Customer Reviews

The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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 While it is dated in terms of that mathematical formalism, it has never been superseded in its analyses.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.

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...

A lot of the interesting bits are covered in the appendix, but I found it too dense to attempt to read (an attempt to cram too much into a short book).

After learning the subject from other sources this would probably be interesting to revisit to get a historical perspective, but I don't rate it high for learning from.

The only thing mysterious here is how this great scientist has managed to muddle up his own theory in this book to the point where its unintelligible. It takes him a chapter to state that the electron does not have a velocity or a path in the classical sense. And why give this book such a blatant appealing title to lure beginners to pay money for this trash. No examples or end-of-chapter problems either. Read Lev Landau instead.

This really helping me to understand more about the Quantum Theory, I think this book is need to be read by everyone who study physic or by someone who interested by physical theory. I have been read this book for several times and I stil never feel bored. I think this book is really interesting. Thank's

This book answerrs all the questions you`ve wanted to know it tells you about relativity and quantum theory, and also the most puzzling of all questions how did the universe start? This book is definity a must buy.