Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You: A Guide to the Universe. Marcus Chown

by Marcus Chown

Book Overview

The two towering achievements of modern physics are quantum theory and Einstein's general theory of relativity. But, almost a century after their advent, most people haven't the slightest clue what... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571235468
• ISBN13: 9780571235469
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The universe is a pretty big place, and it is good to be reminded where we live!

Lots of things about the universe are not discovered yet, not explored yet, not identified yet, or not ascertained yet. But some things are. And in this remarkable little book Marcus Chown gives us some of the things that we do know. There are many books out there on quantum theory and relativity, but few gives the facts in a popular form, without too much detail. And fewer still are also exciting, fresh, new and precise at the same time - but somehow this book accomplishes all these things. Thats cool. The subject matter is difficult though. Take an electron. It has an electric charge that comes in two forms, positive and negative. What charge really >>is<< noone <br />really knows. <br /> Light really is both wave and particles. It is like a coin <br />with two faces, where we can see either its wave like nature or its <br />particle nature, but not both at the same time. So what <br />light really >>is<< is also an unknowable. The book goes into a lot <br />of the relativistic effects of based on the constant <br />speed of light. Travelling at speeds approaching <br />the speed of light is always fun. And highly confusing and thought provoking. <br />This book also gives us the twin paradox, where one twin on a spaceship <br />ends up being younger than a stay at home twin. The faster you go, the slower you age. <br /> But if time almost stops if you come closer to the (the speed of) light, <br />then there is no time for light itself, and distances gets smaller (as speed comes <br />close to light speed), then for light itself there are no distances, or? <br /> Also a real headbanger - and it would have been nice to seen <br />that explored some more in the book. <br /> <br /> On it goes with quantum computers that uses resources of other universes <br />to give us a computation result? It is noted though that quantum <br />computers are restricted to parallel calculations, <br />that output only a single answer - and it will be difficult to <br />state any calculation this way. So good old classical computers <br />will be here for some time. Still... <br /> Then there is quantum entanglement. Wonderful stuff. The <br />intermingling of two or more microscopic particles so that they lose <br />their individuality and in many ways behave as a single entity. But hey, <br />all the particles of the universe were once in the same state, together <br />back in the Big Bang - and are therefore to some extend <br />entangled with each other. Noone knows what it means. But talk about <br />never being alone... <br /> And that Big Bang thing - as Jostein Garder (Sophis world) says, <br />A white rabbit being pulled out of a top, because it is <br />an extremely large rabbit, the trick takes billions of years.... <br /> Not all is well in Big Bang land though, and we add <br />a little inflation theory plus dark matter to make it right. Kind of. <br /> And then there is all the physics you know, but somehow <br />ch

Boyle was English...

Actually, Boyle was born of an English father while that father was temporarily living on his Irish estates (then a legal part of England). Boyle left Ireland at an early age and grew up in, and was educated in, and made his career in England. 'waaaaay more English than Irish. No Irish DNA. Sorry! This book comes highly recommended by the website Popular Science dot co dot uk.