Anyone know of a good QF doco?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around recommendations for documentaries, lectures, and online resources that provide a more in-depth understanding of Quantum Physics, beyond brief descriptions. Participants express preferences for conceptual explanations over mathematical rigor.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant requests recommendations for quality resources on Quantum Physics, explicitly rejecting the documentary "What the Bleep do we know?" as pseudo-scientific.
  • Another participant inquires about the original poster's background in math and physics to tailor recommendations.
  • The original poster shares their limited formal education in math and physics but indicates a strong personal interest and self-study over the past eight years.
  • A participant suggests that TV documentaries may not be the best learning tools, advocating for university courses or textbooks instead, while also mentioning YouTube resources from UC Berkeley and Feynman's lectures.
  • Another participant recommends a series of lectures by Hans Bethe, highlighting his credentials and contributions to physics.
  • A different participant mentions a website called 'davedubTV' that offers full-length documentaries and lectures on science, suggesting it as a useful resource.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express varying opinions on the effectiveness of different types of resources for learning Quantum Physics. There is no consensus on a single recommended resource, and multiple viewpoints regarding the best approach to learning the subject are present.

Contextual Notes

Participants express differing views on the appropriateness of TV documentaries for educational purposes, with some advocating for more formal educational resources. The discussion reflects a range of personal experiences and preferences in learning styles.

thesecularist
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Hello everyone.

Can anyone recommend a good documentary, lecture footage, video or online sources of any description, that explains areas of Quantum Physics to more than a brief description?

Just incase anyone was intending to put up the movie/doco "What the Bleep do we know?". Please do not! That is nothing but a pseudo-scientific attempt to give creditation to New Age garbage.
 
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What background in math and physics do you already have?
 
jtbell said:
What background in math and physics do you already have?

I guess, to answer your question, not studied Math or Physics at university. Umm, Math 1 & 2 at high school level. (Dont know if that means anything to you as I live in Australia). Highest math possible at school level (which I completed 7 years ago), so yeah I'm no math genius at all. Umm with Physics, I have never studied it at university, but for the last 8 years I've been researching of Physics subjects in my own time for my own interested, listening to online lectures, reading lots of physics articles, etc etc. I know QF has a lot to do with Math, however what I'd be after would be maybe a lesser 'Math' explanation, but more conceptual. (if that makes sense to you?).

I've kinda searched the net already and nothing much jumps up at me. Which is why I thought I'd post in here :-)
 
thesecularist said:
Hello everyone.

Can anyone recommend a good documentary, lecture footage, video or online sources of any description, that explains areas of Quantum Physics to more than a brief description?

Just incase anyone was intending to put up the movie/doco "What the Bleep do we know?". Please do not! That is nothing but a pseudo-scientific attempt to give creditation to New Age garbage.

I think if you want to learn the subject you should better stay away from TV documentaries. Usually, their goal is not to teach you, but to inspire awe and scare you with complexities and paradoxes. The best way of learning invented by mankind is a University course in quantum mechanics. The next best thing is a textbook. If you prefer to watch something on the screen, then check YouTube. I heard that UC Berkeley began to put on YouTube videos of their lecture courses: http://youtube.com/ucberkeley Perhaps, you can find lectures on quantum physics there. You can also find YouTube videos of brilliant Feynman's lectures on quantum mechanics and QED. Sorry, I don't have URLs for those.

Eugene.
 
"Quantum Physics made relatively simple" - Three lectures by Hans Bethe

Hans Bethe was a German-American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis.

http://bethe.cornell.edu/
 
Quantam Physics Online Documentaries & Lectures

This forum is nice. Here's my 2-cents:

I found a good site for science lectures and docs at a site called 'davedubTV'. (?!)
--> davedub.net/tv

They have nice full-length documentaries & lectures, not just short clips - so I quite enjoy it.

Hope this helps!
 

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