Quantum Legacies

Quantum Legacies
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 357
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226819990
ISBN-13 : 022681999X
Rating : 4/5 (90 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Quantum Legacies by : David Kaiser

Download or read book Quantum Legacies written by David Kaiser and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-06-16 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Physicists have grappled with quantum theory for over a century. They have learned to wring precise answers from the theory's governing equations, and no experiment to date has found compelling evidence to contradict it. Even so, the conceptual apparatus remains stubbornly, famously bizarre. Physicists have tackled these conceptual uncertainties while navigating still larger ones: the rise of fascism, cataclysmic world wars and a new nuclear age, an unsteady Cold War stand-off and its unexpected end. Quantum Legacies introduces readers to physics' still-unfolding quest by treating iconic moments of discovery and debate among well-known figures like Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrèodinger, and Stephen Hawking, and many others whose contributions have indelibly shaped our understanding of nature"--

Quantum Legacy

Quantum Legacy
Author :
Publisher : Prometheus Books
Total Pages : 282
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781615926336
ISBN-13 : 161592633X
Rating : 4/5 (36 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Quantum Legacy by : Barry R. Parker

Download or read book Quantum Legacy written by Barry R. Parker and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2002-08 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parker introduces readers to all the major players in the history of quantum physics, offering interesting details that shed light on their important discoveries, in a book that "The New York Times" calls "physics for poets." Illustrations.

Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912

Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 400
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226458007
ISBN-13 : 0226458008
Rating : 4/5 (07 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912 by : Thomas S. Kuhn

Download or read book Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912 written by Thomas S. Kuhn and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1987-01-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A masterly assessment of the way the idea of quanta of radiation became part of 20th-century physics. . . . The book not only deals with a topic of importance and interest to all scientists, but is also a polished literary work, described (accurately) by one of its original reviewers as a scientific detective story."—John Gribbin, New Scientist "Every scientist should have this book."—Paul Davies, New Scientist

How the Hippies Saved Physics

How the Hippies Saved Physics
Author :
Publisher : W.W. Norton & Company
Total Pages : 372
Release :
ISBN-10 : 039334231X
ISBN-13 : 9780393342314
Rating : 4/5 (1X Downloads)

Book Synopsis How the Hippies Saved Physics by : David Kaiser

Download or read book How the Hippies Saved Physics written by David Kaiser and published by W.W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-06-29 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, quantum information theory is among the most exciting scientific frontiers, attracting billions of dollars in funding and thousands of talented researchers. But as MIT physicist and historian David Kaiser reveals, this cutting-edge field has a surprisingly psychedelic past. How the Hippies Saved Physics introduces us to a band of freewheeling physicists who defied the imperative to "shut up and calculate" and helped to rejuvenate modern physics. For physicists, the 1970s were a time of stagnation. Jobs became scarce, and conformity was encouraged, sometimes stifling exploration of the mysteries of the physical world. Dissatisfied, underemployed, and eternally curious, an eccentric group of physicists in Berkeley, California, banded together to throw off the constraints of the physics mainstream and explore the wilder side of science. Dubbing themselves the "Fundamental Fysiks Group," they pursued an audacious, speculative approach to physics. They studied quantum entanglement and Bell's Theorem through the lens of Eastern mysticism and psychic mind-reading, discussing the latest research while lounging in hot tubs. Some even dabbled with LSD to enhance their creativity. Unlikely as it may seem, these iconoclasts spun modern physics in a new direction, forcing mainstream physicists to pay attention to the strange but exciting underpinnings of quantum theory. A lively, entertaining story that illuminates the relationship between creativity and scientific progress, How the Hippies Saved Physics takes us to a time when only the unlikeliest heroes could break the science world out of its rut.

