ScienceThe StorytellerBeginner
Quantum Physics at Work, a free science course on Tomo

Quantum Physics at Work

Like Duolingo, but for Quantum Physics at Work. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Putting the Wave-Particle Rules to Work and Tapping Tunneling and Superposition. It starts from scratch.

12 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Quark the Quokka, the guide who teaches the Quantum Physics at Work course
Quantum Physics at Work
with Quark the Quokka
12
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Quantum Physics at Work

  • Light energy transfers only in whole, indivisible packets called quanta
  • Lowering light intensity decreases the number of packets arriving, not the size of individual packets
  • According to E = hf, photon energy scales with frequency (color), not beam brightness
  • Violet light has a higher frequency and more energy per photon than red light
  • Increasing brightness just shoots out more photons of identical individual energy
  • An electron absorbs light one whole photon at a time, not by slowly accumulating energy across multiple hits
  • If a single photon lacks the threshold energy, no amount of brightness or exposure time will liberate an electron
  • Switching to a higher-frequency photon with enough individual energy instantly knocks an electron loose
  • Incoming photons knock loose trapped electrons inside the sensor
  • Freed electrons collect to create an electric current
  • The sensor measures the total electron count to determine pixel brightness
  • Different semiconductor materials require different minimum photon energies to free an electron
  • Infrared photons carry low frequency, so detecting them requires a material with a very low release threshold
  • Ultraviolet photons carry high frequency, so UV-selective materials use high thresholds to ignore visible light
  • Wavelength is inversely proportional to momentum (λ = h/p)
  • Faster speed increases momentum, which compresses the matter wavelength into a shorter wave
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Quantum Physics at Work 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.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Packets of Light and Color

Picture this: you turn the dimmer switch down on a lamp. What actually happens to the packets of light hitting the wall?

Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.

Course map

Where Quantum Physics at Work takes you

Learn the core formulas of quantum mechanics and see how wave-particle duality, tunneling, and superposition power the modern technologies in your pocket.

  1. 1

    Putting the Wave-Particle Rules to Work

    • The Energy Packet: E = hf and Digital Sensors
    • Matter as a Wave: λ = h/p and Electron Microscopes
  2. 2

    Tapping Tunneling and Superposition

    • Passing Through Barriers: Tunneling in Flash Storage
    • Superposition and Uncertainty: Clocks and Cryptography

2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Storyteller

Quantum Physics at Work is taught in the The Storyteller style: every lesson is a story. 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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Start free

Start Quantum Physics at Work today.

Download Tomo, search Quantum Physics at Work, and play your first lesson in under a minute.