Quantum Physics for Poets

"Lederman and Hill, two very well-known physicists, have written in a prose that speaks to the poet in all of us. A delightful and illuminating guide through the mysteries of the quantum world."

Gino Segre Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, and author of Faust in Copenhagen: A Struggle for the Soul of Physics

"Niels Bohr famously said that anyone who can think about quantum mechanics without getting giddy doesn't understand the first thing about it. This book changes all that. The wit and style will make you giddy, and you will understand a lot!"

Rocky Kolb Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago

"Two well-known experts on quantum mechanics---Lederman and Hill---have done a wonderful job in communicating its essence and logical content to a general audience. Professor Emmanuel Paschos Dortmund University, Germany, author of The Schemata of the Stars

Quantum theory is the bedrock of contemporary physics and the basis of understanding matter in its tiniest dimensions and the vast universe as a whole. But for many, the theory remains an impenetrable enigma

Nobel Prize laureate Leon M. Lederman and Fermi Lab theoretical physicist Christopher T. Hill seek to remedy this situation by drawing on both their scientific expertise and their talent for communicating science to the general reader. In this lucid, informative book, designed for the curious nonscientist. they make the seemingly daunting subject of quantum physics accessible, appealing, and exciting

Their story is partly historical, covering the many "Eureka" moments when great scientists---Max Planck, Albert Einstein. Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg. Erwin Schrodinger, and others---struggled to come to grips with the many bizarre realities that quantum research revealed. Although their findings were indisputably proven in experiments. they were so strange and counterintuitive that Einstein refused to accept quantum theory. despite its great success

The authors explain the many strange and even eerie aspects of quantum reality at the subatomic level, from "particles" that can be many places simultaneously and sometimes act more like waves, to the effect that we humans can have on their movements by just observing them

Finally, Drs. Lederman and Hill delve into quantum physics' latest and perhaps most breath taking offshoots field theory and string theory, The intricacies and ramifications of these two theories will give the reader much to ponder. In addition, the authors describe the diverse applications of quantum theory in its almost countless forms of modern technology throughout the world.

Using a variety of eloquent analogies and illustrative examples, Quantum Physics for Poets renders even the most profound reaches of quantum theory understandable and something for us all to savor