How Quantum Physics Works
Peel back the surface of everyday reality to discover the strange, pixelated universe underneath. Explore wave-particle duality, entanglement, and the quantum mechanics powering our modern technologies.
Like Duolingo, but for How Quantum Physics Works. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
25 levels across 4 sections, about 50 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Breaking Classical Intuition, The Weird Rules of the Microscopic, Quantum in Everyday Technology, and The Philosophical Frontier. It starts from scratch.
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Key ideas in How Quantum Physics Works
- At everyday human scales, energy feels smooth and continuous, like pouring water
- At the microscopic scale, energy is transferred only in indivisible units called quanta
- You can gain or lose one chunk, two chunks, or three, but never half a chunk of energy
- Planck solved the puzzle of glowing hot objects by proposing that light is emitted in discrete packets
- The size of each energy packet depends on frequency: higher frequency means a bigger chunk of energy
- Because ultraviolet packets cost so much energy, hot objects cannot emit an infinite amount of high-frequency radiation
- Einstein showed that a beam of light travels as a stream of distinct energy packets called photons
- An electron is ejected only when a single photon delivers enough energy in a one-on-one collision
- Making a beam brighter just adds more photons; it does not increase the punch of any individual photon
- Electrons inside an atom can only sit on fixed, specific energy rungs, never in the spaces between
- When an electron drops down a rung, it spits out a photon matching that precise difference in energy
- Because every chemical element has a distinct ladder of rungs, each element emits its own unique pattern of colored lines
- The word 'quantum' literally designates a minimum chunk or packet size in nature
- Everyday reality looks smooth only because the individual quantum packets are unimaginably tiny
- When you zoom down to individual particles, nature stops behaving smoothly and acts granular, or pixelated
- Waves emerging from two slits overlap and combine across the space behind the barrier
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Quantum Physics Works the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
If you zoom all the way down to tiny particles, how does energy actually move?
Get it right to open this lesson and 24 more in the app.
Where How Quantum Physics Works takes you
- 1
Breaking Classical Intuition
- Energy Comes in Chunks
- Wave-Particle Duality
- 2
The Weird Rules of the Microscopic
- Superposition and the Act of Measurement
- Uncertainty and Quantum Tunneling
- Entanglement and Non-Locality
- 3
Quantum in Everyday Technology
- Everyday Inventions Powered by Quantum
- Quantum Computing and Cryptography
- 4
The Philosophical Frontier
- Interpretations of Reality
4 sections · 8 units · 25 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
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Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
How Quantum Physics Works is taught in the Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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