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Beyond Weird by
"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.
Call Number: QC174.123 .B36 2018
The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of by
"God does not play dice with the universe." So said Albert Einstein in response to the first discoveries that launched quantum physics, as they suggested a random universe that seemed to violate the laws of common sense. This 20th-century scientific revolution completely shattered Newtonian laws, inciting a crisis of thought that challenged scientists to think differently about matter and subatomic particles.The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of compiles the essential works from the scientists who sparked the paradigm shift that changed the face of physics forever, pushing our understanding of the universe on to an entirely new level of comprehension. Gathered in this anthology is the scholarship that shocked and befuddled the scientific world, including works by Niels Bohr, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, Erwin Schrodinger, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, as well as an introduction by today's most celebrated scientist, Stephen Hawking.
Call Number: QC173.98 .D74 2011
The Quantum Universe by
InThe Quantum Universe, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw approach the world of quantum mechanics in the same way they did inWhy Does E=mc2? and make fundamental scientific principles accessible--and fascinating--to everyone. The subatomic realm has a reputation for weirdness, spawning any number of profound misunderstandings, journeys into Eastern mysticism, and woolly pronouncements on the interconnectedness of all things. Cox and Forshaw's contention? There is no need for quantum mechanics to be viewed this way. There is a lot of mileage in the "weirdness" of the quantum world, and it often leads to confusion and, frankly, bad science.The Quantum Universe cuts through the Wu Li and asks what observations of the natural world made it necessary, how it was constructed, and why we are confident that, for all its apparent strangeness, it is a good theory. The quantum mechanics ofThe Quantum Universe provide a concrete model of nature that is comparable in its essence to Newton's laws of motion, Maxwell's theory of electricity and magnetism, and Einstein's theory of relativity.
Call Number: QC174.12 .C68 2012
Online Articles
- What Is Quantum Mechanics?
from Live Science - Quantum Physics May Be Even Spookier Than You Think
Scientific American, May 21, 2018 - Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
from Science Daily
Streaming Video
- Light and Quantum Physics: The Physics of LightThis film presents light and quantum physics. It follow physicists as they try to peer into the mysterious atom to understand its structure. Distributed by PBS Distribution.
- Quantum Physics in a Mirror UniverseWhen you look in mirror, and see what you think is a perfect reflection, you might be looking at universe whose laws are fundamentally different.
Online Article Archives
- Quantum Physics
from Science News - Quantum Physics
from Quanta Magazine
Online From CCBC Libraries
Quantum Field Theory by
This book discusses the main concepts of the Standard Model of elementary particles in a compact and straightforward way. The work illustrates the unity of modern theoretical physics by combining approaches and concepts of the quantum field theory and modern condensed matter theory. The inductive approach allows a deep understanding of ideas and methods used for solving problems in this field.
Publication Date: 2013
The Quantum Story by
The twentieth century was defined by physics. From the minds of the world's leading physicists there flowed a river of ideas that would transport mankind to the pinnacle of wonderment and to the very depths of human despair. This was a century that began with the certainties of absoluteknowledge and ended with the knowledge of absolute uncertainty. It was a century in which physicists developed weapons with the capacity to destroy our reality, whilst at the same time denying us the possibility that we can ever properly comprehend it.Almost everything we think we know about the nature of our world comes from one theory of physics. This theory was discovered and refined in the first thirty years of the twentieth century and went on to become quite simply the most successful theory of physics ever devised. Its concepts underpinmuch of the twenty-first century technology that we have learned to take for granted. But its success has come at a price, for it has at the same time completely undermined our ability to make sense of the world at the level of its most fundamental constituents.Rejecting the fundamental elements of uncertainty and chance implied by quantum theory, Albert Einstein once famously declared that 'God does not play dice'. Niels Bohr claimed that anybody who is not shocked by the theory has not understood it. The charismatic American physicist Richard Feynmanwent further: he claimed that nobody understands it.This is quantum theory, and this book tells its story.Jim Baggott presents a celebration of this wonderful yet wholly disconcerting theory, with a history told in forty episodes - significant moments of truth or turning points in the theory's development. From its birth in the porcelain furnaces used to study black body radiation in 1900, to thepromise of stimulating new quantum phenomena to be revealed by CERN's Large Hadron Collider over a hundred years later, this is the extraordinary story of the quantum world.
Publication Date: 2011
The World According to Quantum Mechanics by
An invaluable supplement to standard textbooks on quantum mechanics, this unique introduction to the general theoretical framework of contemporary physics focuses on conceptual, epistemological, and ontological issues. The theory is developed by pursuing the question: what does it take to have material objects that neither collapse nor explode as soon as they are formed? The stability of matter thus emerges as the chief reason why the laws of physics have the particular form that they do. The first of the book's three parts familiarizes the reader with the basics through a brief historical survey and by following Feynman's route to the SchrÖdinger equation. The necessary mathematics, including the special theory of relativity, is introduced along the way, to the point that all relevant theoretical concepts can be adequately grasped. Part II takes a closer look. As the theory takes shape, it is applied to various experimental arrangements. Several of these are central to the discussion in the final part, which aims at making epistemological and ontological sense of the theory. Pivotal to this task is an understanding of the special status that quantum mechanics attributes to measurements - without dragging in "the consciousness of the observer." Key to this understanding is a rigorous definition of "macroscopic" which, while rarely even attempted, is provided in this book.
Publication Date: 2011
Databases
- Science Database
Articles on both the applied and general sciences like aerospace, computers, transportation, and biology.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Articles from journals on science, technology, and medicine for advanced research.
