Quantum fuzz : the strange true makeup of everything around us /
Michael S. Walker.
- 448 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), color map ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Planck, Einstein, Bohr - experiments and early ideas -- Heisenberg, Dirac, Schroedinger - quantum mechanics and the quantum atom -- Application -six hundred million watts! -- The essential features of quantum mechanics -- Clash of titans -what is real? uncertainty, entanglement, John Bell, and parallel worlds -- What does it all mean - quantum mechanics, mathematics, and the nature of science -- Applications - quantum computing, code cracking, teleportation, and encryption -- Galaxies, black holes, gravity waves, matter, the forces of nature, the Higgs boson, dark matter, dark energy, and string theory -- Energy, momentum, and the spatial states of the hydrogen atom -- Spin and magnetism -- Exclusion and the Periodic table -- The physics underlying the chemistry of the elements -- A few types of chemical bonds, for example -- The makeup of solid materials -- Insulators and electrical conduction in normal metals and semiconductors -- Superconductors I - definition, and applications in transportation, medicine and computing -- Fusion power - lasers and tokomaks -- Magnetism, magnets, magnetic materials and their applications -- Graphenes, carbon fibers and one "dream" application -- Semiconductors and electronic applications -- Superconductors II - large scale applications in science, power generation, and transmission.
"A lucid introduction to the basics of quantum physics for the lay reader, showing how much the scientific understanding of reality has changed in the last century and how important this science is to technology, the economy, and modern life"--