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Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You
Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt A Guide to the Universe [Hardcover] Chown, Marcus
200 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
Marcus Chown
36 books242 followersMarcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is currently cosmology consultant of the weekly science magazine New Scientist. He is the author of the bestselling Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, The Never Ending Days of Being Dead and The Magic Furnace. He also wrote The Solar System, the bestselling app for iPad, which won the Future Book Award 2011. Marcus Chown has also written a work for children, Felicity Frobisher and the Three-Headed Aldebaran Dust Devil.
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May 18, 2016
في السنة الماضية، أثار موضوع نشأة الكون وتطور الأرض اهتمامي ووقع اختياري على كتاب "علم الكونيات: مقدمة قصيرة جداً" ولا أنكر مدى استغلاق الكثير من المعلومات والنظريات الفيزيائية على فهمي، وقرأت بعده كتاب "البدايات: 14 مليار سنة من تطور الكون" وأذكر بأنني وصلت لثلثه ولم أستطع الاستمرار لصعوبة المحتوى على غير دارسي ومتخصصي الفيزياء! وقد شعرت بالحزن والاستياء جداً فأنا أريد أن أعرف ولكنني لا أفهم :( فكل شيء ينتهي ويلتقي عند نقاط محددة وهي:
نظرية الكمية أو ميكانيكا الكم
والنظرية النسبية العامة والنسبية الخاصة لآينشتاين
وحال قرائتي لهذا الكتاب لم أعقد آمالاً عظيمة بأنني سأفهم شيئاً ولكنني فضّلت المحاولة والاستمرار فيه...
وقد هالني الأسلوب الممتع والبسيط للكتاب في تحليل نظريات مهمة جداً لم أكن أتخيل بأنني سأستطيع استيعابها يوماً!
يقول آينشتاين: "معظم الأفكار الأساسية للعلوم هي بالأساس بسيطة ويمكن شرحها بلغة يفهمها الجميع."
وقد وجدت هذه اللغة في هذا الكتاب الرائع، واكشفت عالماً آخر، عالماً متناهي الصغر، عالم الذرات ونوى الذرات والإلكترونات والنيوترونات والبروتونات والفوتونات والبوزوترونات.. عالم صغير كبير في نفس الوقت، عالم لا مرئي يشكّل ما نرى...
وقد استمتعت جداً بفصول النظرية النسبية العامة، وسرعة الضوء وفصول الكون والزمان والمكان.. فهو ككل ممتع وسلس جداً، وقد ذكّرني بكتاب عالم صوفي لجوستاين غاردر. ربما لو تم بذل جهد قليل على الترجمة لخرج بأروع صورة ممكنة..
في النهاية ما أقل ما نعرف عن هذا الكون الواسع الذي هو في حد ذاته معجزة! وما أقل ما نعرف عما يجري من حولنا وأين موقعنا من كل ذلك! فسبحان الخالق العظيم..
معادلة كل العلوم:
E=mc²
الطاقة= الكتلة ×مربع سرعة الضوء
شكراً جزيلاً من الأعماق لكل أعضاء مجموعة كتابوك الذين صوتوا لهذا الكتاب لمناقشته..♥
-------------------
ملاحظة:
أنصح كل من يقرأ هذا الكتاب أن يشاهد فيلم
Interstellar
نظرية الكمية أو ميكانيكا الكم
والنظرية النسبية العامة والنسبية الخاصة لآينشتاين
وحال قرائتي لهذا الكتاب لم أعقد آمالاً عظيمة بأنني سأفهم شيئاً ولكنني فضّلت المحاولة والاستمرار فيه...
وقد هالني الأسلوب الممتع والبسيط للكتاب في تحليل نظريات مهمة جداً لم أكن أتخيل بأنني سأستطيع استيعابها يوماً!
يقول آينشتاين: "معظم الأفكار الأساسية للعلوم هي بالأساس بسيطة ويمكن شرحها بلغة يفهمها الجميع."
وقد وجدت هذه اللغة في هذا الكتاب الرائع، واكشفت عالماً آخر، عالماً متناهي الصغر، عالم الذرات ونوى الذرات والإلكترونات والنيوترونات والبروتونات والفوتونات والبوزوترونات.. عالم صغير كبير في نفس الوقت، عالم لا مرئي يشكّل ما نرى...
وقد استمتعت جداً بفصول النظرية النسبية العامة، وسرعة الضوء وفصول الكون والزمان والمكان.. فهو ككل ممتع وسلس جداً، وقد ذكّرني بكتاب عالم صوفي لجوستاين غاردر. ربما لو تم بذل جهد قليل على الترجمة لخرج بأروع صورة ممكنة..
في النهاية ما أقل ما نعرف عن هذا الكون الواسع الذي هو في حد ذاته معجزة! وما أقل ما نعرف عما يجري من حولنا وأين موقعنا من كل ذلك! فسبحان الخالق العظيم..
معادلة كل العلوم:
E=mc²
الطاقة= الكتلة ×مربع سرعة الضوء
شكراً جزيلاً من الأعماق لكل أعضاء مجموعة كتابوك الذين صوتوا لهذا الكتاب لمناقشته..♥
-------------------
ملاحظة:
أنصح كل من يقرأ هذا الكتاب أن يشاهد فيلم
Interstellar
October 14, 2022
Inspired by A.Einstein's postulate "Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone", the author sets out to explain quantum theory. Quantum theory cannot hurt but it can and does bewilder. At the middle of the book, when things get complicated enough, the author quotes Richard Feynman: "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." Nonetheless, even though it is hard to get a crystal clear picture of quantum theory from this book, it opens a fascinating window into a bewildering and enchanting world of modern physics - a window that you will never wish to shut.
June 16, 2014
Once or twice a year, I'll read a popular science book. The last two or three have been on quantum theory--I'm DETERMINED to get this straight in my head. "Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You" is far and away the easiest to read and the book that has brought me closest to comprehension. Chown uses a lot of everyday examples as comparisons: pine trees in a forest, water boiling in a pot. The result is an interesting, informative, easy to read book that gets the information across.
This is the closest I'm come to getting a grip on quantum theory yet. If I keep reading a book or two on the subject each year, I reckon I'll have it nailed by about 2025. Then I'll move on to string theory.
Recommended.
This is the closest I'm come to getting a grip on quantum theory yet. If I keep reading a book or two on the subject each year, I reckon I'll have it nailed by about 2025. Then I'll move on to string theory.
Recommended.
August 27, 2018
Nesúrodé a blbé poznámky:
Je totiž pozoruhodnou skutečností, že 99,999999999999 procent objemu běžné hmoty je prázdný prostor.
Ha! Takže keď ma nabudúce bude nejaký koprorátny motivátor presviedčať o poloplnosti pohára, tak mu vmetiem do ksichtu, že nech sa na to pozerá ako chce, pohár je aj tak na 99,9999999999999 prázdny. A dám si záležať na tom, aby som neopomenula žiadnu z tých pätnástich deviatiek.
Když přelaďujete televizní přijímač mezi dvěma stanicami, jedno procento bílého snehu na obrazovce je tvořeno pozůstatkem velkého tresku
Ha! A že v telke nič dobré nedávajú! (Každopádne nechcem byť pri tom, keď príde pokuta za porušovanie autorských práv)
Podle speciální teorie relativity platí, že čím rychleji se pohybujete, tím více se pro vás čas spomaluje. To znamená, že pokud pracujete v přízemí kancelářského věžáku, stárnete pomaleji, než kolegové z horních pater, protože dole u země na vás působí silnější gravitace a zpomaluje váš čas
Čo na to odbory??? (Každopádne, tenot fakt budem brať do úvahy, keď sa budem najbližšie sťahovať)
K vyprodukování nesmírného množství energie, kterou Slunce vyzařuje, se musí každou vteřinu zničit čtyři miliony tun hmoty - asi milion slonů. Tady máme koněčne pravý zdroj slunečního svitu.
Čo na to Greenpeace??? (Každopádne aspoň sa ukazuje, že Pratchett mal pravdu s tým, že to všetko stojí na slonoch)
Vesmír sa nafukuje.
Čo na to PR oddelenie Espumisanu???
Udeľujem tak 3 a pol (ne)mŕtveho mačiatka.
