Particle or Wave: The Evolution of the Concept of Matter in Modern Physics

by Charis Anastopoulos

Particle or Wave is the first popular-level book to explain the origins and development of modern physical concepts about matter and the controversies surrounding them. The dichotomy between particle and wave reflects a dispute--whether the universe's most elementary building blocks are discrete or continuous in nature--originating in antiquity when philosophers first speculated about the makeup of the physical world. Charis Anastopoulos examines two of the earliest known theories about matter--the atomic theory, which attributed all physical phenomena to atoms and their motion in the void, and the theory of the elements, which described matter as consisting of the substances earth, air, fire, and water. He then leads readers up through the ages to the very frontiers of modern physics to reveal how these seemingly contradictory ideas still lie at the heart of today's continuing debates.


Anastopoulos explores the revolutionary contributions of thinkers like Nicolas Copernicus, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. He shows how Einstein's ideas about relativity unify opposing concepts by identifying matter with energy, and how quantum mechanics goes even further by postulating the coexistence of the particle and the wave descriptions. Anastopoulos surveys the latest advances in physics on the fundamental structure of matter, including the theories of quantum fields and elementary particles, and new cutting-edge ideas about the unification of all forces. This book reveals how the apparent contradictions of particle and wave reflect very different ways of understanding the physical world, and how they are pushing modern science to the threshold of new discoveries.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

432 pages, Hardcover

First published July 27, 2008

Reviews

[Matthew Dambro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant review of the history of Physics and especially the quantum theory. It is not an easy read but it is absolutely spot on in the description of the evolution of quantum theory through the past one hundred years. The author is knowledgeable and makes every effort to make understandable a subject that only a few dozen people on the planet really understand. He is honest about the difficulties and ambiguities of modern particle physics. He repeatedly warns that it could all be wrong or that quantum theory is simply a stepping stone to the truth about the physical world. Anyone interested in the subject would do well to begin here.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a roller coaster for me. I very much enjoyed the historical and biographical sections about philosophers and scientists from Plato to Dirac and beyond. I became a fan of Michael Faraday. Some parts I just sailed through and others especially the quantum chapters were a veritable slog. They were just so far beyond my abilities to comprehend. I would put the book down for weeks at a time and then be drawn back to it by curiosity and the delusion that I might understand! I was filled with wonder and awe anytime that I did manage a shred of enlightenment.

[Kaylee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well...it was dry. If you've got a decent understanding of the history of physics, I'd skip the first two chapters (about 100 pages).

The entire book is descriptive. No math equations. So it's theoretically possible for a lay reader to pick this up. I loved that all the concepts were discussed chronologically and with a historical perspective. But a lot of these concepts are still way over my head. This book was published about the time I was taking grad-level quantum mechanics, and it might have been nice to have read this then, to get a feel for the big picture of how the math I was learning fit in with other more advanced theories.