The Quantum Universe

by Patrick Walters, Anthony J.G. Hey, Tony Hey

Book Overview

The Quantum Universe is the first popular book to give a non-mathematical pictorial account of quantum physics, the foundation of our current understanding of nature. For so long the province of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521318459
• ISBN13: 9780521318457
• Release Date: March 1987
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.3" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Beautifully illustrated overview of quantum physics

I bought this book just over one year ago and I refer to it occasionally for the thrill of understanding quantum physics from a laymans nonmathematical viewpoint. There is no better book on the history of this branch of physics -- multiple sidebar illustrations and photos add to the "people" dimension of physics. The reader rides this thrill too and gets insight into Nobel winners and the contraptions used in experimental physics. The "New" in the title refers to an updated version of the book, providing confidence to the reader that the quality of the first book warranted an update by the publisher. This book should supplement any math based quantum physics course simply because the latter don't profile scientists as real people or have enough historical context. For nonphysicists, this is a great read, worthy of a long lasting presence on the family bookshelf.

my idea of fun!

I'm a novice in this area and this is the first book I read on the subject. On my first reading, I was only able to fully comprehend about 80% of this introduction to a most facinating subject matter. I must say that I enjoyed reading about all of it including the 20% I couldn't fully comprehend. The authors claim that no advanced math is necessary, but knowledge of differential calculus would help with the Shrodinger Equation. Perhaps my weakness in math (which I will soon address) accounts for the 20% I don't really understand at this point. This book has plenty of beautiful pictures and illustrations of the technologies and experiements discussed. Each chapter is well written and a joy to read. Chapters include the following:1) Waves Versus Particles 2) Heisenberg and Uncertaintity3) Shrodinger and Matter Waves 4) Atoms and Neuclei5) Quantum Tunneling6) Pauli and the Elements7) Quantum Co-Operation and Superfluids8) Quantum Jumps9) Quantum Engineering10) Death of a Star11) Feynman Rules12) Weak Photons and Strong Glue13) Afterward - Quantum Physics and Science FictionFor a beginner, such as myself, it's the kind of book that's challenging in a good way. I found myself constantly wanting to pick this book up to read as much as I could. I was always looking forward to what was comming next. I highly recommend it for anyone curious about the subject matter.

Quantum effects are all around us

When you think about quantum physics, you may be inclined to think small. Many people naturally think that quantum effects happen only on a scale that, for most of us, isn't relevant. Hey and Walters, though, help us think again. Quantum effects are in the world all around us. Indeed, the universe would be very different if the rules of quantum mechanics were not what they are.The stated purpose of this book is to "present the essential ideas of quantum physics as simply as possible and demonstrate how quantum physics affects us all." After reading the book, I have to agree that Hey and Walters have succeeded on both accounts. They've achieved their goal by laying the book out in a careful and logical manner, including filling it with lots of informative and nicely made illustrates (on average, more than one for each page). The book begins by discussing the classical differences between waves and particles. Most of us have been introduced to quantum mechanics this way. First learning how quantum-mechanical objects act like "particles" some of the time, and "waves" part of the time. An important point made by the authors is that particles and waves are idealizations. In reality, quantum-mechanical objects cannot be described by any simple picture. Overcoming this conceptual obstacle is one of the first challenges for someone who is first becoming acquainted with QM. This is a point made by their careful discussion about the results and implications of double-slit experiments. This book has equations. Not many, and not too difficult (mostly just algebra). It's really written at a High School or Freshman College level. The ideas introduced are mostly qualitative. I think this makes the book an excellent introduction. I certainly wish I'd had something like this before taking my first QM class. Having a qualitative and conceptual understanding before diving into the mathematics is a more productive approach. Leaving the chapter on waves and uncertainty, the authors introduce the reader to the weird world of the uncertainty principle, which is the strange characteristic of quantum-mechanical objects that they don't actually have an exact position/velocity until it's measured. There's an excellent series of photographs that illustrate the uncertainty principle in a macroscopic object by using a sequence showing the probabilistic formation of a camera image over time. The book quotes often from Richard Feynman, and this chapter has an introductory description of Feynman's diagrams/quantum paths.These discussions lead naturally to the Schrodinger equation and matter probability waves. Again, there's a little mathematics here (the differential equation for a particle moving in one dimension, in a potential). The authors illustrate the tie-in with the macroscopic world by illustrating a photograph of some dust mites, made by using the quantum-mechanical nature of electrons.Chapter 4 is one of the best, in my opinion. It's about t

A Very Entertaining Book

An extremely interesting book on physics for an average readerr.If you're a guy who has forgotten most of what you learned in college physics courses and want to pick it up a little bit, and have a little fun in the mean while, this book is for you.

Wonderfully narrated, beautifully described!

Of all of the technical and "non-technical" books on Quantum Physics I've read, this is the best all-in-one package. It has plenty of color plates, a rich history of the major players (I feel like I can HEAR Rutherford bellowing!), and a good balance of detail and description. The last chapter or two get a bit "geeky", though they act as a good reference on subatomic particles. Try Fred Alan Wolf's "Taking the Quantum Leap" for another good overview on the less technical side.