Na jednej strane, nič čo by som ešte nečítala, na druhej strane, vďaka veľmi vydareným analógiám teraz niektoré javy chápem lepšie, na tretej strane mi veľmi chýbali obrázky, ktoré by vysvetľovené nejak dokreslili, takto som si to musela predstavovať celé sama a ako sa poznám určite zle.
Je totiž pozoruhodnou skutečností, že 99,999999999999 procent objemu běžné hmoty je prázdný prostor.
Ha! Takže keď ma nabudúce bude nejaký koprorátny motivátor presviedčať o poloplnosti pohára, tak mu vmetiem do ksichtu, že nech sa na to pozerá ako chce, pohár je aj tak na 99,9999999999999 prázdny. A dám si záležať na tom, aby som neopomenula žiadnu z tých pätnástich deviatiek.
Když přelaďujete televizní přijímač mezi dvěma stanicami, jedno procento bílého snehu na obrazovce je tvořeno pozůstatkem velkého tresku
Ha! A že v telke nič dobré nedávajú! (Každopádne nechcem byť pri tom, keď príde pokuta za porušovanie autorských práv)
Podle speciální teorie relativity platí, že čím rychleji se pohybujete, tím více se pro vás čas spomaluje. To znamená, že pokud pracujete v přízemí kancelářského věžáku, stárnete pomaleji, než kolegové z horních pater, protože dole u země na vás působí silnější gravitace a zpomaluje váš čas
Čo na to odbory??? (Každopádne, tenot fakt budem brať do úvahy, keď sa budem najbližšie sťahovať)
K vyprodukování nesmírného množství energie, kterou Slunce vyzařuje, se musí každou vteřinu zničit čtyři miliony tun hmoty - asi milion slonů. Tady máme koněčne pravý zdroj slunečního svitu.
Čo na to Greenpeace??? (Každopádne aspoň sa ukazuje, že Pratchett mal pravdu s tým, že to všetko stojí na slonoch)
Vesmír sa nafukuje.
Čo na to PR oddelenie Espumisanu???
Udeľujem tak 3 a pol (ne)mŕtveho mačiatka.
Na jednej strane, nič čo by som ešte nečítala, na druhej strane, vďaka veľmi vydareným analógiám teraz niektoré javy chápem lepšie, na tretej strane mi veľmi chýbali obrázky, ktoré by vysvetľovené nejak dokreslili, takto som si to musela predstavovať celé sama a ako sa poznám určite zle.
July 25, 2017
قال أينشتاين يوما "معظم الأفكار الأساسية للعلوم هي بالأساس بسيطة ويمكن شرحها بلغة يفهمها الجميع"
هذه كانت فكرة المؤلف توضيح وتبسيط أهم اكتشافين في الفيزياء الحديثة النظرية الكمية والنسبية .
الكتاب يحتاج لتركيز عالي وخيال واسع وخلفية عن الموضوع لاني فهمت الأشياء الأساسية ولكن عند الغوص في التفاصيل تاهت مني الأشياء .
هل ممكن أن يكون العلم أغرب من الخيال ؟؟نعم بالتأكيد
ثقوب سوداء والسفر عبر الزمن وأمكانية وجود جسمين في مكانين مختلفين في نفس الوقت كلها أشياء حقيقية .
المهم أن قوانين الفيزياء لم تأتي دفعة واحدة ولكنها بنيت على فرضيات صح منها القليل وأثبت خطأ أكثرها هل تتخيلون بأن الجاذبية الأرضية هي وهم من اختراع نيوتن !!!!
أما النسبية فقد أوجزها أينشتاين بقوله
"عندما يجلس رجل مع بنت جميلة ساعة تبدو الساعة وكأنها دقيقة ولكنه دعه يجلس على موقد نار لدقيقة فأنها تبدو أطول من ساعة هذه هي النسبية"
(أقرأ) كانت أول كلمة اقرأ حتى تعرف نفسك وربك كل كلمة كنت أقرئها كانت تذكرني بآية قرآنية فالعلم يقول إن الكون بدأ بالأنفجار الكبير إلا يذكرنا هذا بقوله تعالى (كانتا رتقا ففتقناهما)
وحسب قوانين الفيزياء سوف ينتهي الكون بحدث يسمى (الانكماش الكبير ) الذي ينص على أنه إذا كانت هناك مادة كافية في الكون فجاذبيته ستتوقف يوما ما وتنعكس بتمدد الكون فسينكمش ويسحق.
قال تعالى (يوم نطوي السماء كطي السجل للكتب)
القراءة تثبت الإيمان ولذلك كانت أول كلمة
هذه كانت فكرة المؤلف توضيح وتبسيط أهم اكتشافين في الفيزياء الحديثة النظرية الكمية والنسبية .
الكتاب يحتاج لتركيز عالي وخيال واسع وخلفية عن الموضوع لاني فهمت الأشياء الأساسية ولكن عند الغوص في التفاصيل تاهت مني الأشياء .
هل ممكن أن يكون العلم أغرب من الخيال ؟؟نعم بالتأكيد
ثقوب سوداء والسفر عبر الزمن وأمكانية وجود جسمين في مكانين مختلفين في نفس الوقت كلها أشياء حقيقية .
المهم أن قوانين الفيزياء لم تأتي دفعة واحدة ولكنها بنيت على فرضيات صح منها القليل وأثبت خطأ أكثرها هل تتخيلون بأن الجاذبية الأرضية هي وهم من اختراع نيوتن !!!!
أما النسبية فقد أوجزها أينشتاين بقوله
"عندما يجلس رجل مع بنت جميلة ساعة تبدو الساعة وكأنها دقيقة ولكنه دعه يجلس على موقد نار لدقيقة فأنها تبدو أطول من ساعة هذه هي النسبية"
(أقرأ) كانت أول كلمة اقرأ حتى تعرف نفسك وربك كل كلمة كنت أقرئها كانت تذكرني بآية قرآنية فالعلم يقول إن الكون بدأ بالأنفجار الكبير إلا يذكرنا هذا بقوله تعالى (كانتا رتقا ففتقناهما)
وحسب قوانين الفيزياء سوف ينتهي الكون بحدث يسمى (الانكماش الكبير ) الذي ينص على أنه إذا كانت هناك مادة كافية في الكون فجاذبيته ستتوقف يوما ما وتنعكس بتمدد الكون فسينكمش ويسحق.
قال تعالى (يوم نطوي السماء كطي السجل للكتب)
القراءة تثبت الإيمان ولذلك كانت أول كلمة
March 13, 2014
خمسة نجوم للكتاب وصفر للترجمة
المحصلة نجمتان ونصف... ساجبرها للثلاث نجمات
المحتوى اكثر من رائع لكن الترجمة سيئة جداً
لولا ان لدي خلفية مسبقة عن القضايا الفيزيائية المعروض لها في الكتاب لما فهمت شيئاً
النتيجة التي توصلت لها هي ان من السيء جداً ترجمة العلوم والفلسفة بين اللغات. هذه الاشياء تحتاج الى "اعادة كتابة"
المحصلة نجمتان ونصف... ساجبرها للثلاث نجمات
المحتوى اكثر من رائع لكن الترجمة سيئة جداً
لولا ان لدي خلفية مسبقة عن القضايا الفيزيائية المعروض لها في الكتاب لما فهمت شيئاً
النتيجة التي توصلت لها هي ان من السيء جداً ترجمة العلوم والفلسفة بين اللغات. هذه الاشياء تحتاج الى "اعادة كتابة"
July 2, 2018
Jestli jste se ztratili ve Stručné historii času od Hawkinga, Chown vám v podstatě vše přechroustá o fous srozumitelněji.
Furt je to ale kvantová fyzika a i když vás nezabije, stále je to takovej mentální gangbang.
Furt je to ale kvantová fyzika a i když vás nezabije, stále je to takovej mentální gangbang.
January 25, 2012
Apparently Richard Feynman (a noted physicist who received a Nobel Prize) said: "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." I quote that because, even after listening to this book, I don’t fully understand all the principles and theories. This was another audiobook, picked with the intention of trying to get a better understanding of a complex topic.
It succeeded in as much as I know more about the subject than I did before I listened to the book, but the quote from Feynman does at least provide me with some comfort. Mind you, I learnt enough to understand why the recent discovery of neutrinos that appear to have travelled faster than light has grabbed so many headlines, and what it could mean for quantum theory. So maybe nobody understands the laws of quantum physics (or, more likely, an explanation for how these particles got to their destination quicker than expected will be found).
