Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality? (Canto)

by Alastair I . M . Rae (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1994

  $3.27

  Albert Einstein's celebrated remark that 'God does not play dice' was his response to a set of new scientific ideas now known as quantum physics. These theories threatened the ordered determinism of the Newtonian universe, presenting the radical challenge of an unstable world disturbed by our very attempts to measure or observe it. One of the prime fascinations of quantum physics is precisely the great conceptual leap it requires us to make from our conventional ways of thinking about the physical world. It introduces instead the alarming possibilities that the observer's mind is the only reality, or that there may be parallel universes. Alternatively, its very contradictions may suggest that despite its manifest successes, quantum physics still leaves us in need of a further revolution in thought and the final complete theory of the physical universe. Alastair Rae's introductory exploration has been hailed as 'a masterpiece of clarity', and offers an engaging guide to the theories on offer.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $5.26

  Quantum physics is believed to be the fundamental theory underlying our understanding of the physical universe. However, it is based on concepts and principles that have always been difficult to understand and controversial in their interpretation. This book aims to explain these issues using a minimum of technical language and mathematics. After a brief introduction to the ideas of quantum physics, the problems of interpretation are identified and explained. The rest of the book surveys, describes and criticises a range of suggestions that have been made with the aim of resolving these problems; these include the traditional, or 'Copenhagen' interpretation, the possible role of the conscious mind in measurement, and the postulate of parallel universes. This new edition has been revised throughout to take into account developments in this field over the past fifteen years, including the idea of 'consistent histories' to which a completely new chapter is devoted.