I've seen some NOVA shows, but I'd like to read something extremely basic. I have no science training beyond high school; I am an MBA (no Bush jokes, please). What should I read to better understand this fascinating field?
2006-08-02 15:07:02 · 8 answers · asked by Suit of Flames 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
"In Search of Shrodingers Cat" is a good one, probably the best I can think of for someone with minimal training in math and physics. Unlike "The Elegant Universe" and "A Breif History of Time", it focuses pretty much solely on Quantum Mechanics. The others are ok for getting a grasp of Relativity, but I can think of far better.
Quantum Theory by David Bohm is also a good one. It is a text book that is definitely not just for laymen, but there is enough description in there to just read through it (and skip the math stuff) that you'll get some sort of understanding of what's going on with Q&M. I liked it a lot anyway.
Q&M isn't something that is very well understood though, even by non-laymen. We understand how the MODEL works (that things can be explained if we break them down into "packets") and many people understand that part very well, but we don't have any good ideas as to why it should be that way (unlike Relativity).
There's a story that goes that Richard Feynman, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists of the 20th century, asserted that anything that physicists really understood could be explained to first year students. David Goodstein, a colleague of Feynman's, challenged him to do this for Q&M. After several days of milling over how to go about the challenge, Feynman finally admitted defeat and said "That means we really don't understand it."
Good luck.
2006-08-02 15:23:31 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I haven't found a good one. I studied quantum mechanics in college and decided like you I wanted to understand it better. I read "Schroedinger's Cat" and could make little sense of it.
The concept is fairly simple. Energy has a minimum quantity, which is equal to a photon. This is a such a small quanity that for every day sized objects the change in energy seems to be continuous. However, as the size decreases these energy packages forces the changes in energy levels to be discontinous, or to jump from one energy level to another.
The other idea is that objects don't really move in a linear fashion but travel in wavelengths inversely porportional to their mass. With large objects such as baseballs, having such a short wave length it couldn't be measured. And small objects like electrons and photons traveling in measurable wavelengths.
The combination of wavelength and specific energy quanties is used to explain why electron orbits only occur at particular intervals. 1 photon's worth of energy apart and a complete wavelength.
This discontinuity creates all the weird "quantum" effects such as things being in two places at the same time. You can actually calculate manually the orbits for very simple atoms like hydrogen and helium.
I've heard although I would like to see this for myself a quantum mechanical effect you can witness is stiring of liquid helium. That it will go from spinning in the bottom and as you increase the speed it will jump to the sides, without the gradual climbing you would see with liquids at normal temperatures. I'd have to see this for myself.
I've heard it said that if anyone claims to fully understand quantum mechanics they don't. A further complication is the uncertainty principle which goes something like the more certain I am about where something is the less I know about how fast its moving and the opposite, the more I know about how fast its going the less I know about where it is. Which forces all the calculations about electron orbits in the realm of probability.
2006-08-02 22:32:56 · answer #2 · answered by Roadkill 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Quantum Physics
Authors: Stephen Gasiorowicz
Release: 2003-04-17
Publisher: Wiley
Format: Hardcover 352 pages
ISBN: 0471057002 EAN: 9780471057000
2006-08-02 22:12:39 · answer #3 · answered by cherokeeflyer 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Math Hallucination.
It isn't as complicated as it sounds unless you want to 'quantify' it. The general principle is based on the idea that everything (energy is everything) can only be divided down into discrete packets (quanta). In other words, nothing is really infinitely small at the subatomic scale, because it is either there or not there. Electrons travel in defined discrete orbits, they can't be in between.
The rest is mathematics.
2006-08-02 22:14:32 · answer #4 · answered by auntiegrav 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't be afraid of Quantum Physics. It is one of our attempts, as humans, to explain what occurs in nature. Cavemen didn't need to explain quantum physics to live their lives to the fullest. With that in mind, why not go down to the bookstore and find one of those '...for Dummies' books? They put a lot into perspective without demeaning your inherent intellligence. (PS - I don't work for the people who put out those books; I've just found a couple of them that have been able to explain highly technical subjects in a manner I've been comfortable with).
2006-08-02 22:13:23 · answer #5 · answered by Scndson 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A Brief History of Time by Steven Hawking. It's a coffee table book, and quite clear.
2006-08-02 22:21:45 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are many interpretations of quantum physics.
American physicist J.A.Wheeler had a hobby:
He collected different interpretations of quantum physics.
Here is one more interpretation of the quantum theory.
www.socratus.com
2006-08-03 02:48:57 · answer #7 · answered by socratus 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Schrodinger's Cat" is good, and so is "Q.E.D." by Feynman. Hawking's stuff is mostly relativity. I'm an MBA too.
2006-08-02 23:45:44 · answer #8 · answered by bpiguy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