Quantum Physics For Dummies
£14.70£18.00 (-18%)
Your plain-English guide to understanding and working with the micro world
Quantum Physics For Dummies, Revised Edition helps make quantum physics understandable and accessible. From what quantum physics can do for the world to understanding hydrogen atoms, readers will get complete coverage of the subject, along with numerous examples to help them tackle the tough equations. Compatible with classroom text books and courses, Quantum Physics For Dummies, Revised Edition lets students study at their own paces and helps them prepare for graduate or professional exams. Coverage includes:
- The Schrodinger Equation and its Applications
- The Foundations of Quantum Physics
- Vector Notation
- Spin
- Scattering Theory, Angular Momentum, and more
Quantum physics ― also called quantum mechanics or quantum field theory ― can be daunting for even the most dedicated student or enthusiast of science, math, or physics. This friendly, concise guide makes this challenging subject understandable and accessible, from atoms to particles to gases and beyond. Plus, it’s packed with fully explained examples to help you tackle the tricky equations like a pro!
- Compatible with any classroom course ― study at your own pace and prepare for graduate or professional exams
- Your journey begins here ― understand what quantum physics is and what kinds of problems it can solve
- Know the basic math ― from state vectors to quantum matrix manipulations, get the foundation you need to proceed
- Put quantum physics to work ― make sense of Schrödinger’s equation and handle particles bound in square wells and harmonic oscillators
- Solve problems in three dimensions ― use the full operators to handle wave functions and eigenvectors to find the natural wave functions of a system
- Discover the latest research ― learn the cutting-edge quantum physics theories that aim to explain the universe itself
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Additional information
| Publisher | For Dummies, Revised edition (5 Feb. 2013) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 336 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1118460820 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1118460825 |
| Dimensions | 18.54 x 2.29 x 23.11 cm |
by David M
Everything you would expect in a book from the “Dummies” series. Unintimidating and well structured.
perhaps the title is misleading. It’s very definitely not a book for the absolute beginner.
It does place into context all the random snippets you may have picked up about Quantum Physics, and gives the mathematics associated with things you already knew. So in that sense, it’s a crib-sheet for somebody hoping to pass the final exams of their physics degree! This is a Quantum Mechanics refresher, not an introduction, and you’ll need some university-level maths behind you in order to follow it.
In my case some of the pages had slight tears at the edges. I think the paper was catching in machinery at the factory. It doesn’t look like the damage was caused by Amazon employees. For the price, not worth sending it back. (I just knocked off a star.)
by Jacob
I always faceted with physics
Good introductory book.
Like many Quinton mechanics books this also lacks clarity
by Kiran
Bought primarily for some fun learning about a very difficult topic, my main criticism is that there is not enough basic physics in the text to lead one into the topics.
by Intra Voxel
It was alarming to see the one-star reviews of this book at 24 percent, higher than any other professionally-produced work I can remember. But I wasn’t put off buying since most of the complaints were concerned about the complexity of the mathematics. This is what I expected and what I wanted from the book; I’ve read enough “pop science” books to want something with a little more meat. Learning the mathematical foundations of quantum physics is a necessary and inescapable fact of understanding it properly.
However, after working through the book, I think the negative reviewers have a point. I feel the problem is not so much the maths but the context and order in which information is presented. The author may have been hampered by the formatting requirements of writing a Dummies book. For example, on page 28, after some fairly simple stuff about matrices we are suddenly informed by a hand icon that we should REMEMBER:
“In general, a set of vectors phi-N in Hilbert space is linearly independent if the only solution to the following equation is that all the coefficients a-N = 0;
[equation]
That is, as long as you can’t write any one vector as a linear combination of the others, the vectors are linearly independent and so form a valid basis in Hilbert space.”
The problem isn’t the equation. It’s that this statement appears with no context and, at this stage, no reason given as to why we should “remember” it. We might be able to guess that reason (if we have the necessary background in vector spaces or co-ordinate systems) but I don’t think we should have to. We haven’t even yet been told what a Hilbert space is. (It’s one of the author’s stated “Foolish Assumptions” that we’re already supposed to know about them).
In a more natural expositional format the author would not be able to get away with such a glaring lack of context. It would be obvious to him or his editors that something didn’t make sense here. The author would be forced to lead into things logically, by first explaining the need for a particular property and then by explaining the mathematics of how it’s accomplished.
I dispute the statement on page 5 that you can “jump in anywhere” in the book. If you do, you’ll have a lot of back-referencing to do.
To understand quantum physics you do indeed have to understand some complicated maths – there’s no getting away from that – but the truth is that I’ve seen it explained better. At the time of writing there’s a PDF called (somewhat understatedly) “Quantum Physics Notes” by J Cresser, which is freely downloadable from the Macquarie University website. It introduces each concept in a far more natural way, flowing from the historical context to the modern – without shying away from any of the mathematics. If I could go back and buy that document in book form instead of Quantum Physics for Dummies, I would.
However, unlike many other reviewers here I won’t be returning this book. After I’ve finished going through the Cresser PDF I’ll revisit the book and will no doubt find a lot of useful information within. For this reason, and for the fact that I learned some things from it (for example – what a “ket” is) I will not give it a one-star review.
Quantum Physics for Dummies strains the Dummies series concept to breaking point – and maybe beyond. I feel the subject went out of the series editors’ zones of expertise and was accepted for publication at a too-early stage. It would benefit from a rewrite, shifting the focus to the introductory and leaving the later topics to more advanced texts.
by A. J. Richards
Most definitely not for dummies. There are other, far better, books on the subject suitable for dummies such as me. On the plus side some of the cartoons made me laugh out loud.
by JT
After having bought her the Einstein for Dummies book (which she really liked), I (a physicist) bought this book for my partner as she was interested in this topic as well.
Unlike the Einstein for Dummies book, the book on quantum physics still contains a fair bit of mathematics, well above the level my partner can manage.
I think it would be good if the publishers of the Dummies series could indicate the level of knowledge required given that there is quite some variation in the level of knowledge required to read these books. The two book I mentioned, are a good example of the difference.
I therefore give it 4 starts as a opposed to the 5 that I would otherwise have given.
by Jehannum
This book is very good, however it could do with a bit more of a “primer” for those readers that are rusty on their maths or have inexperience in matrices and
In other words it is written in a very user friendly style and it does explain things like bra-ket notation and runs through the fundamentals pretty well, but then it picks up the pace so rapidly to complex areas that it becomes unfathomable, it needs a more gentle and gradual transition to the hard stuff. The problem is it ends up being just like any other quantum physics book with scary equations, this means as a “dummies” guide it is mislabelled, as it can only help you scale the dizzy heights of quantum physics if you are a fully seasoned Chris Bonnington with crampons and an oxygen mask with years of high altitude alpine climbing behind you. It is not written for dummies or newbies.
Nevertheless it is a good book and well written and so I have given it a generous four stars.
by David M
This book is ‘for dummies’, provided they already have significant appreciation of physics and maths….so not so dumb…but the style is user friendly and the material is worth persevering with. Quite good value for the content.