Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This highly readable work describes the history, meaning, and importance of quantum physics. It is written for a wide audience of both students and general readers who are interested in exploring the ideas and experiments that revolutionized the way scientists view the world. The book describes the gripping sequence of events that culminated in the quantum mechanical picture of matter pioneered by Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford, and Niels Bohr in the early decades of the 20th century. Comparable in its impact to the scientific upheavals initiated by Galileo and Newton in the 17th century, and to the advent of Darwin's theory of evolution, this new science exposed the flaws in the well-established and cherished view of the physical world described by classical physics. In the end, it led to the emergence of four dominant constants in physical formulas: "e", the electron charge; "h", Planck's constant; "k", Botzmann's constant (or the gas constant per molecule); and "c", the speed of light. In telling this story, the author describes the essential features of quantum physics, what sets it apart from the classical view of the mechanical universe, and how the new science has led to unprecedented advances in understanding the essence of matter and the forces of nature. As a special feature, the author has presented mathematical details in separate boxed sections where they can be studied by serious readers interested in deeper insight, or skipped without any interruption to the flow of the narrative. The book is thus completely accessible to nonscientist general readers who will find it an ideal guide to the breathtaking discoveries of modern science that have so profoundly altered our perceptions of the material world.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• 1 The Old Order
• Classical Physics
• 2 Clouds on the Horizon
• 3 Entrance of the Electron
• 4 A Chaotic Period Begins
• 5 Allergic Reactions to h
• 6 Relativity
• 7 Models of Atoms
• 8 Quantum Rules and Recipes
• 9 Particles and Waves
• A Dissolving Distinction
• 10 A New Order Emerges
• Quantum Mechanics

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

There are many books about the 40-year period from the end of the 19th century to the mid-1920s when the ideas of physics about space, time, matter, and waves underwent profound changes. These works are either popular treatments for the general reader or technical treatments written for scientists and historians with prior knowledge of the physics under consideration. An example of the first type of book is George Gamow's Thirty Years That Shook Physics (CH, Nov'66). In the second category is Max Jammer's The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics (2nd ed., 1989; 1st ed., CH, Jun'67). Order, Chaos, Order (not about modern chaos theory) falls somewhere in between; a good knowledge of physics is necessary to get the most from the book, but nonscientists will be able to follow the main ideas with little difficulty. Boxed sections, "Amplification," contain technical material that can be skipped by the general reader. Stehle surveys the history of physics from Galileo and Newton to the end of the 19th century where the main portion of the book begins. Relativity and quantum mechanics are treated as almost unrelated topics. There are many excerpts taken directly from important scientific publications that give an immediacy to the work and show the astounding insight of the scientists. General; upper-division undergraduate through professional.