Book Report

The occasional writing update, with bonus LOLEmmy:

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(Photo credit: Kate)

Introduction
Current Revision: 1

Total Words: 422 (dialogue only)

Chapter 1: Particle-Wave Duality

Current Revision: 5a

Total Words: 5,279

Chapter 2: The Uncertainty Principle

Current Revision: 7

Total Words: 4,499

Chapter 3: The Copenhagen Interpretation

Current Revision: 2

Total Words: 4,801

Chapter 4: The Many-Worlds Interpretation

Current Revision: 3

Total Words: 4869

Chapter 4 has been far and away the most difficult bit to write, which is why the dog is so exhausted. This is what I get for setting myself the goal of writing a reasonable layman-level discussion of decoherence, rather than just madly waving my hands and moving on to other things.

It's also the subject matter where I'm most out of my depth, so I've been calling in outside help. An earlier revision was sent to Michael Nielsen for comments, and he made some really helpful suggestions, and the just-finished version 3 will be sent off tomorrow to another expert for further commentary. I appear to have avoided saying anything actively stupid so far, which is nice, but probably just dumb luck.

The total text thus far comes in just shy of 20,000 words (19,870, but who's counting?), which would be half of my contractual obligation. Of course, probably 2,000 of those words are "really," which is the worst of my writing tics, so I'm sure these will be edited down somewhat...

Bonus out-of-context dog dialogue: "I don't know. It's awfully Zen. 'What is the pattern of one photon interfering?'"

More like this

"Books? I like books!" Here's the next occasional book progress update: Introduction Current Revision: 1 Total Words: 422 (dialogue only) Chapter 1: Particle-Wave Duality Current Revision: 5a Total Words: 5,279 Chapter 2: The Uncertainty Principle Current Revision: 7 Total Words: 4,499 Chapter 3:…
It's been a couple of weeks since the last progress report, and Emmy is getting concerned. So what's the status of the book, anyway? Introduction Current Revision: 1 Total Words: 430 (dialogue only) Chapter 1: Particle-Wave Duality Current Revision: 5a Total Words: 5,279 Chapter 2: The Uncertainty…
It's been a while since I did one of these, so here's your book progress update for the last couple of weeks, with the obligatory dog picture. This is probably the halfway point for the first draft, more or less. Introduction Current Revision: 1 Total Words: 430 (dialogue only) Chapter 1: Particle-…
"Hey, dude. What's in the binder?" "Well, it's the first draft of my book. I finished it this morning, and printed it out to have a paper copy to look at." "Ooooh! The book about me?" "Well, it's a book about physics, featuring you. But yes, that's the only book I'm working on at the moment." "…

I think this is the best lolemmy so far.

By a cornellian (not verified) on 21 Oct 2007 #permalink

Hi Prof Orzel:
Your book sounds interesting. But as a lay person (retired engineer) the thing that I find unsettling about alot of QM books is the lack of a thorough discussion on the topic: so and so behaves "as if". Those two words "as if" conveys alot of info. One can still pick up a good physics book and find the hydrogen atom described as having the electron orbiting the proton with a Bohr's radius and other such things taht are not observable. Even the founders of QM were using such terminology.

When one (a physicist) is attempting to apply "meaning" to mathematical expressions one is just attempting to relate the mathematical terms to things that seem familiar.

To aid in my own understanding of QM I have tried to find an answer to the following simple scenario.

The hydrogen atom supposely can emit and absorb radiation (a single photon) at approximately 21cm wavelength. Now this wavelength is many, many orders of magnitude larger than the atom. There is no "explanation" as to how the atom can determine if the wavelength is proper for absorption or not until the photon has passed the atom. But of course we can't see this interaction only the finally result: a photon is absorbed or scattered. In fact the whole idea of a photon having a "wavelength" is a carryover from a familiar concept of an EM wave!!!

A thorough discussion of concepts like this would be most helpful at least to me. QM is strange but only because we want to associate familiar terms with unknowable interactions.

Good luck on your book.

By Cecil Kirksey (not verified) on 22 Oct 2007 #permalink