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I know this is been asked on this site before but I felt unsatisfied by its one answer.

I’m familiar with the concept of quantisation, I keep reading that “energy is quantised” but what do they mean by energy? I know that light is quantised along with radiation but is it just those things?

To me, energy means lots of things, there are lots of different kinds of energy. Is electricity quantised, thermal energy, physical force? I read that kinetic energy is not quantised along with some forms of light.

People say that everything is made of energy, does that mean there’s some basic form of energy and if that’s quantised then isn’t everything quantised?

And if they only mean certain kinds of energy, why don’t they say that? You have to admit it’s misleading.

Qmechanic
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Tailspin
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  • Related: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/169209/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/65636/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Sep 22 '19 at 12:57
  • Thank you for your response but I'm (at best) a layman when it comes to physics. frankly these links don't answer my questions, at least no all of them. Could you please help me out a bit more? – Tailspin Sep 22 '19 at 15:33
  • @Tailspin What specifically about those answers didn't you understand? What specific questions are left unanswered? – probably_someone Sep 22 '19 at 16:30
  • "What specifically about those answers didn't you understand?" Just about everything, I have no idea what those equations made of letters meant and little of the language used. "What specific questions are left unanswered?" just about all of them too. I was hoping for a simple answer, I told you I'm no physicist. – Tailspin Sep 22 '19 at 18:48
  • @ Tailspin: Equations are the primary way of understanding what is happening. IMHO without understanding equations you will only ever be able to get an illusion of understanding. Maybe a better approach would be to move from 'understanding the concept of quantization' to actually going through derivation of the quantized energies of a simple harmonic oscillator (SHO). A lot of more complicated systems in physics can be related to SHO – Cryo Sep 22 '19 at 19:58
  • With all due respect I've seen plenty of examples of complicated thing explained simply, even though the person doesn't understand how it all works. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lstXHHlLrKo. Another example: Are all forms of energy quantised? You could answer yes or no. I imagine it might be expected to know Physics to be on this site but I came here to ask those who know. – Tailspin Sep 22 '19 at 21:15

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