Anyway, the book covers many of the facets of quantum theory, and if I had a penny for every time Einstein is mentioned, I'd be rich. Amongst the subjects covered are special and general relativity, probability waves, quantum entanglement, gravity, and the Big Bang.
To put those into perspective, the book covers how stars manufacture the various elements we find in the universe, how there is so much space in each atom that, if you could remove it, the entire Earth would compress to the size of a sugar cube. It talks about quantum computing, how time and space, things we think of as constant, compress and expand, and how gravity doesn’t exist (at least, not in the way you think). Also mentioned are that all energy has weight, even light, so a warm cup of coffee actually weighs more than a cold one.
It's a fascinating, if somewhat mind-bending subject and the book does a pretty good job or navigating your way through it, while avoiding equations in favour of real-world examples. Certainly worth a go.
It succeeded in as much as I know more about the subject than I did before I listened to the book, but the quote from Feynman does at least provide me with some comfort. Mind you, I learnt enough to understand why the recent discovery of neutrinos that appear to have travelled faster than light has grabbed so many headlines, and what it could mean for quantum theory. So maybe nobody understands the laws of quantum physics (or, more likely, an explanation for how these particles got to their destination quicker than expected will be found).
Anyway, the book covers many of the facets of quantum theory, and if I had a penny for every time Einstein is mentioned, I'd be rich. Amongst the subjects covered are special and general relativity, probability waves, quantum entanglement, gravity, and the Big Bang.
To put those into perspective, the book covers how stars manufacture the various elements we find in the universe, how there is so much space in each atom that, if you could remove it, the entire Earth would compress to the size of a sugar cube. It talks about quantum computing, how time and space, things we think of as constant, compress and expand, and how gravity doesn’t exist (at least, not in the way you think). Also mentioned are that all energy has weight, even light, so a warm cup of coffee actually weighs more than a cold one.
It's a fascinating, if somewhat mind-bending subject and the book does a pretty good job or navigating your way through it, while avoiding equations in favour of real-world examples. Certainly worth a go.
November 12, 2017
As the tittle says quantum theory can be explained in a way that can be understand by everyone. It is book for people who do not deal with quantum mechanics every day, and for those who try to do so. Of course it is not a book to explain you how to deal with wave functions but it explains the idea of quantum physics. Anyway it is great book to begin your jurney through quantum mysteries.
January 23, 2016
To se tak najednou stalo, že jsem se začala zajímat o kvantovou teorii. Musím ovšem podotknout, že já jsem na fyziku úplně tupá, jak si stihla povšimnout i má středoškolská učitelka Schneiderová, z jejíchž výkladů jsem pochopila leda nakloněnou rovinu, po které jsem se zase hodně rychle svezla dolů.
Proto je Chownova kniha takové malé kvantum zázraku. A to doslova. I úplnému paku musí být po přečtení jasnější, co si má zhruba pod kvantvou teorií představit a proč se stala teorie relativity takovým průlomem. Uznávám, byly pasáže, které jsem si musela přečíst vícekrát. Někdy jsem v těch kvarcích, parcích a škvarcích měla zmetek, ale jak autor provádí čtenáře dál a dál textem, neustále se vrací ke svým výrokům, takže se látka stále více propojuje a propojuje, až začnete mít v jednu chvíli neoprávněný pocit, že tomu přeci jen trochu rozumíte a to především díky neotřelému způsobu výkladu.
Tohle je kniha, ve které se nevyplatí přeskakovat, ale určitě jedna z těch knih, ke kterým se dá vracet.
A zde je seznam termínů, kterým konečně rozumím:
— boson, spin, černá díra, dekohorence, fermion, Heisenbergův princip neurčitosti, Chandrasekharova mez, superpozice, kvazar, Lorentzova kontrakce, OTR, reliktní záření, singularita, STR, stáčení perihelia Merkuru, tachyon, a tak dále a tak dále. No hotový malý fyzik!
Proto je Chownova kniha takové malé kvantum zázraku. A to doslova. I úplnému paku musí být po přečtení jasnější, co si má zhruba pod kvantvou teorií představit a proč se stala teorie relativity takovým průlomem. Uznávám, byly pasáže, které jsem si musela přečíst vícekrát. Někdy jsem v těch kvarcích, parcích a škvarcích měla zmetek, ale jak autor provádí čtenáře dál a dál textem, neustále se vrací ke svým výrokům, takže se látka stále více propojuje a propojuje, až začnete mít v jednu chvíli neoprávněný pocit, že tomu přeci jen trochu rozumíte a to především díky neotřelému způsobu výkladu.
Tohle je kniha, ve které se nevyplatí přeskakovat, ale určitě jedna z těch knih, ke kterým se dá vracet.
A zde je seznam termínů, kterým konečně rozumím:
— boson, spin, černá díra, dekohorence, fermion, Heisenbergův princip neurčitosti, Chandrasekharova mez, superpozice, kvazar, Lorentzova kontrakce, OTR, reliktní záření, singularita, STR, stáčení perihelia Merkuru, tachyon, a tak dále a tak dále. No hotový malý fyzik!
October 28, 2018
Tak dobrá zpráva je, že kvantová teorie mě skutečně nejen nezabila, dokonce mi (až na mírné bolení hlavy) ani nezpůsobila žádné vážnější zranění.
A přestože nemůžu říct, že to všechno ze 100% chápu, řadu věcí jsem si tu ujasnil. Pro nás "nefyziky" jsou takovéhle knihy dar z nebes, na odbornou studii bych jen zmateně hleděl a tohle byla vlastně docela zábava. Do větší hloubky se nechystám, to, co jsem se dozvěděl, určitě využiji při další scifi, případně když budu chtít udělat dojem na nějakou slečnu a víc asi nepotřebuji.
"Čas je to, co ukazují hodiny."
Albert Einstein
No není to super?
A přestože nemůžu říct, že to všechno ze 100% chápu, řadu věcí jsem si tu ujasnil. Pro nás "nefyziky" jsou takovéhle knihy dar z nebes, na odbornou studii bych jen zmateně hleděl a tohle byla vlastně docela zábava. Do větší hloubky se nechystám, to, co jsem se dozvěděl, určitě využiji při další scifi, případně když budu chtít udělat dojem na nějakou slečnu a víc asi nepotřebuji.
"Čas je to, co ukazují hodiny."
Albert Einstein
No není to super?
March 9, 2025
Fascinating read. Do physicists make up weird stuff to explain other weird stuff that they don’t understand so that they can then pretend they understand all of it?
May 17, 2016
نظرية الكم لا يمكن أن تؤذيك – ماركس تشاون
ماركوس تشاون هو مستشار فلكي بريطاني من مواليد عام 1959 وقد اشتهر بكتبه في تبسيط العلوم الفلكية.. وكان كتابه هذا من أكثر الكتب مبيعاً حين نشر لأول مرة عام 2005.
من اسم الكتاب يتضح لنا أنه يحاول شرح نظرية الكم. لكنه في واقع الحال ينقسم إلى قسمين؛ الأول يشرح نظرية الكم، والثاني يشرح نسبية أينشتاين. البديهي لنا أن نتفهم سبب تقسيم الكتاب بهذه الطريقة من خلال أهمية هاتين النظريتين إلى العلوم فهما بحق يشكلان ثورة حقيقية في عالم الفيزياء وغيرا نظرتنا إلى الكون تماماً. وقد كان أسلوبه سقراطياً في طرح الأسئلة أولاً.. ثم الخوض فيما يمكننا أن نسميه بالنقاش الذاتي إلى أن يوصلك إلى الجواب.
من المعروف أن نظرية الكم.. تمثل معرفتنا لعالم الجسيمات المجهري.. بينما تنظم النسبية معرفتنا لعالم الأجرام السماوي الضخمة.. وهما تتناقضان بشكل تام لدرجة تنفي الواحدة الأخرى. فما ينطبق في عالم الجسيمات لا ينعكس على عالم الأجرام السماوي الضخمة.. والعكس كذلك صحيح.
