In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality
In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality
|
 List Price: $18.00 Sale Price: $12.24 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Eligible For Free Shipping 
|
Product Description
Part history book and part remedial physics text for those who lost interest when the equations started getting unintuitive, In Search of Schrödinger's Cat explains quantum physics in a way that's not only clear, but also enjoyable.
Gribbin opens with the subjects that most physics professors have just started to examine at the end of the semester: The mysterious character of light, the valence concept in Nils Bohr's atomic model, radioactive decay, and the physics of life-defining DNA all get clear, comprehensive, and witty coverage. This book reveals the beauty and mystery that underlies everything in the universe.
Does this book claim to explain quantum physics without math? No. Math is too central to physics to be bypassed. But if you can do basic algebra, you can understand the equations in In Search of Schrödinger's Cat. Gribbin is the physics teacher everyone should have in high school or college: kind without being a pushover, knowledgeable without being condescending, and clearly expressive without being boring. Gribbin's book belongs on the shelf of every pre-calculus student. It also deserves a place in the library of everyone who was scared away from advanced physics prematurely.
Details
- ISBN13: 9780553342536
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Rating
John Gribbin wrote an excellent introduction to one of the most difficult subjects one could wrap their mind around. He clearly stated that this book was written for the layman, not those that have been exposed to both the ideas and math. If you want to understand the fundamental truths of quantum, but are not learned in complex physics or math, buy this book.
Rating
This is a wonderful book that deals with a rather fascinating subject: quantum mecahnics. For those who may not be familiar w/QM, it is the physics of the microcosmic world of electrons, photons, protons & neutrons. It is where Newtonian causality breaks down, where there appears a “totally new ballgame.” Gribbin does an excellent job of writing for the layman, especially considering the recondite nature of the topic. However, I would recommend anyone interested in QM to read Alice In Quantumland by Robert Gilmore first as it is slightly more accessible & also has the advantage of being “fun” to read (it is told as an allegorized story). Note that I still recommend Gribbin’s book, but AFTER one has read Gilmore’s. It may help to make Gribbin’s book make a bit more sense. All in all, though, this is an enlightening work.
Rating
I am an architect/ Autocad drafter with limited knowledge of physics, but this book was wonderful. It refreshed what little I did learn in High School in the 60′s and added so much more. I grasped the basics with little struggle and went on to read Gribbin’s rewrite of the book, ‘Schrodinger’s Kittens..’. I was so excited about what I understood that I am now reading ‘Dreams of a Final Theory’ by Steven Weinberg. …….. I am amazed that I am! …..
Rating
This book is worth the price that it costs. The book starts out with the history that leads up to the quantum physics world. Then the author goes into what makes quantum physics the strangest part of the science world. This book is interesting and very entertaining. If you have never read another book on quantum physics, then this book will blow you away. I recommend that you read the authors next book, Schrodinger’s Kittens. This book follows up where this left off with updated (at the point of publication: mid ’90′s) theories and more strange aspects of quantum physics.
Rating
In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat is an incredible piece of work. Gribbin thoroughly explains quantum theory through documenting historical break-throughs in “classic” Newtonian Theory, up until, and well into, the discoveries of what quantum physics was and is. As you explore through scientific discoveries, whether intentional or accidental, Gribbin has the ability to explain, step-by-step, what individuals in the science world did to accomplish,what is now, quantum physics. Each section is broken down and explained in scientific terms, and then reitterated in terms so that even a monkey could understand it. Everyone should read this book, including monkeys! And the cat paradox, what a genius thing to come up with!
Rating
Although “Schroedinger’s Cat” is frequently described as quantum physics for the layman, beware! When I first read it, I was only able to handle it because I had recently taken a rather intensive high school chemistry class.
If you’re not up-to-date on your chemistry & physics, you might want to try a primer or refresher before you tackle this one. But, believe me, it’s well worth it. Once you’ve got the basics down, “Schoedinger’s Cat” gently leads you through mind-blowing concepts your mama never imagined.
And it makes for great conversation! Even your least nerdy friends will be fascinated by your newly-authoritative explanations of How the Universe Really Works.
Rating
You need not be an interlect to understand or enjoy this book. I loved it very much. I found it to be very good in introducing quantum physics and reality. It not only explains quantum physics, but also tells of how such a magnificent subject came to be, and how we greatly are depended upon it. This book should be the #1 book for those whom want to know what quantum physics is and yet don’t know one single thing about the subject, or what a quanta (singular for quantum) is. So I highly recommend getting this book. You’ll surely be surprised and fascinated by what secrets quantum physics have finally revealed.
