When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or How to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal

by Philip Moriarty

There are deep and fascinating links between heavy metal and quantum physics. No, really!

While teaching at the University of Nottingham, physicist Philip Moriarty noticed something odd, a surprising number of his students were heavily into metal music. Colleagues, a Venn diagram of physicists and metal fans would show a shocking amount of overlap.

What's more, it turns out that heavy metal music is uniquely well-suited to explaining quantum principles.

In When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to Eleven , Moriarty explains the mysteries of the universe's inner workings via drum beats and You'll discover how the Heisenberg uncertainty principle comes into play with every chugging guitar riff, what wave interference has to do with Iron Maiden, and why metalheads in mosh pits behave just like molecules in a gas.

If you're a metal fan trying to grasp the complexities of quantum physics, a quantum physicist baffled by heavy metal, or just someone who'd like to know how the fundamental science underpinning our world connects to rock music, this book will take you, in the words of Pantera, to "A New Level."


For those who think quantum physics is too mind-bendingly complex to grasp, or too focused on the invisibly small to be relevant to our full-sized lives, this funny, fascinating book will show you that physics is all around us . . . and it rocks .

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Music, Stem

400 pages, Paperback

Published July 31, 2018

Reviews

[DeterminedStupor · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11 is a book about metal as much as it is about physics.

Here are (almost) all the songs referenced in the book, if you're looking to broaden your metal horizon. Note that I haven't included references to a whole album or an individual band. I may also have missed some subtle references.

AC/DC
Let There Be Rock
Highway to Hell

Aerosmith
Same Old Song and Dance

Anthrax
Potters Field
Cupajoe

Ayreon
The Prodigy's World

Black Flag
Black Coffee

Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
N.I.B.
Into the Void
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Turn Up the Night
The Sign of the Southern Cross
The Mob Rules
Zero the Hero

Blue Öyster Cult
I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep
Mirrors
Fire of Unknown Origin
Veteran of the Psychic Wars

David Lee Roth
Yankee Rose

Deep Purple
Highway Star
Smoke on the Water
Space Truckin'
Perfect Strangers

Diamond Head
Am I Evil?

Dio
Holy Diver
Rainbow in the Dark
Mystery

Eddie Van Halen
Eruption
Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love
Atomic Punk

Epica
The Quantum Enigma

Exodus
Toxic Waltz

Fear Factory
Scumgrief

Guns N' Roses
Patience

Heart
Barracuda

Iron Maiden
Prowler
The Number of the Beast
The Trooper
Quest for Fire
The Evil That Men Do

Judas Priest
Dissident Aggressor
Rapid Fire
You've Got Another Thing Comin'
Painkiller

Led Zeppelin
Kashmir

Megadeth
Good Mourning/Black Friday
Holy Wars… The Punishment Due

Metallica
Seek and Destroy
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Battery
Master of Puppets
The Thing That Should Not Be
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Disposable Heroes
Blackened
Eye of the Beholder
Nothing Else Matters

Opeth
Bleak

Ozzy Osbourne
Flying High Again

Pink Floyd
Have a Cigar

Queensrÿche
The Lady Wore Black
I Will Remember

Quicksand
Fazer

R.E.M.
What's the Frequency, Kenneth?

Rage Against the Machine
Killing in the Name

Rush
By-Tor and the Snow Dog
2112
Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres
The Spirit of Radio
Natural Science
Tom Sawyer
Red Barchetta
Subdivisions
Chemistry
Chain Lightning
Virtuality

Saxon
And the Bands Played On
Denim and Leather

Scorpion
Winds of Change

Slayer
Angel of Death
Raining Blood

Soundgarden
Jesus Christ Pose

Thin Lizzy
Dancing in the Moonlight

U2
Running to Stand Still

XTC
Making Plans for Nigel

Finally, here is a playlist containing all of the above.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.

I thought the book was pretty good. I found the footnotes to be hilarious and entertaining, and Professor Moriarty is great at explaining concepts in a way that's engaging. I also like that he doesn't try to distill everything down into something so simple that there isn't any richness in there. Instead, he faces the complexity head on and guides the reader through the ideas.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book. I'm a physics student and I got a lot out the book.

