Quantum - Jim Al-Khalili

Quantum

By Jim Al-Khalili

  • Release Date: 2012-10-25
  • Genre: Physics

Description

From Schrodinger's cat to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, this book untangles the weirdness of the quantum world.

Quantum mechanics underpins modern science and provides us with a blueprint for reality itself. And yet it has been said that if you're not shocked by it, you don't understand it. But is quantum physics really so unknowable? Is reality really so strange? And just how can cats be half-alive and half-dead at the same time?

Our journey into the quantum begins with nature's own conjuring trick, in which we discover that atoms -- contrary to the rules of everyday experience -- can exist in two locations at once. To understand this we travel back to the dawn of the twentieth century and witness the birth of quantum theory, which over the next one hundred years was to overthrow so many of our deeply held notions about the nature of our universe. Scientists and philosophers have been left grappling with its implications every since.

Reviews

  • Great introduction to Quantum Physics

    5
    By Artie_D
    I find this book very well balanced between being too complex with lots of math that is hard to understand for a layman and too general. Thank you Jim! I would to see its revision in 2017 -;)
  • Quantum, a guide for the perplexed

    2
    By sfjohn
    This book would be better titled: The History of Quantum Physics, with some simplified examples along the way. The book is written to tell the Story, of how quantum mechanics came about, while attempting to mention every significant researcher along the way. It's dated now that there is no verification of the Higgs, and why it matters. If you want to know the history, this book is great. If you just want to understand what we've come to know, it's not so great...