In the previous article we introduced Schrödinger's equation and
its solution, the wave function, which contains all the
information there is to know about a quantum system. Now it's
time to see the equation in action, using a very simple physical
system as an example. We'll also look at another weird
phenomenon called quantum tunneling. In the first article of
this series we introduced Schrödinger's equation and in the
second we saw it in action using a simple example. But how
should we interpret its solution, the wave function? What does
it tell us about the physical world? London 2012 vowed to be the
cleanest Olympics ever, with more than 6,000 tests on athletes
for performance enhancing drugs. But when an athlete does fail a
drug test can we really conclude that they are cheating? John
Haigh does the maths. In the 1920s the Austrian physicist Erwin
Schrödinger came up with what has become the central equation of
quantum mechanics. It tells you all there is to know about a
quantum physical system and it al