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Quantum Physics in Minutes
Quantum physics is the most fundamental -- but also the most baffling -- branch of science. Allowing for dead-and-alive cats, teleportation, antimatter, and parallel universes, as well as underpinning all of our digital technology, it's as important as it is mind-bending. This clear and compact book demystifies the strange and beautiful quantum world, and hence the nature of reality itself.
Contents Schrodinger's cat, inside the atom, the particle zoo, the Higgs boson, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, God playing dice, relativity, the Big Bang, dark energy and matter, black holes, the fate of the Universe, the Theory of Everything, quantum gravity, string theory, the multiverse, instant communication, quantum computing and cryptography, superconductivity, quantum biology, quantum consciousness, and much more.
Written as a series of mini essays with 200 simple diagrams to help understanding, there can be no easier guide to this notoriously confusing subject. At last it's possible for non-specialists to understand quantum theory and its central role in the birth of the universe and the very existence of life.
Contents Schrodinger's cat, inside the atom, the particle zoo, the Higgs boson, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, God playing dice, relativity, the Big Bang, dark energy and matter, black holes, the fate of the Universe, the Theory of Everything, quantum gravity, string theory, the multiverse, instant communication, quantum computing and cryptography, superconductivity, quantum biology, quantum consciousness, and much more.
Written as a series of mini essays with 200 simple diagrams to help understanding, there can be no easier guide to this notoriously confusing subject. At last it's possible for non-specialists to understand quantum theory and its central role in the birth of the universe and the very existence of life.
416 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2017
50 people are currently reading
263 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 24, 2021
Who the heck is this written for? The tiny size and “board book� covers make it look like a toddlers� introduction to Quantum Physics, but the explanations are so technical that you’d need to have studied physics for years to know what the author is talking about. And if you knew that much, there are way more interesting books out there! (I recommend Beyond Weird, Quantum, and In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat.) The reviews on Amazon average 4.8 stars out of 5, but some of them are certainly bogus. One reviewer said, “Grandchild loved this book. She is 12.� I had to laugh. Another said, � . . . complicated knowledge made easy to understand.� I’ve read a lot of books on the subject, and compared with others, this is definitely not easy to understand. The material is thrown out suddenly, with no introductions or examples, so it could only be helpful as a refresher guide to someone who has already mastered the basic concepts. I’m glad I checked it out from the library instead of buying it, because it would have been a total waste of my money.
January 25, 2022
DNF
Not a beginners guide and the format forces the author to be more precise in some areas when they need a bit more depth and examples. Hyperlinks didn't work in my Kindle edition which made cross-referencing a pain. Will give it another go when I feel more confident about the subject.
Not a beginners guide and the format forces the author to be more precise in some areas when they need a bit more depth and examples. Hyperlinks didn't work in my Kindle edition which made cross-referencing a pain. Will give it another go when I feel more confident about the subject.
August 23, 2020
Absolutely unintelligible after 10 pages. Maybe one could get through this in minutes if one already understood quantum physics, but I was perhaps naively hoping for this to be a primer for the layperson. A short explanation is not necessarily an accessible explanation.
September 12, 2017
This book is a great abbreviated description and discussion of the ideas, terms and theories of Quantum Physics for those without the in depth complicated mathematical background.
June 23, 2021
Great book introducing a lot of the terms and theories in Quantum Physics. I have no background in quantum physics and wanted to learn more as an introduction to this area. This book was quite a pleasure to read.
To address some complaints that this book is hard to read - I can only speak to what I know. I took some college classes on basic physics and advanced chemistry. So the parts on electromagnetism and atomic quantum states weren't new to me, just explained from a quantum mechanics perspective.
To address some complaints that this book is hard to read - I can only speak to what I know. I took some college classes on basic physics and advanced chemistry. So the parts on electromagnetism and atomic quantum states weren't new to me, just explained from a quantum mechanics perspective.
May 22, 2023
Now that I've read other reviews I don't feel so bad. I found this to be the opposite of what I was looking for based on the title. Maybe you can read the individual snippets in minutes, but understanding them is a different story. I bought several other books on this same topic and am going to try those. I do see a very practical use for this book, though. If I come across a topic I remember from this book elsewhere, it would be easy to look it up and use as a sort of textbook or quick reference because of large, clear subject lines at tops of pages.
July 19, 2020
Covers many physics theories to establish the ground work for quantum physics and gives a good overview of things for further research.
The direction changes can be quite jarring and some of the more speculative concepts got more coverage than necessary. Should have spent some more time on quantum logic gates and some of the LA maths behind them instead of some of the other less related topics.
The direction changes can be quite jarring and some of the more speculative concepts got more coverage than necessary. Should have spent some more time on quantum logic gates and some of the LA maths behind them instead of some of the other less related topics.
April 13, 2018
While this book can't actually be read in minutes, it is still a very fast, easy and interesting read. It manages to explain key concepts of quantum mechanics in as few and understandable words as possible.
June 14, 2020
loved how easily the author made these scary looking terms for a mysterious part of physics look simple, coherent and understandable. helped me a lot to piece abstract things together while i was working on my high school graduation thesis on multiverse.
January 8, 2019
Good little overview for the general reader.
August 25, 2020
200 topics about quantum physics explained shortly in easy language and very good graphical representation for each topic. you can search topics on wikipedia for more information
September 25, 2021
This book honestly leaves me with more questions than answers. It describes concepts in a short sentence but doesn't explain why they are or how it came to be. Disappointed overall.
November 14, 2021
A great introductory and historical background on the subject of quantum physics. You may still require a little bit of intuition or background knowledge to follow some parts.
June 20, 2022
This book Says brief and useful explanations of quantum world discoveries and rules From the beginning to now., very informative and amazing. i like it
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September 30, 2023 It was months ( in the loo), not minutes, but I read all the words.
October 8, 2023
Definitely one of my favorite books.
Read
September 8, 2024Good short review of the field as we know it today. Written for a broad audience but with enough detail to keep the more knowledgeable readers from getting bored.
December 13, 2024
It's like reading an encyclopedia of physics.
January 8, 2025
it was like a summary of a summary of a summary but in quantum physics
December 4, 2018
I’m still non the wiser! Have started again. The concepts seem straight forward at the start of the book but they become progressively less so. Maybe I will understand more when I have read it again. This is such a vast subject I think it is highly unlikely that a normal person would be able to get it in minutes but as an attempt at bringing this subject to understandable levels it is a great start and if I had read this book as a child it may well have inspired me to look further into physics as a career choice.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
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