adjective
- restricted to discrete values rather than continuous ones
Usage: physics; mathematics
Examples
- Energy levels in atoms are quantized, meaning electrons can only occupy specific energy states.
- The quantized nature of light explains why photons have discrete energy packets.
- Digital signals are quantized versions of analog waveforms.
- In quantum mechanics, angular momentum is quantized in units of Planck’s constant.
- The quantized charge of particles means electric charge comes in multiples of the elementary charge.
- Computer memory stores quantized data as discrete binary values.