The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory [Paperback]

Werner Heisenberg (Author), Carl Eckart (Translator), F.C. Hoyt (Translator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications; REPRINT Edition edition (December 1930)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486601137
• ISBN-13: 978-0486601137
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #201,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heisenberg's motivation, January 22, 2004

By 

Professor Joseph L. McCauley "Joseph L. McCauley" (Austria+Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory (Paperback)

Not really for beginners in spite of appearances, this book sketches Heisenberg's path in discovering the canonical commutation rules of quantum mechanics. After trying unsuccessfully for years to quantize the helium atom via the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rules (which attempt Einstein had already explained in 1917 to be hopeless, because the classical 3-body problem is nonintegrable), Heisenberg was finally motivated by the example of relativity (where absolute time had to be abandoned) to give up the assumption that the position and momentum of a point particle are simultaneously predictable. To follow Heisenberg's reasoning the reader must first understand action-angle variables in classical mechanics. With Einstein's 1917 paper in hindsight, the three body problem representing the helium atom energy spectrum was finally approximated semi-clasically around 1990 based on a path-integral approximation to a chaotic Hamiltonian system.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic in quantum mechanics, December 19, 2001

By 

physics student "visviva" (St. John's, Newfoundland Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory (Paperback)

This book is the standard introduction to - well, to the physical principles underlying the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics. While it is dated in terms of that mathematical formalism, it has never been superseded in its analyses. Every serious student of quantum physics will encounter it, sooner or later, in the original or in paraphrases in newer monographs on quantum theory.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Hard Read, June 18, 2005

By 

Richard Crendal (Sydney, NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory (Paperback)

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It uses technical language (which can at times can become difficult), to express the physical context surrounding the development of Quantum mechanics, and deal with the matter at hand (pardon the pun). Quantum theory has a reputation as being difficult, confronting and unbelievable. However this book expresses logically and in detail, the physical principles of the Quantum theory, by the great Werner Heisenberg himself.
A great book if your thought needs provoking...