Rating
It’s hard to overstate the importance of this book. It’s also hard to overstate the value. John Gribbin has written one of those timeless books that belongs to the ages. Despite the fact that it’s decades out of date, it’s still current. Despite the fact that much has been discovered about the field of quantum physics since he wrote this book, nothing in it has been superseded. And yet, it’s so clear that “Cat” is one of those books that those of us who write about science and technology as a profession use as a touchstone – a book that we compare our own writing against – and find wanting.
My original copy of this book is so worn from reading that it must be replaced. Both of my daughters read this book, and became physicists or are about to. This is a book so important, and so readable, that it helps define its category.
This is more than a good read. It’s a necessary read.
Rating
Look! At the photon! It’s a particle! No, it’s a wave! No, it’s a… well, it’s BOTH!!! And not only that, but it can interfere with itself, or with other consequential photons!
WHAT?!?!?
Welcome to the wacky world of quantum physics, the science so absurd that even Einstein couldn’t believe it (and let’s face it, after relativity, he was the MASTER of the absurd-but-true) where statistics are everything, specifics only happen when you’re looking for them, and nothing is real at all, anywhere.
Again, WHAT?!?!?
In Schroedinger’s Cat, John Gribbin not only explains all this nonsense, but he actually makes it understandable. This amazing book should be required of all college students, as part of a well-rounded education. Engineers and scientists will be amazed and think it’s cool, but even “fuzzy majors” (i.e. everything else — sorry, that’s what we arrogant engineers called the denizens of that side of campus) will be able to understand it, and they too will be enlightened by it.
If you have any interest in science, in knowing what theoretical physicists really do, in knowing what a “particle accelerator” is, or even just want to have some idea about how much of Star Trek is based on real science, you MUST read this book. Not only that, but you must read THIS book before reading other books on quantum mechanics.
Ok, enough ranting. I think it takes a certain amount of Zen to grasp all this quantum non-reality particle-wave-duality possible-parallel-universe stuff. Gribbin, then, is the true Zen Master. Gribbin takes that which is not only beyond comprehension but beyond even Einstein’s belief, and makes it understandable to the layman. He uses great examples that not only explain key concepts, but also help the non-Zen-Master remember them in such a way that makes one sound like a Guru at cocktail parties.
Pardon my silliness. Just read the book. And then buy it for all your friends, kids, friends’ kids, coworkers, and anyone else on your gift list. Yes, it’s THAT good.
Rating
PROS:
1. Good narrative style – you won’t be bored.
2. Not complicated… not trivial or overly diluted either. High school Math, and Science will suffice for understanding. You’ll derive more on a second read though.
3. I like how he weaves history into science and adds personality to the characters way beyond anything you’ll find in a textbook. One reader said he wanted just the facts and could do without the extras. I think it’s the extras that make this book appealing, approachable and engaging. If you want just facts, get a college textbook.
4. Not too long… he spends just about the right length of time on each topic.
5. He revisits topics to shed extra light at appropriate times… he doesn’t try to hammer in everything into your head all at once.
6. Gives credit to respective scientists, including stating who won what Nobel prize when. This is good as otherwise these people and their achievements would be largely unknown by people who are not academics, such as some of the readers of this book.
7. Gives an excellent sense of perspective of how things were developed or arrived at. You really appreciate that it is by collaboration and assistance that a lot has been developed. Previous to this work I hadn’t heard of Dirac… everybody knows Einstein. I heard of Bohr, Rutherford, and Planck at school. But there really are other greats of the era: Heisenberg, Dirac, Pauli and Shrodinger for example.
8. Extremely well-researched and woven together.
9. Great to find out the simple origins of anti-matter. (pages 124, and 125)
10. Great to see how many things we take for granted have been derived from Quantum Mechanics… Integrated circuits, computers, laser, laser surgery, nuclear reactors, rockets, space travel.
CONS:
1. He presents the work of the main characters/scientists in a TOPICAL fashion, and when you are reading you would realise that something that occurs some pages later on actually took place at the same time CHRONOLOGICALLY as something in prevous sections. This is moderately disconcerting.
I don’t think the author could have done differently though, without disrupting the flow of the book and perhaps altering its comprehensibility. To compensate for this, it would have been good to put a timeline in an Appendix. e.g.:
16xx – Newton lays the groundwork of classical mechanics (based on the work of Kepler)
1900 – Planck introduces his radiation formula and introduces ‘quanta’ of energy.
1906 – Einstein…
etc.
2. Needs to state EXACTLY which diagram/drawing he is referring to at various points in the explanation. It’s easy to lose track of what diagram he is referring to, and it becomes confusing. (This applies mainly to the latter half of the book.)