this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Guess what electromagnetism turned out to be
They're different things. The OP means electromagnetism, Coulomb's law has nothing to do with quantum mechanics, it's classical physics.
Okay but tell me, what theory superceded electromagnetism?
Sure, EM is still useful, I use it in my work, but in the end, it all boils down to QM.
Quantum mechanics didn't supersede electromagnetism. Again, they're different things. Electromagnetism is a fundamental interaction. Whereas quantum mechanics describes the mechanics of quantum particles. Whether those particles are affected by electromagnetic forces or not. It's a description of how they behave at quantum scales.
Coulomb's law has nothing to do with quantum mechanics, it's a description of how macroscopic charged particles interact. What the OP should have said to be correct is:
I don't know where he got quantum mechanics from.
Bro EM is not fundamental. Neither is QM, but it's the closest we've got to fundamental forces. You can derive EM from QM.
Coloumb's law and Maxwell's equations are classical mechanics, meaning they work well enough for everything you can see around you. The smaller you go, the less accurate EM becomes. That's why you can't design a chip or microsensors or whatever with knowledge of EM alone.
What do you think the mechanics of quantum paryicles are? All their interactions. That includes what turns out to be EM.
This doesn't invalidate EM. EM is great! It explains so much about our world. But not everything. QM gets close, and because you can derive EM with it, QM supercedes it.
There's a surface level misunderstanding of the concepts going on.
Once again, let me try to clarify what I think you're not getting. Quantum mechanics is exactly that, mechanics of particles. Just like Newtonian mechanics, but for quantum particles instead of macroscopic. The same way in classical physics you use Newton's laws to describe the motion of charged (or any, really) particles, in modern physics you use quantum mechanics. It doesn't "replace" electromagnetism, they're separate things. A bad metaphor, but it's a little like saying cardiology replaces anatomy.
Yes, electromagnetism is fundamental. No, you can't derive it from quantum mechanics — you'd use quantum field theory for that (specifically quantum electrodynamics).
Coulomb's law and Maxwell's equations are classical physics, but not mechanics. They don't describe the motion of particles, they describe forces and fields. And you use them all the time in quantum mechanics. Pick up any intro to quantum physics textbook, and you'll see them everywhere.
All that to say again that this meme is comparing Newton's law of gravitation with Coulomb's law... So why keep insisting on bringing quantum mechanics into this? It really doesn't figure into the meme at all.