The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of: The Most Astounding Papers of Quantum Physics--and How They Shook the Scientific World
Stephen Hawking
Language: English
Pages: 982
ISBN: 2:00365433
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
“God does not play dice with the universe.” So said Albert Einstein in response to the first discoveries that launched quantum physics, as they suggested a random universe that seemed to violate the laws of common sense. This 20th-century scientific revolution completely shattered Newtonian laws, inciting a crisis of thought that challenged scientists to think differently about matter and subatomic particles.
The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of compiles the essential works from the scientists who sparked the paradigm shift that changed the face of physics forever, pushing our understanding of the universe on to an entirely new level of comprehension. Gathered in this anthology is the scholarship that shocked and befuddled the scientific world, including works by Niels Bohr, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, Erwin Schrodinger, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, as well as an introduction by today’s most celebrated scientist, Stephen Hawking.
Read More
The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics (Theoretical Minimum, Book 1)
Quantum Physics for Dummies (Revised Edition)
Thinking in Physics: The pleasure of reasoning and understanding
Nuclear Reactors, Nuclear Fusion and Fusion Engineering
radiation, are the same as in the former theory. It is remarkable that our quantum levels are exactly those of Heisenberg’s theory. In the theory of specific heat this deviation from the previous theory is not without significance. It becomes important first when the proper frequency ν0 varies owing to the dissipation of heat. Formally it has to do with the old question of the “zero-point energy”, which was raised in connection with the choice between the first and second forms of Planck’s
HALF-INTEGRAL SPIN We consider first a theory which contains only U with integral j + k, i.e., which describes particles with integral spins only. It is not assumed that only particles with one single spin value will be described, but all particles shall have integral spin. We divide the quantities U into two classes: (1) the “+ 1 class” with j integral, k integral; (2) the “− 1 class” with j half-integral, k half-integral. The notation is justified because, according to the indicated rules
reality of the system in the state to which it corresponds. At first sight this assumption is entirely reasonable, for the information obtainable from a wave function seems to correspond exactly to what can be measured without altering the state of the system. We shall show, however, that this assumption, together with the criterion of reality given above, leads to a contradiction. 2. For this purpose let us suppose that we have two systems, I and II, which we permit to interact from the time
In fact, in such phenomena we have no longer to do with experimental arrangements consisting of apparatus essentially at rest relative to one another, but with arrangements containing moving parts,—like shutters before the slits of the diaphragms,—controlled by mechanisms serving as clocks. Besides the transfer of momentum, discussed above, between the object and the bodies defining the space frame, we shall therefore, in such arrangements, have to consider an eventual exchange of energy between
expression for finding at 2 an electron originally at 1 according to the positron theory may be seen as follows (Fig. 2). Assume as a special example that t2 > t1 and that the potential vanishes except in interval t2 − t1 so that t4 and t3 both lie between t1 and t2. First suppose t4 > t3 (Fig. 2(b)). Then (since t3 3 > t1) the electron assumed originally in a positive energy state propagates in that state (by K+(3, 1)) to position 3 where it gets scattered ( A(3)). It then proceeds to 4, which