ولنبدأ أولاً مع الكم ومبدأ الريبة. إن مبدأ الريبة ينص على أنه لا يمكن التيقن من موقع الجسيم وسرعته في آن واحد. فإذا تيقنّا من مكان الجسيم.. فإنه يستحيل التيقن من سرعته.. وإذا تيقنّا من سرعته فيستحيل علينا معرفة مكانه على وجه التحديد. ومما يزيد إثارة نظرية الكم.. هو حقيقة تطابق الإلكترونات مع بعضها البعض واستحالة تمييزها عن بعضها.. ممكن يجعل بعض الظواهر المثيرة ممكنة. كأن يتواجد الإلكترون في مكانين مختلفين في آن واحد.. بل ويقوم بأفعال مختلفة في ذات الوقت. ويفسر هذا السلوك العجيب.. الكثير من الظواهر الطبيعية.. وأهمها تلك العشوائية التي تبدو على سلوك الجسيمات وعدم إمكانية توقعها. إن الأشياء تبدو وكأنها تحدث دونما سبب على الإطلاق في عالم الجسيمات. وهذا يتعارض تماماً مع مبدأ السببية الذي ضل سائداً ويقود الإنسان في طريق المعرفة في معظم تاريخ البشرية.
لقد قلبت النسبية مفهومنا عن الجاذبية بشكل تام. فحسبما تقول النسبية.. إن الجاذبية شيء غير موجود.. بينما يمكننا تفسير السلوك الذي كنا ندعوه بالجاذبية بالقصور الذاتي والسقوط الحر. فالطريق الأقصر بين نقطتين هو المستقيم.. لكن ذلك يكون فقط على السطح المستوي.. أما مع السطح المنحني فيكون الخط المنحني هو كذلك الطريق الأقصر بين نقطتين. وتقول النسبية أيضاً بأنه كلما كان حجم الجرم السماوي أكبر.. كان مسؤولاً عن إحداث تشوه لبعد الزمان – المكان من حوله.. مما يضطر الضوء لسلوك الطريق الأقصر وهو المنحني بطبيعة الحال.
ومن أهم الإكتشافات في علم الفلك الحديث كان اكتشاف هابل لحقيقة تمدد الكون، مما أمكن افتراض أن الكون كان يوماً ما أصغر ثم تمدد.. ومن البديهي هنا أن نفترض إذن أن للكون بداية ما.. على عكس الاعتقاد السائد سابقاً بأبدية الكون. ومن أشهر النظريات وأكثرها ترجيحاً هي نظرية الإنفجار العظيم والتي يحدث أنها تنسجم مع النسبية في وجود نقطة الإنفرادية وهي النقطة التي بدأ منها الإنفجار العظيم والذي بدأ من خلالها الكون والزمان والمكان كما نعرفهم اليوم.
حتى اليوم، لم يتمكن العلماء من التوفيق بين النسبية والكم. وهناك بعض النظريات الواعدة بهذا الخصوص وقد طرح بعضها ستيفين هوكينغ الفزيائي الشهير.
باختصار، إن هذا الكتاب قد لا يكون أفضل كتاب عن نظرية الكم. لكنه يقدم للقاريء نظرة جيدة ومختصرة إليها.
ماركوس تشاون هو مستشار فلكي بريطاني من مواليد عام 1959 وقد اشتهر بكتبه في تبسيط العلوم الفلكية.. وكان كتابه هذا من أكثر الكتب مبيعاً حين نشر لأول مرة عام 2005.
من اسم الكتاب يتضح لنا أنه يحاول شرح نظرية الكم. لكنه في واقع الحال ينقسم إلى قسمين؛ الأول يشرح نظرية الكم، والثاني يشرح نسبية أينشتاين. البديهي لنا أن نتفهم سبب تقسيم الكتاب بهذه الطريقة من خلال أهمية هاتين النظريتين إلى العلوم فهما بحق يشكلان ثورة حقيقية في عالم الفيزياء وغيرا نظرتنا إلى الكون تماماً. وقد كان أسلوبه سقراطياً في طرح الأسئلة أولاً.. ثم الخوض فيما يمكننا أن نسميه بالنقاش الذاتي إلى أن يوصلك إلى الجواب.
من المعروف أن نظرية الكم.. تمثل معرفتنا لعالم الجسيمات المجهري.. بينما تنظم النسبية معرفتنا لعالم الأجرام السماوي الضخمة.. وهما تتناقضان بشكل تام لدرجة تنفي الواحدة الأخرى. فما ينطبق في عالم الجسيمات لا ينعكس على عالم الأجرام السماوي الضخمة.. والعكس كذلك صحيح.
ولنبدأ أولاً مع الكم ومبدأ الريبة. إن مبدأ الريبة ينص على أنه لا يمكن التيقن من موقع الجسيم وسرعته في آن واحد. فإذا تيقنّا من مكان الجسيم.. فإنه يستحيل التيقن من سرعته.. وإذا تيقنّا من سرعته فيستحيل علينا معرفة مكانه على وجه التحديد. ومما يزيد إثارة نظرية الكم.. هو حقيقة تطابق الإلكترونات مع بعضها البعض واستحالة تمييزها عن بعضها.. ممكن يجعل بعض الظواهر المثيرة ممكنة. كأن يتواجد الإلكترون في مكانين مختلفين في آن واحد.. بل ويقوم بأفعال مختلفة في ذات الوقت. ويفسر هذا السلوك العجيب.. الكثير من الظواهر الطبيعية.. وأهمها تلك العشوائية التي تبدو على سلوك الجسيمات وعدم إمكانية توقعها. إن الأشياء تبدو وكأنها تحدث دونما سبب على الإطلاق في عالم الجسيمات. وهذا يتعارض تماماً مع مبدأ السببية الذي ضل سائداً ويقود الإنسان في طريق المعرفة في معظم تاريخ البشرية.
لقد قلبت النسبية مفهومنا عن الجاذبية بشكل تام. فحسبما تقول النسبية.. إن الجاذبية شيء غير موجود.. بينما يمكننا تفسير السلوك الذي كنا ندعوه بالجاذبية بالقصور الذاتي والسقوط الحر. فالطريق الأقصر بين نقطتين هو المستقيم.. لكن ذلك يكون فقط على السطح المستوي.. أما مع السطح المنحني فيكون الخط المنحني هو كذلك الطريق الأقصر بين نقطتين. وتقول النسبية أيضاً بأنه كلما كان حجم الجرم السماوي أكبر.. كان مسؤولاً عن إحداث تشوه لبعد الزمان – المكان من حوله.. مما يضطر الضوء لسلوك الطريق الأقصر وهو المنحني بطبيعة الحال.
ومن أهم الإكتشافات في علم الفلك الحديث كان اكتشاف هابل لحقيقة تمدد الكون، مما أمكن افتراض أن الكون كان يوماً ما أصغر ثم تمدد.. ومن البديهي هنا أن نفترض إذن أن للكون بداية ما.. على عكس الاعتقاد السائد سابقاً بأبدية الكون. ومن أشهر النظريات وأكثرها ترجيحاً هي نظرية الإنفجار العظيم والتي يحدث أنها تنسجم مع النسبية في وجود نقطة الإنفرادية وهي النقطة التي بدأ منها الإنفجار العظيم والذي بدأ من خلالها الكون والزمان والمكان كما نعرفهم اليوم.
حتى اليوم، لم يتمكن العلماء من التوفيق بين النسبية والكم. وهناك بعض النظريات الواعدة بهذا الخصوص وقد طرح بعضها ستيفين هوكينغ الفزيائي الشهير.
باختصار، إن هذا الكتاب قد لا يكون أفضل كتاب عن نظرية الكم. لكنه يقدم للقاريء نظرة جيدة ومختصرة إليها.
January 31, 2012
Pane Chown, smekám. A jedním dechem dodávám "kdyby každý středoškolský fyzikář dokázal vykládat věci tak jako vy".
Téhle knize se daří neuvěřitelné, snadno a jednoduše vysvětlit takové věci jako kvantová teorie nebo obecná a speciální teorie relativity. Bez matiky, bez vzorečků. S humornou analogií. A nejen že se to autorovi daří, on to navíc zvládne vše na nějákých 200 stranách. Neuvěřitelné, obdivuhodné.
Knize ke cti neslouží docela slušné množství hrubek a chyb v interpunkci. V beletrii by to prošlo snáz, ale chybějící čárka měnící význam v souvětí v knize vysvětlující fyziku? Navíc mám neblahé tušení, že místy je překlad "volný" a nepřesný a vzniká opět netolerovatelná chyba pro naučnou knihu.