One small note: I didn't get a chance to read the appendix because my license for the book ran out just as I got there. Other than that though, the book was great.

[Newsh T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did I fully understand everything in this book? No. But I did learn a lot of interesting theories and Dr. Moriarty's passion for physics and Heavy metal is absolutely contagious and makes you want to keep reading(or in my case listening)

[Yzabel Ginsberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Why, oh, why did I take so much time to read this book? Well, alright, perhaps because I was busy reading other books to teach myself some physics principles, which, I admit, is never a bad thing when your physics classes go back to some, uhhhm, twenty years ago. At the very least.

I found this “metal + physics” approach to be a very intriguing and interesting one—all the more since the author injects a regular dose of humour into it, but never without a purpose (a.k.a. “how to discuss spatial periods using Stryper’s (in)famous striped pants as an example”). I suppose this approach may not work for everyone, but it definitely worked for me, probably because I never took myself too seriously even when dealing with serious things, because, after all, what does it matter, as long as we keep learning, right? Besides, it doesn’t harm when you can feel the passion shining through, and this was clearly the case here.

Overall, the topics broached here made a lot of sense. My own level in maths isn’t terrific, yet the author’s explanations were enough even for me to understand the principles and the equations he related to metal, harmonics, waves and strings, and so on. They don’t remain at such a basic level that they don’t bring much to one’s knowledge of physics (unless you’re already a post-graduate or someone working in that field already, in which case I suspect Fourier’s analysis of waves/patterns won’t seem such a wonder anymore—or will it?), and at the same time, they don’t stray into such abstractions that a beginner will completely lose their footing either. At any rate, I found it quite easy to picture phases when compared to a metalhead moving in a mosh pit…

Seriously, where was Professor Moriarty when I was studying physics at school? (Alright, alright, probably still doing his Ph. D., I guess.)

[Adeel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may be slightly biased in my review since I've been taught by professor Moriarty during my undergraduate years, where he was comfortably my favourite member of the physics faculty. Nevertheless, I'm also a fan of 'pop' science books, and while 'When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or How to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal' is without a doubt the one with the wordiest title, it is also among the most informative and entertaining.

Viewers of sixty symbols videos will already be acquainted with the infectious enthusiasm professor Moriarty has for his subject, this same passion comes across surprisingly well in text form. I imagine that the book is targeted at those who are not well versed in (quantum) physics, and while I do have a background in the subject, it's been sufficiently long since that a lot of the details had started to blur. As such I was able to get a lot of the book and to some degree this book took me back to when I was 16 and first read 'A brief history of time' and started contemplating a career in physics.

Phil does a wonderful job of explaining complicated physics in a clear and entertaining manner, using just enough mathematical rigor in order to not gloss over key facets and caveats of the science.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen so many videos with him in it that it was his voice in my head while reading the first chapter. That had never happened to me before.

I've read quite a few physics popularization books, but his unique perspective showed me things in a new light.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audible version of this book. Goodreads does not have that choice. Not spending the time to add it because that did not work the last time I tried to do it.
After reading this, I think I have a greater understanding of Quantum Physics and heavy metal. It stretches your brain. I recognized a few thing I already knew. Why didn't they play the music with the songs that were being talked about? I knew the bands but am not a big enough fan that I know their songs.
I think I would have gotten more out of reading the book and playing the songs on Youtube. The book contains nice pics/diagrams. When I was driving or cooking it was not easy to picture the maths* in the appendices. I recommend the actual book, pencil and paper for that. I knew I couldn't read a book about physics without getting away from some maths as it were.
I also did not agree with Moriarty's assertion that you give enough of the problem and the person makes the leap to the answer. First of all I don't know what I am trying to do with Quantum Physics. If I understood that I might understand how to jump to the answer. Second, the caring is not there. I have to pay attention to my dog.
He thinks the roadside is a good place to eat takeout whatever.

Maths= this guy is British and says maths instead of mathematics. I like it. Why don't we do that in America?

