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Tales of the quantum: understanding physics' most fundamental theory

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...

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Autor principal: Hobson, Art
Lenguaje:eng
Publicado: Oxford Univ. Press 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:http://cds.cern.ch/record/2199326
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author Hobson, Art
author_facet Hobson, Art
author_sort Hobson, Art
collection CERN
description 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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spelling cern-21993262021-04-21T19:36:56Zhttp://cds.cern.ch/record/2199326engHobson, ArtTales of the quantum: understanding physics' most fundamental theoryGeneral Theoretical PhysicsEverybody 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.Oxford Univ. Pressoai:cds.cern.ch:21993262017
spellingShingle General Theoretical Physics
Hobson, Art
Tales of the quantum: understanding physics' most fundamental theory
title Tales of the quantum: understanding physics' most fundamental theory
title_full Tales of the quantum: understanding physics' most fundamental theory
title_fullStr Tales of the quantum: understanding physics' most fundamental theory
title_full_unstemmed Tales of the quantum: understanding physics' most fundamental theory
title_short Tales of the quantum: understanding physics' most fundamental theory
title_sort tales of the quantum: understanding physics' most fundamental theory
topic General Theoretical Physics
url http://cds.cern.ch/record/2199326
work_keys_str_mv AT hobsonart talesofthequantumunderstandingphysicsmostfundamentaltheory