Po tomto kousku jsem si na to-read polici zařadil i zbylé kousky od Chowna, už jen ze zvědavosti, co všechno ještě zvládně bryskně vysvětlit.
Téhle knize se daří neuvěřitelné, snadno a jednoduše vysvětlit takové věci jako kvantová teorie nebo obecná a speciální teorie relativity. Bez matiky, bez vzorečků. S humornou analogií. A nejen že se to autorovi daří, on to navíc zvládne vše na nějákých 200 stranách. Neuvěřitelné, obdivuhodné.
Knize ke cti neslouží docela slušné množství hrubek a chyb v interpunkci. V beletrii by to prošlo snáz, ale chybějící čárka měnící význam v souvětí v knize vysvětlující fyziku? Navíc mám neblahé tušení, že místy je překlad "volný" a nepřesný a vzniká opět netolerovatelná chyba pro naučnou knihu.
Po tomto kousku jsem si na to-read polici zařadil i zbylé kousky od Chowna, už jen ze zvědavosti, co všechno ještě zvládně bryskně vysvětlit.
February 18, 2011
الكتاب لغير المتخصصين في الفيزياء!
بطريقة أقرب إلى ما تكون مبسطة يوصل الكاتب أهم انجازين في القرن المنصرم للقاريء
النظرية النسبية ونظرية الكم
يذكر الكاتب مصطلحات ظريفة وأمثلة غريبة تحمس القاريء لمعرفة المزيد
انصح بقرائته لغير الفيزيائين، للمعرفة العامة
وللفيزيائين كمساعدة لتفهيمنا كيف نوصل المعلومات لغيرنا
بطريقة أقرب إلى ما تكون مبسطة يوصل الكاتب أهم انجازين في القرن المنصرم للقاريء
النظرية النسبية ونظرية الكم
يذكر الكاتب مصطلحات ظريفة وأمثلة غريبة تحمس القاريء لمعرفة المزيد
انصح بقرائته لغير الفيزيائين، للمعرفة العامة
وللفيزيائين كمساعدة لتفهيمنا كيف نوصل المعلومات لغيرنا
Read
June 3, 2016سأؤجل تقييمه لحين إعادة قرائته بروية، لست قارئة فيزيائية ، لكن الكتاب غني وملفت .
April 22, 2025
rest in peace Albert Einstein, you would’ve fucking hated Stephen Hawking
August 7, 2016
Contrary to what the title of this book suggests, Quantum Theory does hurt me, in many many ways. For a starter, it has taken my night's sleep. Like a defeatist I am running around the trees to get the grasp of it. But in vain. The moment I see a light at the end of the tunnel, I realize that is just a firefly. And instead of grasping the depth, I just gasp for breath. May be I am too dumb to gulp it all, but I won't stop trying till it makes all sense.
Now, coming to this book, in the beginning the author asks the readers which of the following statements might be true,
--- Every breath you take contains an atom breathed out by Marilyn Monroe
--- There is a liquid that can run uphill
--- You age faster at the top of a building than at the bottom
--- An atom can be in many different places at once, the equivalent of you being in Newyork and London at the same time.
--- The entire human race would fit in the volume of a sugar cube.
--- One percent of the static on a television tuned between stations is the relic of the big bang.
--- Time travel is not forbidden by the laws of Physics.
--- A cup of coffee weighs more when it is hot than when it is cold.
--- The faster you travel, the slimmer you get.
...and tells, with a chuckle, that everything is.
The rest of the book goes on explaining these weird phenomena of Science, that is definitely more stranger than all the science fictions I have come across so far (I have read all Michael Crichtons and couple of Arthur C Clarkes) with the help of Quantum Theory ( microscopic world) and the Relativity Theories( macroscopic world).
The language of the book is fiction-like. And the author does a pretty good job at enthusing his non-scientific readers towards the mindboggling discoveries of twentieth century. However, the book is not for the beginners who do not have a clue about what modern physics is all about. (For beginners I highly recommend 'The Dancing Wu Li Masters'.) Neither it is for physics researchers who want to understand reality via mathematics. This book is best suited for people who wants to get awed by how our modern science has shaped human understanding of the universe and everything in it.
I don't think this book has helped me coming out of my confusions, but it has nevertheless entertained me in a Quantum way.
In the end, the author propounds a thought that could there be a single theory combining these two - like Quantum Relativity( quantum gravity). A thing to ponder about.
One question is troubling me of late, after reading so much on Quantum Mechanics and Relativity - Can a reductionist explanation be sufficient to explicate the holistic complexity?
Now, coming to this book, in the beginning the author asks the readers which of the following statements might be true,
--- Every breath you take contains an atom breathed out by Marilyn Monroe
--- There is a liquid that can run uphill
--- You age faster at the top of a building than at the bottom
--- An atom can be in many different places at once, the equivalent of you being in Newyork and London at the same time.
--- The entire human race would fit in the volume of a sugar cube.
--- One percent of the static on a television tuned between stations is the relic of the big bang.
--- Time travel is not forbidden by the laws of Physics.
--- A cup of coffee weighs more when it is hot than when it is cold.
--- The faster you travel, the slimmer you get.
...and tells, with a chuckle, that everything is.
The rest of the book goes on explaining these weird phenomena of Science, that is definitely more stranger than all the science fictions I have come across so far (I have read all Michael Crichtons and couple of Arthur C Clarkes) with the help of Quantum Theory ( microscopic world) and the Relativity Theories( macroscopic world).
The language of the book is fiction-like. And the author does a pretty good job at enthusing his non-scientific readers towards the mindboggling discoveries of twentieth century. However, the book is not for the beginners who do not have a clue about what modern physics is all about. (For beginners I highly recommend 'The Dancing Wu Li Masters'.) Neither it is for physics researchers who want to understand reality via mathematics. This book is best suited for people who wants to get awed by how our modern science has shaped human understanding of the universe and everything in it.
I don't think this book has helped me coming out of my confusions, but it has nevertheless entertained me in a Quantum way.
In the end, the author propounds a thought that could there be a single theory combining these two - like Quantum Relativity( quantum gravity). A thing to ponder about.
One question is troubling me of late, after reading so much on Quantum Mechanics and Relativity - Can a reductionist explanation be sufficient to explicate the holistic complexity?
January 6, 2020
I never truly understood Quantum Mechanics in college. We had the course over two semesters and, sure, I did alright, passed the course, did my best at memorizing all the wave functions and bra-ket notations and wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff... But I kept asking myself "why" these phenomena happened, which kept leading me into a rabbit hole of information that not even all physicists truly understand. Unlike classical physics, there's no real "why" to talk of, things are just weird at the quantum level. So you either go all in with the madness and start studying advanced mathematics or you get out while you still have your wits. So I got my B+, thanked the professor and got the hell outta there. :)
Years later, having finished college and dropped out of a master's, I was left with the impression that Quantum Theory is a messy web of math and physics and unintuitive results. And, boy, after this book refreshed my memory, I was completely right. It's a great choice for the layman who wants to understand the important theories and experiments in quantum physics and relativity, without getting their hands dirty with Hilbert spaces and Hamiltonians. It's fun and light and explains all the good stuff, like how entanglement and special relativity work. You'll scratch your head reading all these space oddities and don't worry if you don't understand it fully, just enjoy the ride and cash-out early. I give it a B+
Years later, having finished college and dropped out of a master's, I was left with the impression that Quantum Theory is a messy web of math and physics and unintuitive results. And, boy, after this book refreshed my memory, I was completely right. It's a great choice for the layman who wants to understand the important theories and experiments in quantum physics and relativity, without getting their hands dirty with Hilbert spaces and Hamiltonians. It's fun and light and explains all the good stuff, like how entanglement and special relativity work. You'll scratch your head reading all these space oddities and don't worry if you don't understand it fully, just enjoy the ride and cash-out early. I give it a B+
November 17, 2017
I read this book for the letter Q in my alphabet yearly challenge. It is not a book that I would have ordinarily have picked up but finding a book beginning with Q isn't that easy and then when this came up as a Kindle daily deal, I thought what the hell!
I am a complete layman when it comes to this subject. I do however love learning new things and things like this do fascinate me - I love all the programs on TV that Prof. Brian Cox does.
