received his bachelor’s in mathematics and physics from Eastern, a master’s in science and his doctorate from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.
Pakey said he became a professor because he wanted to influence students in the field of physics.
“I always was interested in the subject and was good at it, so why not teach it to other people,” Pakey said. “I learn a lot from teaching my students.”
Pakey said students will learn a lot from the lecture.
“I believe students will get a basic understanding of Quantum mechanics and learn that there are parallel universes that have been proven to be out there,” Pakey said.
Jennifer Witt can be
reached at 581-2812
