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  • Quantum

  • A Guide for the Perplexed
  • By: Jim Al-Khalili
  • Narrated by: Hugh Kermode
  • Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (31 ratings)

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Quantum

By: Jim Al-Khalili
Narrated by: Hugh Kermode
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Publisher's Summary

From Schrodinger's cat to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, this book untangles the weirdness of the quantum world.

Quantum mechanics underpins modern science and provides us with a blueprint for reality itself. And yet it has been said that if you're not shocked by it, you don't understand it. But is quantum physics really so unknowable? Is reality really so strange? And just how can cats be half alive and half dead at the same time?

Our journey into the quantum begins with nature's own conjuring trick, in which we discover that atoms - contrary to the rules of everyday experience - can exist in two locations at once. To understand this we travel back to the dawn of the 20th century and witness the birth of quantum theory, which over the next 100 years was to overthrow so many of our deeply held notions about the nature of our universe.

Scientists and philosophers have been left grappling with its implications ever since.

Read by Hugh Kermode.

©2003 Jim Al-Khalili (P)2016 Orion Publishing Group

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Amazing book!

Great narrator and an even greater author, made the complex ideas of QM easy to understand.

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Must read/listen for anyone interested in Physics

As a holder of a BSc Physics degree I have studied and enjoyed the formalisms of quantum physics, I took great joy in understanding and using the complicated yet beautiful mathematical framework of this field.... yet looking back I don't know when I stopped asking and trying to understand the meaning behind the maths. This book wonderfully explains a lot of the nuances that underpins the subject and its place in mordern Physics.

Only issue (if I had to find one) would be the thought proccess is occasionally not straightforward and the reader/listener must stay focused to follow along but I can guarantee the extra effort will pay off. I would like to point out that Quantum physics is quite a complex and mathematical field and I feel like I have no right to criticise the brilliant work the author has produced and I have so far not seen another book or met another lecturer who provided a better overview of this brilliant field. I would recommend this to all undergraduate students and anyone else interested in the field

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an outstanding book.

It explains all the big ideas and their context, while also reinforcing the doubts I have.

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1 person found this helpful

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