The Fabric of Everything: Understanding Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity
Quantum mechanics can be simply explained as the microscopic world of atoms and particles, in which the particles exist in multiple states at the same time. The quantum world challenges classical physics, as it proves that observation itself alters the behaviour of matter. Max Planck started the quantum theory in 1900, when he discovered that energy travels in discrete packets called quanta. Einstein further proved that light travels as photons, and by the 1920s, Bohr, Heisenberg, and Schr dinger established wave-particle duality and superposition. Finally, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle arrived in 1927, proving that nature is probabilistic.
General relativity, on the other hand, governs the visible world, including everything we can see and touch. It tells us that massive objects like stars and black holes decide the movement of matter and the bending of light, as gravity is the curvature of spacetime itself. In 1905, Einstein's special relativity theory proved that space and time are relative. By 1915, his general relativity theory proposed that gravity is the curvature of spacetime. Later, in 1919, Eddington's eclipse photos confirmed that light bends around mass. Since then, general relativity has explained black holes, gravitational waves, and the Big Bang.
This book bridges the gap between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds, thus exploring the frameworks which together form our total reality. It does so by firstly understanding both these theories, investigating why they clash and how they finally meet at the event horizon. It highlights the human unknowns, and shows how both these theories can help us know it all.
Divided into five parts and fifteen chapters, this book cleanly explains the world before these theories, provides deep insights into both of them, and examines their inevitable clashes. Ultimately, it reveals what happens when these two rival sides face each other, thus showing the limits of human knowledge and pointing towards the deeper reality which is still beyond our understanding.
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