Beyond Weird

Beyond Weird
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 382
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226558387
ISBN-13 : 022655838X
Rating : 4/5 (87 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Beyond Weird by : Philip Ball

Download or read book Beyond Weird written by Philip Ball and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.” Since Niels Bohr said this many years ago, quantum mechanics has only been getting more shocking. We now realize that it’s not really telling us that “weird” things happen out of sight, on the tiniest level, in the atomic world: rather, everything is quantum. But if quantum mechanics is correct, what seems obvious and right in our everyday world is built on foundations that don’t seem obvious or right at all—or even possible. An exhilarating tour of the contemporary quantum landscape, Beyond Weird is a book about what quantum physics really means—and what it doesn’t. Science writer Philip Ball offers an up-to-date, accessible account of the quest to come to grips with the most fundamental theory of physical reality, and to explain how its counterintuitive principles underpin the world we experience. Over the past decade it has become clear that quantum physics is less a theory about particles and waves, uncertainty and fuzziness, than a theory about information and knowledge—about what can be known, and how we can know it. Discoveries and experiments over the past few decades have called into question the meanings and limits of space and time, cause and effect, and, ultimately, of knowledge itself. The quantum world Ball shows us isn’t a different world. It is our world, and if anything deserves to be called “weird,” it’s us.

Quantum Strangeness

Quantum Strangeness
Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
Total Pages : 157
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780262039932
ISBN-13 : 0262039931
Rating : 4/5 (32 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Quantum Strangeness by : George S. Greenstein

Download or read book Quantum Strangeness written by George S. Greenstein and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-05-28 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A physicist's efforts to understand the enigma that is quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is one of the glories of our age. The theory lies at the heart of modern society. Quantum mechanics is one of our most valuable forecasters—a “great predictor.” It has immeasurably altered our conception of the natural world. Its philosophical implications are earthshaking. But quantum mechanics steadfastly refuses to speak of many things; it deals in probabilities rather than giving explicit descriptions. It never explains. Einstein, one of its creators, considered the theory incomplete. Even now, many years after the creation of quantum mechanics, physicists continue to argue about it. Astrophysicist George Greenstein has been both fascinated and confused by quantum mechanics for his entire career. In this book, he describes, engagingly and accessibly, his efforts to understand the enigma that is quantum mechanics. The fastest route to the insight into the ultimate nature of reality revealed by quantum mechanics, Greenstein writes, is through Bell's Theorem, which concerns reality at the quantum level; and Bell's 1964 discovery drives Greenstein's quest. Greenstein recounts a scientific odyssey that begins with Einstein, continues with Bell, and culminates with today's push to develop an industry of quantum machines. Along the way, he discusses spin, entanglement, experimental metaphysics, and quantum teleportation, often with easy-to-grasp analogies. We have known for decades that the world of the quantum was strange, but, Greenstein says, not until John Bell came along did we know just how strange.

Drawing Theories Apart

Drawing Theories Apart
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 376
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226422657
ISBN-13 : 0226422658
Rating : 4/5 (57 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Drawing Theories Apart by : David Kaiser

Download or read book Drawing Theories Apart written by David Kaiser and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-11-15 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2007 Pfizer Prize from the History of Science Society. Feynman diagrams have revolutionized nearly every aspect of theoretical physics since the middle of the twentieth century. Introduced by the American physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) soon after World War II as a means of simplifying lengthy calculations in quantum electrodynamics, they soon gained adherents in many branches of the discipline. Yet as new physicists adopted the tiny line drawings, they also adapted the diagrams and introduced their own interpretations. Drawing Theories Apart traces how generations of young theorists learned to frame their research in terms of the diagrams—and how both the diagrams and their users were molded in the process. Drawing on rich archival materials, interviews, and more than five hundred scientific articles from the period, Drawing Theories Apart uses the Feynman diagrams as a means to explore the development of American postwar physics. By focusing on the ways young physicists learned new calculational skills, David Kaiser frames his story around the crafting and stabilizing of the basic tools in the physicist's kit—thus offering the first book to follow the diagrams once they left Feynman's hands and entered the physics vernacular.