This book is quite a short, just 200 pages, so it is very concise considering the topic that is being explained. The book started off really well and I was understanding what was being said but then when alternate universes, time travel and time in general was discussed, I started to lose my understanding somewhat and just grasping the odd bit here and there.
The author was very good at explaining a complex subject in a simple way but some of the concepts are still a little way out there me to understand. A lot of analogies are used to help you understand different phenomenon and theories which I found quite helpful.
Perhaps if I read it again, more of it would sink in but unlike what the title of the book claims, this did hurt my head so I don't think I will revisit it anytime soon!
I am a complete layman when it comes to this subject. I do however love learning new things and things like this do fascinate me - I love all the programs on TV that Prof. Brian Cox does.
This book is quite a short, just 200 pages, so it is very concise considering the topic that is being explained. The book started off really well and I was understanding what was being said but then when alternate universes, time travel and time in general was discussed, I started to lose my understanding somewhat and just grasping the odd bit here and there.
The author was very good at explaining a complex subject in a simple way but some of the concepts are still a little way out there me to understand. A lot of analogies are used to help you understand different phenomenon and theories which I found quite helpful.
Perhaps if I read it again, more of it would sink in but unlike what the title of the book claims, this did hurt my head so I don't think I will revisit it anytime soon!
September 2, 2020
Velmi dobrá knížka, která mi zhruba objasnila kvantovou teorii nebo teorii relativity, pojmy jako bílý trpaslík nebo kvazar. Ocenila jsem hlavně slovníček na konci, protože člověk si po jednom přečtení knihy nemůže všechno zapamatovat, slovníček mu ale případně osvěží paměť.
May 2, 2016
ترجمة جدا سيئة ، أفسدت الكتاب ولخبطت المعلومات
August 21, 2016
Kvantová teorie ve stravitelné podobě i pro fyzikální mimoně mého kalibru? ANO, existuje to.
May 25, 2019
Aussie Readers 2019 Mother's Day Reading Challenge: Bunch of Orange Gebera (Read a book with an orange cover)
I found this book in a kid's box at a second hand book sale and boy was it in the wrong place - a case of you can't judge a book by its cover as all those bright colours and cartoony images obviously gave someone the wrong impression.
I really enjoyed this book - it was engaging and we connected from the start. Then in the middle we had some relationship issues where the writing got a little bland and I found myself clock watching and we grew apart. Thankfully, this was only a slight bump in our relationship and we reconnected for the final 3-4 chapters with a BANG (Best chapters of the book I think).
The title is not particularly representative as it really is more a contrast of the big and the small applications of quantum physics and a large number of pages were taken up with a glossary (was that really needed?).
Overall this was a (surprisingly) engaging read and I found a few of the analogies he used to explain concepts that were really good and that I will definitely apply. Most books on the topic of quantum either are too superficial or are textbooks. This book hit the spot quite nicely with a bit of depth that is usually lacking. While this is not really geared toward the novice, it is also not geared to the expert either - a nice in between read. Overall this was an engaging, not too difficult read of an absolutely fascinating area of physics.
I found this book in a kid's box at a second hand book sale and boy was it in the wrong place - a case of you can't judge a book by its cover as all those bright colours and cartoony images obviously gave someone the wrong impression.
I really enjoyed this book - it was engaging and we connected from the start. Then in the middle we had some relationship issues where the writing got a little bland and I found myself clock watching and we grew apart. Thankfully, this was only a slight bump in our relationship and we reconnected for the final 3-4 chapters with a BANG (Best chapters of the book I think).
The title is not particularly representative as it really is more a contrast of the big and the small applications of quantum physics and a large number of pages were taken up with a glossary (was that really needed?).
Overall this was a (surprisingly) engaging read and I found a few of the analogies he used to explain concepts that were really good and that I will definitely apply. Most books on the topic of quantum either are too superficial or are textbooks. This book hit the spot quite nicely with a bit of depth that is usually lacking. While this is not really geared toward the novice, it is also not geared to the expert either - a nice in between read. Overall this was an engaging, not too difficult read of an absolutely fascinating area of physics.
September 4, 2024
Sad to notice that everything (or most of the things) we were taught at early ages is an oversimplification (lie). The book's theme starts with microscopic scale (quantum) and transitions into macroscopic scale (universe baby). It is nice to see how different rules govern between these two scales and how a (meaningful) connection between them is yet to be made. There are many assumptions and thought experiments in the book which can be hard for the reader to grasp. The book definitely does not intend to teach theories in details, at best it can be used as a guide book to pickup subjects that the reader finds interest in.
January 6, 2023
Not too sure what I read, although I did understand 99% of the words. I think that maybe I need to read it again at some point.
Read
November 16, 2024Çok daha anlaşılabilir. Ama not tutmam gerekiyor. Bilim zart zurt kitaplarında hatırlamam gereken şeyler olduğu zaman; ne tam olarak metni hatırlıyorum, ne de hangi sayfalarda yazdığını.
December 11, 2019
Ok, I’m not saying I don’t believe it, I’m just saying if all this turns out to be complete rubbish and/or a hoax, I saw it coming.
But really, a pretty good rundown in simple English of the basics of all that Weird Physics that’s not really possible to comprehend with a human brain
But really, a pretty good rundown in simple English of the basics of all that Weird Physics that’s not really possible to comprehend with a human brain
July 8, 2026
Schrödinger's Cat: 😐😐😐😐😒😒😒😒
Still Water:
"But watching jittery pollen grains - the effect of atoms - was not the same as actually seeing atoms. This had to wait until 1980 and the invention of a remarkable device called the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM).
The idea behind the STM, as it became known, was very simple. A blind person can "see" someone's face simply by running a finger over it and building up a picture in their mind. The STM works in a similar way. The difference is that the "finger" is a finger of metal , a tiny stylus reminiscent of an old-fashioned gramophone needle. By dragging the needle across the surface of a material and feeding its up-and-down motion into a computer, it is possible to build up a detailed picture of the undulations of the atomic terrain.
Of course, there is no way a needle can actually feel a surface like a human finger can. However, if the needle is charged with electricity and placed extremely close to a conducting surface, a miniscule but measurable electric current leaps the gap between the tip of the needle and the surface. It is known as a "tunnelling current", and it has a crucial property that can be exploited: the size of the current is extraordinarily sensitive to the width of the gap. If the needle is moved even a shade closer to the surface, the current grows very rapidly; if it is pulled away a fraction, the current plummets. The size of the tunnelling current therefore reveals the distance between the needle tip and the surface. It gives the needle an artificial sense of touch."
"It's fair to say that the discovery that light comes in discrete chunks, or quanta, was the single most shocking discovery int eh history of science....
Only by imagining light as a stream of tiny particles could Einstein explain the photoelectric effect. When you walk into a supermarket and the doors open for you automatically, they are being controlled by the photoelectric effect. Certain metals, when exposed to light, eject particles of electricity - electrons When incorporated into a photocell, such a metal generates a small electric current as long as a light beam is falling on it. A shopper who breaks the beam chokes off the current, signalling the supermarket doors to swish aside"
"Light really is both a particle and a wave. Or, more correctly, light is "something else" for which there is no word in our everyday language and nothing to compare it with in the everyday world. Like a coin with two faces, all we can see are its particle-like face and its wave-like face. What light actually is is as unknowable as the colour blue is to a blind person."
"In the microscopic domain, (unlike in classical physics used in the macroscopic world), identical things do not behave in identical ways in identical circumstances. Instead, they merely have an identical chance of behaving in any particular way. Each individual photon arriving a the window has exactly the same chance of being transmitted, and the same chance of being reflected. There is absolutely no way to know for certain what will happen to a give photon. Whether it is transmitted or reflected is entirely down to random chance."
"But hydrogen fusion has a problem. The force of attraction that glues together protons - the "strong nuclear force" - has an extremely short range. For two protons in the Sun to come under its influence and be snapped together, they must pass extremely close to each other. But two protons, by virtue of their similar electric charge, repel each other ferociously. To overcome this fierce repulsion, the protons must collide at enormous speed. In practice, this requires the core of the Sun, where nuclear fusion goes on, to be at an extremely high temperature.
Physicists calculated the necessary temperature in the 1920s, just as soon as it was suspected that the Sun was running on hydrogen fusion. It turned out to be roughly 10 billion degrees. This, however, posed a problem. The temperature at the heart of the Sun was known to be only about 15 million degrees - roughly a thousand times lower. By rights, the Sun would not be shining at all. Enter the German physicist Fritz Houterman and the English astronomer Robert Atkinson.
