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Transcript: Video 6 Conclusion of Week 3.

HELEN:

So there we are. What we've seen this week is, in actual fact, there are discrete energy levels in atoms. And transitions or movement of electrons between those energy levels leads to the emission or absorption of photons, little particles of light. We've also seen how light can behave as a wave and has many different colours, red, green, blue. And we've seen how those colours have different so-called wavelengths and therefore can behave physically a little bit differently.

Isn't it amazing that all of those properties, which are really based in fundamental physics, come from our understanding of the quantum world? And now being used in our communication to satellites, our communication across the globe, and our communication between the ground and the space station, where we've seen that quantum teleportation can tell the information about the state of one atom on the ground with the state of an atom on the space station, or from the top to the bottom of a mountain.

Slowly, with these techniques and technologies, we're moving research like this at The Open University into the kind of research that is helping us to understand how we can make our banking safer, our security safer, even make our computers much faster.

End transcript: Video 6 Conclusion of Week 3.

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Video _unit4.12.1 Video 6 Conclusion of Week 3.

Now is a good time to revisit the learning outcomes for this week. Here is a summary of what you have covered.

• You have revisited logarithmic graphs (Section 1) and looked at how powers of ten can be used to give an order of magnitude from the very large (clusters of galaxies) down to the very small (atoms and below).

• You have also looked at quantum science, quantum biology, LASERs, metrology, clocks, and communication and security, as well as the double-slit experiment and diffraction effects.

• You have interpreted Figure 2 (a logarithmic picture) and extracted key information in Activity 3.

• You have read an online article in Section 8.

Next week you will read three online articles and use the PROMPT strategy to verify their authenticity. Next week is also the Week 4 compulsory badge quiz!

Now go to Week 4.