Overview

The goal of this book is to offer the reader a gut level understanding of quantum mechanics. After reading this book and someone asks if you understand quantum mechanics, you should feel comfortable saying, Yes! This book does not go into all the business of faster than light travel, consciousness, or quantum thought. It presents what quantum mechanics is and what it means to your everyday life. Quantum mechanics evolved with several observations over the last 2000 years. The book presents the critical events in a concise way. Often people cannot see why each is important. For example, why should we care how water waves cross over each other? After each of these events is discussed, a paragraph titled, Why is this important? is presented. The purpose of this is to string all of these events together logically so the reader can grasp the meaning of it all as one concept. Often when books discuss quantum mechanics they attempt to validate their efforts in explaining it by telling you that quantum mechanics is used in LED's, lasers, and transistors. They do not offer how quantum mechanics applies to those devices. That leaves out half the information you need. This book shows how the quantum mechanical concepts apply to transistor functionality. This author has not seen one book that effectively goes from quantum mechanical concepts to an explanation of how a transistor works. In general, there are two schools of relating to a transistor. One is the theoretical aspects of quantum mechanics. The second is the electrical engineering aspects of electronics. In the theoretical realm, words such as energy level, wave equation, PSI, and probability are used to describe quantum mechanics. They are words associated with theoretical physics. They have special meaning. To comprehend this can be difficult. Then one reads about transistors from an engineering point of view. Then one hears terms like, holes, charge, doping, reverse bias, p-type, and n-type. These, in turn have special meanings. One needs an understanding of one word before one can understand another word used. Understanding all this can be very confusing. This book carefully begins with basic quantum mechanical terms, clearly defines them and carries them logically forward to explain how a transistor works. To be sure, it all is complicated. However, this book carefully moves through several small steps to clarity. When you are done reading this book, you will have a clear understanding of what quantum mechanics is and how a transistor works.

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9781484039762

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Al began his study of theoretical physics at the age of eleven when he read ABC of Relativity by Bertrand Russell. He received a degree in physics from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in 1969. While doing research for a book titled, New Age Quantum Physics, Al observed that most books claiming to explain quantum mechanics fell short as they focused on explaining aspects of quantum mechanics that we simply do not understand. The observation was that people are not interested in why water waves splash on a wall but want to know what that has to do with how quantum mechanics enables a computer to function. Al believes that people are after what quantum mechanics means and how it affects their lives. Thus, he pursued the idea of writing Quantum Mechanics A-Z without the BS. While doing research on that book, he noticed that many books and videos entice the reader/viewer to read or watch the material with the suggestion that quantum mechanics explains how a transistor works. The material then ignores the transistor and continues without any further explanation. Al realized that using common sense descriptions of quantum mechanics to explain how a transistor works would go a long way to a solid understanding of these complex issues. Thus, the first half of the book is devoted to quantum mechanic concepts and the second half of the book is about how a transistor works. A lot of effort has been invested into avoiding QM tech talk and electrical engineering jargon. The use of terms such as wave collapse, entanglement, reverse bias, and junction are avoided. Instead, the text might say, The electrons cause the area near the silicon atom to be negatively charged. Then, this is accompanied with a picture to make the meaning clear. A primary value of the book is that it presents the important aspects of quantum mechanics and gathers the meaning of each to explain in one idea the importance of quantum mechanics to our society.

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