Quantum Mechanics Books

Most Read This Week In Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics (QM; also known as quantum physics or quantum theory), including quantum field theory, is a fundamental branch of physics concerned with processes involving, for example, atoms and photons. In such processes, said to be quantized, the action has been observed to be only in integer multiples of the Planck constant. This is utterly inexplicable in classical physics.

Quantum mechanics gradually arose from Max Planck's solution in 1900 to the black-body radiation problem (reported 1859) and Albert Einstein's 1905 paper which offered a quantum-based theory to explain the photoelect ...more

Most Read This Week Tagged "Quantum Mechanics"

E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality

Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality

The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World

Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum (Theoretical Minimum #2)

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One

The Quantum Story: A history in 40 moments

Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space

Quantum Creativity: Think Quantum, Be Creative

Supernormal: Science, Yoga and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities

The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe

Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World

You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter

The Source Field Investigations: The Hidden Science and Lost Civilizations Behind the 2012 Prophecies

101 Quantum Questions: What You Need to Know About the World You Can't See

The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty

E-Cubed: Nine More Energy Experiments That Prove Manifesting Magic and Miracles Is Your Full-Time Gig

Spooky Action at a Distance: The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time鈥攁nd What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything

Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology

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Quotes Tagged 鈥淨uantum Mechanics鈥�

“ Electrons, when they were first discovered, behaved exactly like particles or bullets, very simply. Further research showed, from electron diffraction experiments for example, that they behaved like waves. As time went on there was a growing confusion about how these things really behaved ---- waves or particles, particles or waves? Everything looked like both. This growing confusion was resolved in 1925 or 1926 with the advent of the correct equations for quantum mechanics. Now we know how the Electrons, when they were first discovered, behaved exactly like particles or bullets, very simply. Further research showed, from electron diffraction experiments for example, that they behaved like waves. As time went on there was a growing confusion about how these things really behaved ---- waves or particles, particles or waves? Everything looked like both. This growing confusion was resolved in 1925 or 1926 with the advent of the correct equations for quantum mechanics. Now we know how the electrons and light behave. But what can I call it? If I say they behave like particles I give the wrong impression; also if I say they behave like waves. They behave in their own inimitable way, which technically could be called a quantum mechanical way. They behave in a way that is like nothing that you have seen before. Your experience with things that you have seen before is incomplete. The behavior of things on a very tiny scale is simply different. An atom does not behave like a weight hanging on a spring and oscillating. Nor does it behave like a miniature representation of the solar system with little planets going around in orbits. Nor does it appear to be somewhat like a cloud or fog of some sort surrounding the nucleus. It behaves like nothing you have seen before. There is one simplication at least. Electrons behave in this respect in exactly the same way as photons; they are both screwy, but in exactly in the same way鈥�. The difficulty really is psychological and exists in the perpetual torment that results from your saying to yourself, "But how can it be like that?" which is a reflection of uncontrolled but utterly vain desire to see it in terms of something familiar. I will not describe it in terms of an analogy with something familiar; I will simply describe it. There was a time when the newspapers said that only twelve men understood the theory of relativity. I do not believe there ever was such a time. There might have been a time when only one man did, because he was the only guy who caught on, before he wrote his paper. But after people read the paper a lot of people understood the theory of relativity in some way or other, certainly more than twelve. On the other hand, I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. So do not take the lecture too seriously, feeling that you really have to understand in terms of some model what I am going to describe, but just relax and enjoy it. I am going to tell you what nature behaves like. If you will simply admit that maybe she does behave like this, you will find her a delightful, entrancing thing. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possible avoid it, "But how can it be like that?" because you will get 'down the drain', into a blind alley from which nobody has escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that. ...more ”
― Richard P. Feynman, The Character of Physical Law

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“ [Stephen] Hawking: Yeah, well, there are some people who spend an awful lot of time talking about the interpretation of quantum mechanics. My attitude鈥� I would paraphrase Goering鈥攊s that when I hear of Schr枚dinger's cat, I reach for my gun. ...more ”
― Timothy Ferris, The Whole She Bang

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