When a proton in the core of the Sun approaches another proton and is pushed back by its fierce repulsion, it is just as if it encounters a high brick wall surrounding the second proton. At the 15 million degrees temperature in the heart of the Sun, the proton would appear to be moving far too slowly to jump the wall. However, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle changes everything.
In 1929, Houtermans and Atkinson carried out the relevant calculations. They discovered that the first proton can tunnel through the apparently impenetrable barrier around the second proton and successfully fuse with it even at the ultralow temperature of 15 million degrees. What is more this explains perfectly the observed heat output of the Sun.
The night after Houtermans and Atkinson did the calculation, Houtermans reportedly tried to impress his girlfriend with a line that nobody in history had used before. As they stood beneath a perfect moonless sky, he boasted that he was the only person in the world who knew why the stars were shining."
"Say you are driving a car on a motorway and you catch up with another car travelling at 100kmph. What does the other car look like as you come abreast of it? Obviously, it appears stationary. In exactly the same way, if you could catch up with a light beam, it ought to appear stationary, like a series of ripples frozen on a pond.
However - and this is the key thing noticed by the 16-year-old Einstein - Maxwell's equations have something important to say about a frozen electromagnetic wave, one in which the electric and magnetic fields never grow or fade but remain motionless forever. No such thing exists! A stationary EM wave is an impossibility.
Einstein, with his precocious question, had put his finger on a paradox in the laws of physics. If you were able to catch up with a beam of light, you would see a stationary EM wave, which is impossible. Therefore you can never catch up with a light beam!"
"Say you are travelling towards a source of light at high speed. AT what speed does the light come towards you? Well, remember there is no experiment you can do to determine whether it is you or the light sources that is moving (recall the blacked-out train). So an equally valid point of view is to assume that you are stationary and the light source is moving towards you. But remember, the speed of light does not depend on the speed of its source. It always leaves the source at precisely 'c'. Since you are stationary, therefore, the light must arrive at precisely 'c'.
Consequently, not only is the speed of light independent of the motion of its source, it is also independent of the motion of anyone observing the light. In other words, everyone int eh Universe, no matter how fast they are moving, always measures exactly the same speed of light - c. What Einstein set out to answer in his special theory of relativity was how, in practice, everyone can end up measuring precisely the same speed for light. It turns out that there i sonly one way: if space and time are totally different from what everyone thinks they are."
"There had been a suspicion since the beginning of the 19th century that perhaps the universe had started out with only one kind of atom - the simplest, hydrogen. Since that time, all other atoms have somehow been built up from hydrogen, by the process of sticking together hydrogen Lego bricks. The evidence for the idea, which had been proposed by a London physician named William Prout in 1815, was that an atom like lithium appeared tow eight exactly six times as much as hydrogen, an atom like carbon exactly 12 times as much, and so on.
However, when Aston compared the masses of different kinds of atoms more precisely with an instrument he invented called a mass spectrograph, he discovered something different. Lithium in fact weighed a shade less than six hydrogen atoms; carbon weighed a shade less than 12 hydrogen atoms. The biggest discrepancy was helium, the second lightest atom. Since a helium nucleus was assembled from four Lego bricks, by rights it should weight four times as much as a hydrogen atom. Instead, it weighed 0.8% less than four hydrogen atoms."
"But that's what gravity is: the warpage of four-dimensional space time.
Fortunately, we can get some idea of what this means. Imagine a race of ants that spends its entire existence on the two-dimensional surface of a taut trampoline. The ants can only see what happens on the surface and have no concept whatsoever of the space above and below the trampoline - the third dimension. Now imagine that you or I - mischievous beings from the third dimension - put a cannonball on the trampoline. The ants discover that when they wander near the cannonball their paths are mysteriously bent towards it. Quite reasonably, they explain their motion by saying that the cannonball is exerting a force of attraction on them. Perhaps they even call the force gravity.
However, from the God-like vantage point of the third dimension, it is clear that ants are mistaken. There is no force attracting them to the cannonball. Instead, the cannonball has made a valleylike depression in the trampoline, and this is the reason the paths of the ants are bent towards it"
Best Quote of the Book Award 🏅
"In general relativity, no 'gravitational force' exists. What we normally associate with the force of gravity on a particle is not a force at all: The particle is simply travelling along the 'straightest' possible path in curved space-time."
Still Water:
"But watching jittery pollen grains - the effect of atoms - was not the same as actually seeing atoms. This had to wait until 1980 and the invention of a remarkable device called the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM).
The idea behind the STM, as it became known, was very simple. A blind person can "see" someone's face simply by running a finger over it and building up a picture in their mind. The STM works in a similar way. The difference is that the "finger" is a finger of metal , a tiny stylus reminiscent of an old-fashioned gramophone needle. By dragging the needle across the surface of a material and feeding its up-and-down motion into a computer, it is possible to build up a detailed picture of the undulations of the atomic terrain.
Of course, there is no way a needle can actually feel a surface like a human finger can. However, if the needle is charged with electricity and placed extremely close to a conducting surface, a miniscule but measurable electric current leaps the gap between the tip of the needle and the surface. It is known as a "tunnelling current", and it has a crucial property that can be exploited: the size of the current is extraordinarily sensitive to the width of the gap. If the needle is moved even a shade closer to the surface, the current grows very rapidly; if it is pulled away a fraction, the current plummets. The size of the tunnelling current therefore reveals the distance between the needle tip and the surface. It gives the needle an artificial sense of touch."
"It's fair to say that the discovery that light comes in discrete chunks, or quanta, was the single most shocking discovery int eh history of science....
Only by imagining light as a stream of tiny particles could Einstein explain the photoelectric effect. When you walk into a supermarket and the doors open for you automatically, they are being controlled by the photoelectric effect. Certain metals, when exposed to light, eject particles of electricity - electrons When incorporated into a photocell, such a metal generates a small electric current as long as a light beam is falling on it. A shopper who breaks the beam chokes off the current, signalling the supermarket doors to swish aside"
"Light really is both a particle and a wave. Or, more correctly, light is "something else" for which there is no word in our everyday language and nothing to compare it with in the everyday world. Like a coin with two faces, all we can see are its particle-like face and its wave-like face. What light actually is is as unknowable as the colour blue is to a blind person."
"In the microscopic domain, (unlike in classical physics used in the macroscopic world), identical things do not behave in identical ways in identical circumstances. Instead, they merely have an identical chance of behaving in any particular way. Each individual photon arriving a the window has exactly the same chance of being transmitted, and the same chance of being reflected. There is absolutely no way to know for certain what will happen to a give photon. Whether it is transmitted or reflected is entirely down to random chance."
"But hydrogen fusion has a problem. The force of attraction that glues together protons - the "strong nuclear force" - has an extremely short range. For two protons in the Sun to come under its influence and be snapped together, they must pass extremely close to each other. But two protons, by virtue of their similar electric charge, repel each other ferociously. To overcome this fierce repulsion, the protons must collide at enormous speed. In practice, this requires the core of the Sun, where nuclear fusion goes on, to be at an extremely high temperature.
Physicists calculated the necessary temperature in the 1920s, just as soon as it was suspected that the Sun was running on hydrogen fusion. It turned out to be roughly 10 billion degrees. This, however, posed a problem. The temperature at the heart of the Sun was known to be only about 15 million degrees - roughly a thousand times lower. By rights, the Sun would not be shining at all. Enter the German physicist Fritz Houterman and the English astronomer Robert Atkinson.
When a proton in the core of the Sun approaches another proton and is pushed back by its fierce repulsion, it is just as if it encounters a high brick wall surrounding the second proton. At the 15 million degrees temperature in the heart of the Sun, the proton would appear to be moving far too slowly to jump the wall. However, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle changes everything.
In 1929, Houtermans and Atkinson carried out the relevant calculations. They discovered that the first proton can tunnel through the apparently impenetrable barrier around the second proton and successfully fuse with it even at the ultralow temperature of 15 million degrees. What is more this explains perfectly the observed heat output of the Sun.
The night after Houtermans and Atkinson did the calculation, Houtermans reportedly tried to impress his girlfriend with a line that nobody in history had used before. As they stood beneath a perfect moonless sky, he boasted that he was the only person in the world who knew why the stars were shining."
