Quantum mechanics (Popular science)

[ubergewehr273]

Could anybody suggest good popular science books based on quantum mechanics ?
It would be great if the book contained a lot of theory rather than its history.
As a side note, has anybody read the book titled "Quantum" by Manjit Kumar ?

 

[Doug Huffman]

I got 28 hits, not all unique, searching at Amazon for quantum mechanics for dummies. I doubt that you will find "lots of theory" popular.

The root problem is that QM is so far removed from experience and intuition, that's what the QM interpretation debate is all about. How can we (re)interpret QM making it accessible to intuition?

 

[ubergewehr273]

I got 28 hits, not all unique, searching at Amazon for quantum mechanics for dummies. I doubt that you will find "lots of theory" popular.

The root problem is that QM is so far removed from experience and intuition, that's what the QM interpretation debate is all about. How can we (re)interpret QM making it accessible to intuition?

Well then, what is your impression about the book by Manjit Kumar ?

 

[Doug Huffman]

With respect, I have not read Manjit Kumar's book.

Most recently I spent a month trying and failing to get through Unger and Smolin's The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: A Proposal in Natural Philosophy. Brazilian Unger's portion of the book used sentence structure just too awkward to endure.

 

[ubergewehr273]

Well have you read "The Cycles of time" by Roger Penrose ?

 

[Doug Huffman]

I think that this may link to my Goodreads account with a not particularly accurate reading list.
https://www.goodreads.com/friend/i?i=LTM2MTU2Njc1Nzk6NDI3

 

[lizzie96']

QED by Richard Feynman is very fun. Also, Feynman’s original lectures on QM: they’re not quite pop science but are aimed at 1st-year undergrads and are easier than most textbooks. The early chapters read quite like popular science, and only require high-school knowledge. You can read it for free at http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/III_toc.html

There is also Roger Penrose’s Road to Reality, which is very theory-heavy and meant to be excellent, but despite technically being popular science I found it far harder than any textbook. If you like very very concise explanations of difficult ideas you might like it.

 

[Daverz]

I don't think there's much point to a "word salad" popular approach, but if you can handle some math, you could try

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674843924/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[Doug Huffman]

In 'Singular Universe', Part I, Chapter 1, is the section titled 'The selective realism of mathematics' wherein Unger introduces their thesis against mathematics as misleading formalism, as maths-salad.