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In Search of Schrodinger's Cat
Cover of In Search of Schrodinger's Cat
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat
Quantum Physics And Reality
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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.
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.
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  • From the book Chapter 1
     
    LIGHT
     
    Isaac Newton invented physics, and all of science depends on physics. Newton certainly built upon the work of others, but it was the publication of his three laws of motion and theory of gravity, almost exactly three hundred years ago, that set science off on the road that has led to space flight, lasers, atomic energy, genetic engineering, an understanding of chemistry, and all the rest. For two hundred years, Newtonian physics (what is now called “classical” physics) reigned supreme; in the twentieth century revolutionary new insights took physics far beyond Newton, but without those two centuries of scientific growth those new insights might never have been achieved. This book is not a history of science, and it is concerned with the new physics—quantum physics—rather than with those classical ideas. But even in Newton’s work three centuries ago there were already signs of the changes that were to come—not from his studies of planetary motions and orbits, or his famous three laws, but from his investigations of the nature of light.
     
    Newton’s ideas about light owed a lot to his ideas about the behavior of solid objects and the orbits of planets. He realized that our everyday experiences of the behavior of objects may be misleading, and that an object, a particle, free from any outside influences must behave very differently from such a particle on the surface of the earth. Here, our everyday experience tells us that things tend to stay in one place unless they are pushed, and that once you stop pushing them they soon stop moving. So why don’t objects like planets, or the moon, stop moving in their orbits? Is something pushing them? Not at all. It is the planets that are in a natural state, free from outside interference, and the objects on the surface of the earth that are being interfered with. If I try to slide a pen across my desk, my push is opposed by the friction of the pen rubbing against the desk, and that is what brings it to a halt when I stop pushing. If there were no friction, the pen would keep moving. This is Newton’s first law: every object stays at rest, or moves with constant velocity, unless an outside force acts on it. The second law tells us how much effect an outside force—a push—has on an object. Such a force changes the velocity of the object, and a change in velocity is called acceleration; if you divide the force by the mass of the object the force is acting upon, the result is the acceleration produced on that body by that force. Usually, this second law is expressed slightly differently: force equals mass times acceleration. And Newton’s third law tells us something about how the object reacts to being pushed around: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If I hit a tennis ball with my racket, the force with which the racket pushes on the tennis ball is exactly matched by an equal force pushing back on the racket; the pen on my desk top, pulled down by gravity, is pushed against with an exactly equal reaction by the desk top itself; the force of the explosive process that pushes the gases out of the combustion chamber of a rocket produces an equal and opposite reaction force on the rocket itself, which pushes it in the opposite direction.
     
    These laws, together with Newton’s law of gravity, explained the orbits of the planets around the sun, and the moon around the earth. When proper account was taken of friction, they explained the behavior of objects on the surface of the earth as well, and formed the foundation of mechanics. But they also had puzzling philosophical implications....
About the Author-
  • John Gribbin, PhD, trained as an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge before becoming a full-time science writer. His books include the highly acclaimed In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, The First Chimpanzee, In Search of the Big Bang, In the Beginning, In Search of the Edge of Time, In Search of the Double Helix, The Stuff of the Universe (with Martin Rees), Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science, and Einstein: A Life in Science (with Michael White).
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Quantum Physics And Reality
John Gribbin
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