Quantum Quantum In physics, a quantum (plural: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude of the physical property can take on only discrete values consisting of integer multiples of one quantum. For example, a photon is a single quantum of light (or of any other form of electromagnetic radiation). Similarly, the energy of an electron bound within an atom is quantized and can exist only in certain discrete values. (Indeed,
Action (physics) (see also below). The action is defined by an integral, and the classical equations of motion of a system can be derived by minimizing the value of that integral. This simple principle provides deep insights into physics, and is an important concept in modern theoretical physics. "Action" was defined in several now obsolete ways during the development of the concept. Expressed in mathematical language, using the calculus of variations, the evolution of a physical system (i.e., how the system actually progresses from one state to another) corresponds to a stationary point (usually, a minimum) of the action. Several different definitions