One day in 1900, German physicist Max Planck told his son that he had made a breakthrough as important as Isaac Newton's discovery of the workings of the universe. Planck had reached the surprising conclusion that light behaves as if it is packaged in discrete amounts, or quanta, a seemingly simple observation that would lead to a powerful new field of physics called quantum mechanics.In the following decades, a series of great physicists built on Planck's discovery, including Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Richard Feynman, and many others, developing quantum mechanics into the most successful physical theory ever devised—the general framework that underlies our understanding of nature at its most fundamental level.
Quantum mechanics gives us a picture of the world that is so radically counterintuitive that it has changed our perspective on reality itself, raising profound questions about concepts such as cause and effect, measurement, and information. Despite its seemingly mysterious nature, quantum mechanics has a broad range of applications in fields such as chemistry, computer science, and cryptography. It also plays an important role in the development and innovation of some of today's most amazing—and important—technologies, including lasers, transistors, microscopes, semiconductors, and computer chips.
Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World gives you the logical tools to grasp the paradoxes and astonishing insights of quantum mechanics in 24 half-hour lectures designed specifically for nonscientists and taught by award-winning Professor Benjamin Schumacher of Kenyon College.
No comparable presentation of this subject is so deep, so challenging, and yet accessible. Quantum Mechanics is generously illustrated with diagrams, demonstrations, and experiments and is taught by a professor who is both a riveting lecturer and a pioneer in the field, for Professor Schumacher is an innovator in the exciting new discipline of quantum information.