Quantum theory is so shocking that Einstein could not bring himself to accept it. It is so important that it provides the fundamental underpinning of all modern sciences. Without it, we'd have no nuclear power or nuclear weapons, no TV, no computers, no science of molecular biology, no understanding of DNA, no genetic engineering. In Search of Schrodinger's Cat tells the complete story of quantum mechanics, a truth stranger than any fiction. John Gribbin takes us step by step into an ever more bizarre and fascinating place, requiring only that we approach it with an open mind. He introduces the scientists who developed quantum theory. He investigates the atom, radiation, time travel, the birth of the universe, superconductors and life itself. And in a world full of its own delights, mysteries and surprises, he searches for Schrodinger's Cat - a search for quantum reality - as he brings every reader to a clear understanding of the most important area of scientific study today - quantum physics. In Search of Schrodinger's Cat is a fascinating and delightful introduction to the strange world of the quantum - an essential element in understanding today's world.
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Quantam Physics And Reality
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
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.
About the Author
John Gribbin's books include The Hole in the Sky, a survey of the destruction of the ozone layer, and Hothouse Earth, a study of the greenhouse effect. He has written regularly for The Times and the Guardian, and is physics consultant for the New Scientist. He also broadcasts for the BBC World Service and is occasionally adviser for television documentaries. John Gribbin lives in Sussex with his wife and their two sons.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
98 of 104 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.)
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.)
40 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
114 of 138 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
John Gribbin obviously has a real enthusiasm for the subject matter, and it makes this book very readable in spite of the often bewildering complexity of the subject matter (which he explains admirably without use of mathematics). The coverage of the history of quantum theory in the first half of the 20th century is excellent, and made me want to read more about it.
Where Gribbin goes wrong, in my view, is in railroading his point "Nothing is real" (a thesis which seems to bookend the whole thing). I know I'll get "not helpful" points for pointing this out, but the quite obvious fact that Gribbin chooses to ignore is that subatomic particles, when collected as aggregates into everyday objects like a wallet or a pen, end up statistically combining to behave in predictable ways; if I leave it in a room and come back several hours later, it's still there unless somebody disturbs it, and I can be absolutely assured it was there in the intervening period--what could be plainer? In other words, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, yes, of course it makes a sound. But an electron or photon? Who's to say? The fact that such intractable weirdness in the quantum realm as Gribbin describes ends up getting together to form what we know as matter, is indeed a mystery worth contemplating. It makes me think of the realm of matter as if it were inside some kind of holodeck like in Star Trek, and when we look deep into matter itself we find that it's put together in some way inconceivable to us, and yet seemingly expressly for the purpose of creating the "macro" world in which we live. This idea is consistent with the Anthropic Principle, that has nudged so many scientists in the direction of theism. But 'nothing is real'? Then how can one make any meaningful statements, including the statement of universal unreality?! Come, now...
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very detailed history
The book came in a few days, excellent condition, no problems. As to the content.... a detailed look at the model of the atom which has been built up over the past century. Read more
Published 4 days ago by George M
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat
Well written for the lay person. Light is the future, the past, the present, intelligence, life - God? Maybe the Zoroastrian's had it right. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Anthony Hedayat
brilliant narrative derails
Anyone who has read in this subject area must concede the interaction of the men who developed the ideas of quantum mechanics is as compelling as the science itself. Read more
Published 4 months ago by paul jordan
The development of Quantum Mechanics
This book gives an organized picture of the development of quantum theory and how the pieces fit together. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Rui Antunes
Good Book
The book gave me more of a history lesson of quantum physics than I expected, but that was useful. I would have liked to have seen a few more contemplations on the potentialities... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Rachid
the cat ate my homework
I haven't read many books in the last few years but this one stands out. I managed to read the whole thing from cover to cover. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Vincent Murphy
A Great Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
I read this way back during my college years (1994-98). It was the first time I read a popular science book on quantum mechanics and cosmology (my first popular science book was... Read more
Published on January 28, 2010 by Ryles
edjohn
This book helps understanding quantum physics. I would recommend this for anyone interested in reality.
Published on January 7, 2010 by Edward Phillips
As shocking as science gets!
Niels Bohr said that "anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it." Indeed, if this is your first foray into quantum physics prepare to uncork a science that... Read more
Published on October 25, 2009 by Tole Khesin
An easy, non-mathematical introduction to quantum mechanics
Since my freshman days at the University of Sarajevo, where I was studying Metallurgical Engineering, I have been quite a bit intrigued and extremely fascinated by the whole world... Read more
Published on January 23, 2009 by Alojz Kajinic
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Isaac Newton invented physics, and all of science depends on physics. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
quantum cookbook, quantum algebra, quantum rules, quantum equations, quantum ideas, quantum world, detector screen, matrix mechanics Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Nobel Prize, Big Bang, First World War, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, John Wheeler, Max Born, Max Jammer, Professor of Physics, Some Strangeness, Wolfgang Pauli, New York, Nobel Committee, Richard Feynman, Solvay Congress, David Bohm, General Theory of Relativity, Harry Woolf, Louis de Broglie, Wilhelm Wien New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Isaac Newton invented physics, and all of science depends on physics. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
quantum cookbook, quantum algebra, quantum rules, quantum equations, quantum ideas, quantum world, detector screen, matrix mechanics Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Nobel Prize, Big Bang, First World War, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, John Wheeler, Max Born, Max Jammer, Professor of Physics, Some Strangeness, Wolfgang Pauli, New York, Nobel Committee, Richard Feynman, Solvay Congress, David Bohm, General Theory of Relativity, Harry Woolf, Louis de Broglie, Wilhelm Wien New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 43
books:
See all 43 books this book cites
- The Tao Of Physics (3rd Edition-Updated) by Fritjof Capra on 4 pages
- The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (25th Anniversary Edition) by Fritjof Capra on 4 pages
- Directions in Physics by P.A.M. Dirac on 4 pages
- The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics (History of Modern Physics, 1800-1950) by Max Jammer on page 52, page 86, and Back Matter
- The Theory of Relativity: & Other Essays by Albert Einstein on page 48, page 64, and page 83
See all 43 books this book cites
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