[Behrooz Parhami · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the unabridged 10-hour audio version of this title (read by Tim Gerard Reynolds, Recorded Books, 2018).

The phrase "going to 11" is a pop-culture expression for "going to the extreme"; it is taken from the 1984 movie "This Is Spinal Tap," where a guitarist demonstrates an amplifier whose volume knobs are marked from zero to eleven, instead of the usual 0-10.

The author, a physicist with heavy-metal interests, complains about misuse of concepts of quantum physics, particularly the use of "quantum leap" to mean a major or big step, whereas quantum steps in space or time, though discrete, are really tiny.

The book's main message is that the uncertainty principle doesn't apply only to the nano-world, but also rears its head in our everyday experiences. A pure note, composed of a single frequency, goes on forever, whereas a damped note or, at the extreme, a sound spike, has limited or negligible time duration, with many different component frequencies. So, certainty in frequency comes with uncertainty in time, and vice versa.

[David Endean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely one of the best books I’ve read introducing a heavy topic like quantum physics by way of another topic. It should be said, though, as a drummer and music engineer (and heavy metal enthusiast myself), there is some bias here, and I’ve noticed that some key topics of the book such as phasing and wavelengths are applicable to music producing as well and helped me understand some of the heady topics discussed here.

Naturally, the actual math is where I fall down a bit (as a drummer I can really only count up to 12, the rest is all guesswork), but Moriarty does a good job at keeping the math relatively simple throughout the book and then cramming the big formulas in an appendix in the back. Couple that with a good sense of humor that even a dumb American like me can understand alongside a plethora of references (metal and otherwise), and the result is that I actually learned something(s) from this book!

So on that front, I’d recommend this to metal heads with an interest in science (or scientists with an interest in heavy metal, to be honest). Just don’t ask me to fully explain Fournier transformation, please.

[Orchasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

great read, regretted putting this off but finally, it's not a text in any sense but really motivates to love quantum world (I was freaked by the course I was taking but I now I have 'heavy metal' patting my shoulder to keep going!!) and I made playlist out of recommendations
by Moriaty (disclaimer, not entirely)

[Mohammed alkindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

the book definitely was pounding of physics topic with an eye of a metal music lover. i could say the least that the author streached his efforts to highlight the applicability of physics concepts and principles on metal culture. however since i am not a metal guy, i could not appreciate much the links that were presented especially when it injects many of its subculture i hope hope other will do.

[Nicholas Hylton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quantum theory, Rush, and Dr. Moriarty. At first I thought it was an odd combination. A weird interference pattern of states. But after listening to the audiobook, the universal wave function collapsed, the probability density was equal to 1, and I found that I LOVED it (within the limitations of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.)

If you enjoy his talks on YouTube's Sixty Symbols channel, you're definitely going to gobble this up.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed for Foreword Books IndieFab Awards.

Not an introductory text on quantum mechanics (or heavy metal), but nonetheless draws some interesting parallels between QM and heavy metal. An entertaining read for anyone who already has a baseline understanding of quantum mechanics.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I understand Fourier analysis and the Uncertainty Principle better than I did before, and I learned that Eddie the Head is a pun when spoken in Steve Harris's native East London accent. How could I give a book that does all that less than a 5? 🤘🤘

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent audiobook. Two of my passions, Quantum Physics explained through the music & community of Heavy Metal. Brilliant! And the narrator, well I thought Ray Porter was the best.... until now. Tim Gerard Reynolds is absolutely delicious! Loved this book!

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic physics of waves on strings, some Fourier analysis relating to quantum physics and guitar. I enjoyed it but it was mostly things that I knew about.

[James Hauenstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m sorry. I still don’t know what to think about this book. If like hearing about Heavy Metal bands and the author comparing physics with it, it is still boring.

[Doctor Roxx · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't understand most of the physics, but I really enjoyed the tone of the book. The heavy metal examples were great!

[Dharun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally the book that inspired me to take physics at university. No regrets.

[Brendan]

Just checked it out , didn't read all of it