"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." #Richard Feynman# Basing his discussion on a small number of conceptually simple models (the two-level atom, the two-slit interferometer), the author addresses a number of conceptually interesting questions concerning the puzzles of quantum mechanics. Though the phenomena arising from quantum interference are central, he maintains that they are not the only mystery in quantum mechanics: the deep connection between spin and the statistics of identical particles, the "ghostly" long-range effects that correlated particles...
"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." #Richard Feynman# Basing his discussion on a small number of conceptually si...
Approximately 10 years have passed since the publication of And Yet 1 It Moves: Strange Systems and Subtle Questions in Physics. During this time, the book has done very well, being received favorably by both readers and reviewers. The exhaustion of the last printing has given me the opportunity to make revisions. The present volume, updated and expanded by three new chapters containing a total of 17 additional essays on a wide range of questions that I have explored in quantum mechanics, nuclear physics, thermodynamics, general relativity, and astrophysics, has been given a new title to...
Approximately 10 years have passed since the publication of And Yet 1 It Moves: Strange Systems and Subtle Questions in Physics. During this time, the...
Mark Silverman has seen light perform many wonders. From the marvel of seeing inside cloudy liquids as a result of his own cutting-edge research to reproducing and examining an unusual diffraction pattern first witnessed by Isaac Newton 300 years ago, he has studied aspects of light that have inspired and puzzled humans for hundreds of years. In this book, he draws on his many experiences as an optical and atomic physicist--and on his consummate skills as a teacher and writer about the mysteries of physics--to present a remarkable tour of the world of light. He explores theoretical,...
Mark Silverman has seen light perform many wonders. From the marvel of seeing inside cloudy liquids as a result of his own cutting-edge research to...
The many-faceted efforts to understand the structure and interactions of atoms over the past hundred years have contributed decisively and dramatically to the explosive development of physics. There is hardly a branch of modern physical science that does not in some seminal way rely on the fundamental principles and mathematical and experimental insights that derive from these studies. In particular, the drive to understand the singular features of the hydrogen atom--simultaneously the archetype of all atoms and the least typical atom--spurred many of the twentieth century's advances in...
The many-faceted efforts to understand the structure and interactions of atoms over the past hundred years have contributed decisively and dramatic...
jThis thoroughly updated and revised text contains a selection of well-written essays based on Silvermans work on a wide range of topics, including: quantum mechanics, including atomic and nuclear physics, electromagnetism and optics, gravity, thermodynamics, and the physics of fluids. Presenting a personal odyssey in physics, Silverman investigates processes for which no visualizable mechanism can be given, or that seem to violate fundamental physical laws (but do not). The discussions use little mathematics, and anyone with a little college physics will be able to read the book with...
jThis thoroughly updated and revised text contains a selection of well-written essays based on Silvermans work on a wide range of topics, including: q...
Originally published in 1993, this book of essays is a largely nonmathematical account of some of the strange behaviour, both classical and quantum, exhibited by moving particles, fluids and waves. Drawn from the author's researches in quantum mechanics, atomic and nuclear physics, electromagnetism and optics, gravity, thermodynamics, and the physics of fluids, the essays describe different physical systems whose behaviour provokes surprise and challenges the imagination. There are strange processes for which no visualisable mechanism can be given; processes that seem to violate fundamental...
Originally published in 1993, this book of essays is a largely nonmathematical account of some of the strange behaviour, both classical and quantum, e...
