Overview

Everybody has heard that we live in a world made of atoms. But far more fundamentally, we live in a universe made of quanta. Many things are not made of atoms: light, radio waves, electric current, magnetic fields, Earth's gravitational field, not to mention exotica such a neutron stars, black holes, dark energy, and dark matter. But everything, including atoms, is made of highly unified or ""coherent"" bundles of energy called ""quanta"" that (like everything else) obey certain rules. In the case of the quantum, these rules are called ""quantum physics."" This is a book about quanta and their unexpected, some would say peculiar, behavior--tales, if you will, of the quantum.The quantum has developed the reputation of being capricious, bewildering, even impossible to understand. The peculiar habits of quanta are certainly not what we would have expected to find at the foundation of physical reality, but these habits are not necessarily bewildering and not at all impossible or paradoxical. This book explains those habits--the quantum rules--in everyday language, without mathematics or unnecessary technicalities. While most popular books about quantum physics follow the topic's scientific history from 1900 to today, this book follows the phenomena: wave-particle duality, fundamental randomness, quantum states, superpositions (being in two places at once), entanglement, non-locality, Schrodinger's cat, and quantum jumps, and presents the history and the scientists only to the extent that they illuminate the phenomena.

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9780190679637

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""This book is definitely worth reading. Hobson does an excellent job of explaining complex physics without mathematics and presents his argument clearly... Recommended."" -- CHOICE ""Tales of the Quantum -- a slim volume very handsomely produced by Oxford U.P. -- is his most ambitious undertaking, the capstone of a distinguished career. ... This is certainly an ambitious book, one in which the author has clearly invested a great deal of thought. It is, in its eccentric way, an important book, not least because it is so provocative."" -- American Journal of Physics

Tales of the Quantum - a slim volume very handsomely produced by Oxford U.P. - is his most ambitious undertaking, the capstone of a distinguished career. ... This is certainly an ambitious book, one in which the author has clearly invested a great deal of thought. It is, in its eccentric way, an important book, not least because it is so provocative. * Nicholas Wheeler, American Journal of Physics * As Hobson mentions in his introduction, there are many pseudo-scientific popular expositions on quantum mechanics which belong in new age religion sections of the book shops. The readers who want to understand the workings of the natural world from a purely scientific point of view will benefit greatly from perusing Hobsonas book (the production quality of which, by the way, is excellent). Hence, I have no hesitations in recommending the book to general public as well as students of the subject. * M. P. Gururajan, Contemporary Physics *

Tales of the Quantum - a slim volume very handsomely produced by Oxford U.P. - is his most ambitious undertaking, the capstone of a distinguished career. ... This is certainly an ambitious book, one in which the author has clearly invested a great deal of thought. It is, in its eccentric way, an important book, not least because it is so provocative. * Nicholas Wheeler, American Journal of Physics *

Tales of the Quantum - a slim volume very handsomely produced by Oxford U.P. - is his most ambitious undertaking, the capstone of a distinguished career. ... This is certainly an ambitious book, one in which the author has clearly invested a great deal of thought. It is, in its eccentric way, an important book, not least because it is so provocative. * Nicholas Wheeler, American Journal of Physics * As Hobson mentions in his introduction, there are many pseudo-scientific popular expositions on quantum mechanics which belong in new age religion sections of the book shops. The readers who want to understand the workings of the natural world from a purely scientific point of view will benefit greatly from perusing Hobsonas book (the production quality of which, by the way, is excellent). Hence, I have no hesitations in recommending the book to general public as well as students of the subject. * M. P. Gururajan, Contemporary Physics * This book is definitely worth reading. Hobson does an excellent job of explaining complex physics without mathematics and presents his argument clearly... Recommended. * CHOICE *

Author Information

Art Hobson is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where he continues to keep a campus office and remains quite active in research.

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