Quantum Mechanics

P. C. W. Davies

ISBN 10: 0710099622 / ISBN 13: 9780710099624

Published by Foutledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1987

About this Item

White titles on yellow and black trade paper covers, 139 pages including answers and index plus several pages about other books in the student physics series. Some edge wear to cover and an orange mark on the bottom page edges which may be a remainder mark.

Seller Inventory # 013578

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Quantum Mechanics
• Publisher: Foutledge and Kegan Paul, London
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0710099622
• ISBN 13: 9780710099624
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

About this title

Synopsis

What is quantum mechanics? The laws of Newton, which work well over a wide range of scale, from planets to billiard balls, fail at the level of atoms and their constituents. Quantum mechanics provides a new set of laws and a mode of description for microscopic systems that has proved supremely successful. Since its inception in the 1920s it has explained the structure of atoms and molecules, nuclear reactions, collisions of particles in accelerators, the emission and absorption of radiation, the thermal and electrical properties of solids, chemical bonding, superconductivity and superfiuidity, the pressure inside collapsed stars, subnuclear matter, and a great deal else. Why is quantum mechanics so important? Besides providing explanations for a wide variety of physical phenomena, the theory has led to a large number of practical applications, among which are the laser, the electron microscope and the microchips of modern electronics. In many research laboratories and high technology industries, devices based on quantum principles are used or developed as a matter of routine. Although the foundations of the subject are well over half a century old, new applications of the theory still have the power to surprise. Why is it so hard to learn? Students find quantum mechanics tough going for two reasons, one conceptual, the other technical. Familiar concepts such as speed, size, acceleration, momentum and energy take on weird features, or even become meaningless. Intuition gained from daily experience is of no help, and can be misleading.

Review

I do not know of anyone who has put the essence of quantum mechanics more clearly, more understandable, more soundly, and more compactly than Professor Davis.