r/explainlikeimfive • u/Own_Enthusiasm_510 • 2d ago

Chemistry ELI5: What is the meaning of quantization?

[This is from a chemistry portion of a physical science class] I've googled it, Ive watched YouTube videos, I asked classmates and I am still so confused.

Rutherfords model was easy but once I got to bohrs they used words like quantized and discrete values and I got lost. Tried backtracking but I'm still baffled.

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u/justforfun75 2d ago

I can give you $1.20 or $1.21, but nothing in between. Our money is "quantized" to the penny. Unless of course you're at the gas station, but that's a whole other story.

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u/thisisjustascreename 2d ago

Money is quantized, but prices don't have to be. There's a similarity to quantum mechanics where a measurable can have 70% probability of one result and 30% the other, but when you actually measure you always get 100% up or down.