"Say you are driving a car on a motorway and you catch up with another car travelling at 100kmph. What does the other car look like as you come abreast of it? Obviously, it appears stationary. In exactly the same way, if you could catch up with a light beam, it ought to appear stationary, like a series of ripples frozen on a pond.
However - and this is the key thing noticed by the 16-year-old Einstein - Maxwell's equations have something important to say about a frozen electromagnetic wave, one in which the electric and magnetic fields never grow or fade but remain motionless forever. No such thing exists! A stationary EM wave is an impossibility.
Einstein, with his precocious question, had put his finger on a paradox in the laws of physics. If you were able to catch up with a beam of light, you would see a stationary EM wave, which is impossible. Therefore you can never catch up with a light beam!"
"Say you are travelling towards a source of light at high speed. AT what speed does the light come towards you? Well, remember there is no experiment you can do to determine whether it is you or the light sources that is moving (recall the blacked-out train). So an equally valid point of view is to assume that you are stationary and the light source is moving towards you. But remember, the speed of light does not depend on the speed of its source. It always leaves the source at precisely 'c'. Since you are stationary, therefore, the light must arrive at precisely 'c'.
Consequently, not only is the speed of light independent of the motion of its source, it is also independent of the motion of anyone observing the light. In other words, everyone int eh Universe, no matter how fast they are moving, always measures exactly the same speed of light - c. What Einstein set out to answer in his special theory of relativity was how, in practice, everyone can end up measuring precisely the same speed for light. It turns out that there i sonly one way: if space and time are totally different from what everyone thinks they are."
"There had been a suspicion since the beginning of the 19th century that perhaps the universe had started out with only one kind of atom - the simplest, hydrogen. Since that time, all other atoms have somehow been built up from hydrogen, by the process of sticking together hydrogen Lego bricks. The evidence for the idea, which had been proposed by a London physician named William Prout in 1815, was that an atom like lithium appeared tow eight exactly six times as much as hydrogen, an atom like carbon exactly 12 times as much, and so on.
However, when Aston compared the masses of different kinds of atoms more precisely with an instrument he invented called a mass spectrograph, he discovered something different. Lithium in fact weighed a shade less than six hydrogen atoms; carbon weighed a shade less than 12 hydrogen atoms. The biggest discrepancy was helium, the second lightest atom. Since a helium nucleus was assembled from four Lego bricks, by rights it should weight four times as much as a hydrogen atom. Instead, it weighed 0.8% less than four hydrogen atoms."
"But that's what gravity is: the warpage of four-dimensional space time.
Fortunately, we can get some idea of what this means. Imagine a race of ants that spends its entire existence on the two-dimensional surface of a taut trampoline. The ants can only see what happens on the surface and have no concept whatsoever of the space above and below the trampoline - the third dimension. Now imagine that you or I - mischievous beings from the third dimension - put a cannonball on the trampoline. The ants discover that when they wander near the cannonball their paths are mysteriously bent towards it. Quite reasonably, they explain their motion by saying that the cannonball is exerting a force of attraction on them. Perhaps they even call the force gravity.
However, from the God-like vantage point of the third dimension, it is clear that ants are mistaken. There is no force attracting them to the cannonball. Instead, the cannonball has made a valleylike depression in the trampoline, and this is the reason the paths of the ants are bent towards it"
Best Quote of the Book Award 🏅
"In general relativity, no 'gravitational force' exists. What we normally associate with the force of gravity on a particle is not a force at all: The particle is simply travelling along the 'straightest' possible path in curved space-time."
April 5, 2016
TANRI NEDEN ZAR ATAR
ATOMLARIN DÜNYASINDA OLUP BİTENLERİN NEDENSİZ OLDUĞUNU NASIL KEŞFETTİK
Tüm insan ırkı, bir küp şekerin sahip olduğu hacme sığdırılabilir.
Zamanda yolculuk fizik kurallarına aykırı değildir.
Bir atom aynı zamanda birçok farklı yerde bulunabilir.
Bu cümlelerin bir bilimkurgu filminden alındığını düşünüyorsanız yanılıyorsunuz. Bilimin kendisi, bilimkurgudan çok daha çarpıcı bilgiler içeriyor.
Mikroskopik dünyadan zaman makinelerine, şizofren atomlardan kuantum bilgisayarlarına, kara deliklerden Evren’in ilk salisesine uzanan Marcus Chown, kullandığı basit dil ve verdiği pratik örneklerle, modern fiziğin temel fikirlerini sarmış olan sisi dağıtarak, başka bir illüzyona inanmaya gerek duymayacağımız ölçüde büyüleyici bir Evren’de bulunduğumuzu gösteriyor.
'Okuyucular harika şeyler keşfedecekler' --The Times
'Nasıl çılgın bir evrende yaşadığımızı öğrenmek isteyen herkesin mutlaka okuması gereken bir kitap' --Amazon
'Modern zamanların en büyük Entelektüel başarılarını özetliyor' --Bill Thompson - New Humanist
'Bu kitap popüler bilimin olgun edebiyat olduğunun ispatı'--Tom Chivers – The Telegraph
Zamanında bir filozof, “Aynı koşulların her zaman aynı sonuçları doğurması bilimin varoluşu için şarttır,” demişti. İyi de, öyle olmuyor ki!
Richard Feynman
New Scientist' in kozmoloji danışmanı olan Marcus Chown, kariyerine California Institute of Technology' de radyo astronom olarak başlar. Popüler bilim dalında bir çok ödüle sahip olan İngiliz yazar, ülkemizde Alfa yayınlarından çıkan ''Biraz Kuantumdan Zarar Gelmez'' kitabıyla tanınmaktadır. “The Universe Next Door”, ”Afterglow of Creation”, “The Magic Furnace” isimli bir çok kitabın yazarı olan Chown evren, kozmoloji ve kuantum gibi zor konuları geniş kitlere aktarmak gibi zor bir işi başarmıştır.
ATOMLARIN DÜNYASINDA OLUP BİTENLERİN NEDENSİZ OLDUĞUNU NASIL KEŞFETTİK
Tüm insan ırkı, bir küp şekerin sahip olduğu hacme sığdırılabilir.
Zamanda yolculuk fizik kurallarına aykırı değildir.
Bir atom aynı zamanda birçok farklı yerde bulunabilir.
Bu cümlelerin bir bilimkurgu filminden alındığını düşünüyorsanız yanılıyorsunuz. Bilimin kendisi, bilimkurgudan çok daha çarpıcı bilgiler içeriyor.
Mikroskopik dünyadan zaman makinelerine, şizofren atomlardan kuantum bilgisayarlarına, kara deliklerden Evren’in ilk salisesine uzanan Marcus Chown, kullandığı basit dil ve verdiği pratik örneklerle, modern fiziğin temel fikirlerini sarmış olan sisi dağıtarak, başka bir illüzyona inanmaya gerek duymayacağımız ölçüde büyüleyici bir Evren’de bulunduğumuzu gösteriyor.
'Okuyucular harika şeyler keşfedecekler' --The Times
'Nasıl çılgın bir evrende yaşadığımızı öğrenmek isteyen herkesin mutlaka okuması gereken bir kitap' --Amazon
'Modern zamanların en büyük Entelektüel başarılarını özetliyor' --Bill Thompson - New Humanist
'Bu kitap popüler bilimin olgun edebiyat olduğunun ispatı'--Tom Chivers – The Telegraph
Zamanında bir filozof, “Aynı koşulların her zaman aynı sonuçları doğurması bilimin varoluşu için şarttır,” demişti. İyi de, öyle olmuyor ki!
Richard Feynman
New Scientist' in kozmoloji danışmanı olan Marcus Chown, kariyerine California Institute of Technology' de radyo astronom olarak başlar. Popüler bilim dalında bir çok ödüle sahip olan İngiliz yazar, ülkemizde Alfa yayınlarından çıkan ''Biraz Kuantumdan Zarar Gelmez'' kitabıyla tanınmaktadır. “The Universe Next Door”, ”Afterglow of Creation”, “The Magic Furnace” isimli bir çok kitabın yazarı olan Chown evren, kozmoloji ve kuantum gibi zor konuları geniş kitlere aktarmak gibi zor bir işi başarmıştır.
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