Manny’s answer to “Can you recommend some good technical books for an introduction to relativity and quantum mechanics?” > Likes and Comments
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I didn't like the classical mechanics one very much. I felt it was shallow, and too much emphasis on mathematics. Perhaps I feel that way as I read only some beginning chapters.
He's presenting the classical mechanics in a way that will introduce quantum mechanics later, if that isn't obvious.
I will read them . Thanks for your recommendation! I discovered you recently and reading your reviews one by one is fun.
Most of us have only one lifetime - so many worthy books unread.
You may like:
Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant Swabian
https://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Quant...
I enjoyed this perhaps more than any other "intellectual history". This one starts with Planck's stopgap formula to address the "ultraviolet catastrophe" - which is understandable without any math.
From a cultural/human POV, this book establishes that Einstein was likely to be the first "quantum mechanic" - his work probably accelerated the great synthesis behind QM.
Unlike every Einstein bio/intellectual-history this book gives only a nod to Relativity, Special and General. Instead it focuses on his QM work starting the Photoelectric effect (1905).
Though the book only uses algebraic mathematical statements and several charts, as a BSSE (with only a single intro course in Modern Physics 40 years ago) I found it rough going at first. I finally settled on a very surface skim of the material - realizing that to gain any depth would almost certainly require study of appropriate course materials and problems (like in the "old days").
I did get a sense of sub-atomic "weirdness". For instance, we "electricals" encounter vast oceans of "free electrons" in conductors which are pushed by electric-pressure (voltage) and flow (current) into "loads". I've often been impressed how closely simple electrical models simulate electrical reality.
But, that is only a very limited view of the world populated by electrons. Divorced from practical electrical application, actual electrons, as part of atoms and molecules, and interacting with the other "pieces" of atoms, are just STRANGE - they do not behave in anything like an intuitive manner.
This only addresses electrons - there is far more explored in that book.
(thus a start for my eventual review - but only after a very enjoyable re-read)
Thanks! I will definitely read it. 'Quantum' by Manjit Kumar also explains einstein's role in development of Quantum theory and its also very less technical.
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Neeladri
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Mar 07, 2021 03:28AM
I didn't like the classical mechanics one very much. I felt it was shallow, and too much emphasis on mathematics. Perhaps I feel that way as I read only some beginning chapters.
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He's presenting the classical mechanics in a way that will introduce quantum mechanics later, if that isn't obvious.
I will read them . Thanks for your recommendation! I discovered you recently and reading your reviews one by one is fun.
Most of us have only one lifetime - so many worthy books unread. You may like:
Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant Swabian
https://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Quant...
I enjoyed this perhaps more than any other "intellectual history". This one starts with Planck's stopgap formula to address the "ultraviolet catastrophe" - which is understandable without any math.
From a cultural/human POV, this book establishes that Einstein was likely to be the first "quantum mechanic" - his work probably accelerated the great synthesis behind QM.
Unlike every Einstein bio/intellectual-history this book gives only a nod to Relativity, Special and General. Instead it focuses on his QM work starting the Photoelectric effect (1905).
Though the book only uses algebraic mathematical statements and several charts, as a BSSE (with only a single intro course in Modern Physics 40 years ago) I found it rough going at first. I finally settled on a very surface skim of the material - realizing that to gain any depth would almost certainly require study of appropriate course materials and problems (like in the "old days").
I did get a sense of sub-atomic "weirdness". For instance, we "electricals" encounter vast oceans of "free electrons" in conductors which are pushed by electric-pressure (voltage) and flow (current) into "loads". I've often been impressed how closely simple electrical models simulate electrical reality.
But, that is only a very limited view of the world populated by electrons. Divorced from practical electrical application, actual electrons, as part of atoms and molecules, and interacting with the other "pieces" of atoms, are just STRANGE - they do not behave in anything like an intuitive manner.
This only addresses electrons - there is far more explored in that book.
(thus a start for my eventual review - but only after a very enjoyable re-read)
Thanks! I will definitely read it. 'Quantum' by Manjit Kumar also explains einstein's role in development of Quantum theory and its also very less technical.
