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Title: The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone
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Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
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| The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone by Harvard University Press Review By a Non-Physicist | Three themes are intertwined throughout this book:
1. Historical and biographical data on the men who, over about 50 years, discovered and described the weird world of quantum phenomenon and particle physics. The use of common sense had to be suspended during these investigations.
2. Accurate and intimidating descriptions of the particles and their interactions. I think it was Richard Feynman who said something like, "If I want to know the particulars about one of these particles, I know where to look it up."
3. Running commentary on how the quantum world works.
Of the three, the first is well-done and interesting, the second is relentless but necessary (for the career physicist), and the third is simply brilliant. It explains in clear language why the quantum world is so unlike the common sense world we thought we lived in. Difficult concepts come alive - such as wave/particle duality, the exclusion principle, the uncertainly principle, symmetry, and entanglement, or as Einstein called it, "spooky action at a distance." Unless you live like a Mennonite or are on a boy scout campout, quantum physics technologies effect the way you live your daily life - the internet even grew out of early efforts of physicists to keep each other more immediately informed about advances in particle physics. For non-physics majors, consider reading on despite lack of total understanding or you might bog down in details. As the point of view changes, concepts are restated and you'll get another try at it. This stuff is weird!
This is a great book that I highly recommend for any physicist who wants to brush up on particle physics and quantum phenomena, any undergrad or grad student in physics, or any other scientist types who are persistent enough to really want a handle on this fascinating but difficult subject.
| | The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone by Harvard University Press A Good Book for Non-scientists | | I found this book to be very interesting. The only minor drawback is the intense focus on the many kinds of sub-atomic particles (Hadrons, Fermions, Leptons, Pions, W particles, etc.), but I really liked the way the information was presented. A good book for the non-scientist. Makes the completely complicated quantum theory quasi-understandable, if not fathomable. I think it was Neils Bohr you said that something like "anybody who claims to understand quantum mechanics really doesn't", as it is weird science based on probabilities. Not many equations in the book; a few in the footnotes. | | The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone by Harvard University Press A good introduction to Quantum Physics | This is a good and readable introduction to Quantum Mechanics with a good collection of questions at the end that will be handy for educators (an answer manual is available to them). The quantum world is so far away from our daily experience that it should not surprise us that the concepts we use in classical physics such as defined trajectories, particles, waves, exact position, etc. get blurred in the quantum world. However, there are fascinating experiments, the best known is the double slit experiment, that show us the weirdness of the quantum, epitomized in the famous Wheeler's question: "How come the quantum?".
The quantum world is fundamentally probabilistic. For example, you do not who whether a specific atom of a radioactive substance will disintegrate in the next second, the only thing you can know is the probability that it will decay.
The book also traces the history of the main discoveries in particle physics and has a good number of photos of the main characters.
To conclude: anybody not familiar with QM and who wants to acquire a minimum scientific culture about one of the two main revolutions in physics of the XXth century (and the one that has had the widest impact in our modern economy) needs to read this book.
I particularly enjoyed the explanation of alpha and beta radioactivity and the discussion on CP violation, "the reason we are here", according to Nobel Prize winner Val Fitch. On the other hand, I missed some clarifications that will confuse the lay reader: why neutrinos are not their own antiparticles or how come there are 8 gluons if there are nine pairs of colour/anticolour. On the other hand, the important Uncertainty Principle is only discussed on page 213, whereas it is mentioned several times before in the book.
| | The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone by Harvard University Press Very accessible, but all over the place | Emit one photon at a certain point, then detect it at another point. In between, that one photon has traveled EVERY POSSIBLE PATHWAY between the two points. The location where you detect it is determined by probability, not certainty.
This book blew my mind, as I had left physics behind over a decade prior. It was very accessible, but disjointed. I suppose it is difficult to compose a flowing narrative about a subject that no one truly understands. Credit Ford for helping us learn, even if we have to keep flipping back and forth to remind ourselves what leptons and bosons and fermions are. | | The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone by Harvard University Press Great theory book | This book an exellent introduction to Quamtum physics but it also talks about the history of quantum mechanics, which is quiet interresting and makes it easier to read.
I was look for an introduction to the Quantum World and this was the one. Sadly, I'm the kind of person who forget what I just read. This book is filled with theory (i.e. all sorts of leptons, quarks, force carriers, etc.) and consequently, really hard to remember.
Im in High School now and I was just curious about Quantum mechanics. I just had some really BASIC knowledge in QM and this book explained me all the rest easily althrought some explanations were incomplete like for the Weak interraction: it just says it is carried by the W and Z particle. The book does say what "carried" means (that is, force carrier) but it doesn't say actually how's it works.
Overall, this book explained a lot of things about QM but it demands the reader to remember a lot of things, especially the particles, their charge and their family (leptons, bosons, fermions, etc.).
This book CAN'T be read like a novel because you have to remember a lot of things but it's still easier to read than a book about relativity or math because it contains only few equations and doesn't ask you to "think" exept for the part when you have to know particles decay and their charge.
You must at least have some basic knowledge about Quantum Mechanics OR simply about physics before reading this. If you're interresed about QM and don't want to have all the complicated sutff (this book doesn't even say the value of Plank's constant), I deeply recommand this book. | | The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone by Harvard University Press Product Description | As Kenneth W. Ford shows us in The Quantum World, the laws governing the very small and the very swift defy common sense and stretch our minds to the limit. Drawing on a deep familiarity with the discoveries of the twentieth century, Ford gives an appealing account of quantum physics that will help the serious reader make sense of a science that, for all its successes, remains mysterious. In order to make the book even more suitable for classroom use, the author, assisted by Diane Goldstein, has included a new section of Quantum Questions at the back of the book. A separate answer manual to these 300+ questions is available; visit The Quantum World website for ordering information. There is also a cloth edition of this book, which does not include the "Quantum Questions" included in this paperback edition. |
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Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:43:06 GMT
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