Misnomers

In everyday life one comes across phrases which their meanings bear no resemblance to the words that make them up, common ones include American football, bombay duck and toad in the hole.  Unfortunately quantum physics has two, quantum tunneling and quantum teleportation.

With quantum tunneling one has an image of an electron drilling through a solid wall with a set of sub-atomic tools to get to the other side. The reality is not like that and no drilling is involved. Since electrons can be waves as well as particles, one is never certain of their location at any one time.  A solid object will affect the path of the electron's wave but due to this uncertainty, there is a small chance it can be either inside the wall or the other side of it.  This is down to quantum probability and as been proven in the lab already.  Naturally the thinner the wall, the higher the probability that an election will appear on the other side.  And if the wall is thick enough then this probability will shrink to zero.

With quantum teleportation one has an image of particle such as a photon or electron dematerializing and rematerializing in another place a la Star Trek ("Beam me up"). Again the reality is not like that, you are merely teleporting the quantum states of a particle not the particle itself.  This is thanks to quantum entanglement where two particles spin states are inter-linked, if one is spin up the other must be spin down.  When you measure one, you set the state of the other.