Fundamental: How Quantum and Particle Physics Explain Absolutely Everything

by Tim James

Overview

A brilliantly diverting and mind-expanding guide to quantum and particle physics.

At the start of the twentieth century, our knowledge of science appeared complete and it seemed that the laws of nature were almost all discovered, but then we woke a sleeping giant—we discovered quantum mechanics. In the quantum realm, objects can be in two places at once. It’s a place where time travel is not only possible, but necessary. It’s a place where cause and effect can happen in reverse and observing something changes its state. From parallel universes to antimatter, quantum mechanics has revealed that when you get right down to it, the laws of nature are insane. The scientist J. B. S. Haldane once said, “Reality is not only stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we can imagine.” Never is this more true than with quantum mechanics. This comprehensive beginner’s guide to quantum mechanics explains not only the weirdness of the subject but the experiments that proved it to be true. Using a humorous and light-hearted approach, Fundamental tells the story of how the most brilliant minds in science grappled with seemingly impossible ideas and gave us everything from microchips to particle accelerators. Fundamental gives clear explanations of all the quantum phenomena known to modern science, without requiring an understanding of complex mathematics; it tells the eccentric stories of the scientists who made these shattering discoveries and what they used them for; it explains how quantum field theory (a topic not covered in detail by any other popular-science book) gave rise to particle physics and why the Higgs boson isn’t the end of the story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643134710
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	07/07/2020
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Tim James, the author of Fundamental and Elemental, is a science teacher, YouTuber, blogger, and Instagrammer. Raised by missionaries in Nigeria, he fell in love with science at the age of fifteen. After graduating with a master’s degree in chemistry, specializing in computational quantum mechanics, he decided to get straight into the classroom. He lives in England.

Table of Contents

Introduction The End 1

Chapter 1 Glowing with Pride 5

Chapter 2 Bits and Pieces 17

Chapter 3 Aristocrats, Bombs and Pollen 29

Chapter 4 Taming the Beast 41

Chapter 5 Things Get Even Weirder … Again 55

Chapter 6 The Box and the Pussycat 65

Chapter 7 The World is an Illusion 73

Chapter 8 Quantum Must Die 81

Chapter 9 Teleportation, Time Machines and Twirling 93

Chapter 10 Quantum Mechanics Proves I am Batman 105

Chapter 11 Far Afield 117

Chapter 12 Lines and Wiggles 127

Chapter 13 Particle Physics Gets Jacked 143

Chapter 14 Honey, Where's My Higgs? 157

Chapter 15 The Trouble with G 175

Timeline of Quantum and Particle Physics 185

Appendix I A Closer Look at Spin 191

Appendix II Solving Schrödinger 195

Appendix III Einstein's Bicycle 199

Appendix IV Taming Infinity 203

Appendix V Paint with All the Colours of the Quark 207

Acknowledgements 211

Notes 215

Index 223

Editorial Reviews

2020-04-09
A lucid and humorous layman’s guide to quantum mechanics, a theory that has been proven accurate despite its exceeding weirdness.

From the celebrity of the Higgs boson to reports of quantum computing, many people are vaguely familiar with quantum and particle physics and its strange implications, but few (if any) truly understand it. James, a science teacher and blogger, clearly has experience in explaining complicated ideas in understandable terms, and he capably applies his skills to this tricky subject, which he describes as “a realm of craziness and chaos where knowledge and imagination become the same thing.” The author tells the familiar yet interesting stories of scientific heavyweights such as Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Feynman (“he had red carpets laid out for him at weekly lectures and spent his free time hanging out in topless bars, doing calculations on napkins and drawing sketches of the dancers and sometimes the men watching”), and he details a history of experiments designed to verify theories that, on the surface, seem impossible. James also unpacks quantum field theory, an idea so dense that most writers don’t dare broach it. He includes hand-drawn illustrations and is mostly successful in using plain language to convey not just quantum theories, but why they deservedly generate such excitement—or, seemingly just as often, frustration—among scientists. Throughout each clearly defined chapter, the author uses pop-culture analogies to great effect and laces his nuanced science writing with genuinely funny asides (see: “quantum pants”). He also includes several appendices with additional context and simple exercises inspired by science communicators such as Carl Sagan. James writes with infectious enthusiasm and optimism, concluding that, “rather than science drawing to a denouement, it appears that things are just getting started and that is a good reason to get excited.”

Even first-time physics readers will come away with a working knowledge of one of the universe’s most enigmatic subjects.

Kirkus Reviews