How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog

This review will necessarily be somewhat technical. If you cannot understand it, buy and read the book! The dog was a little cutesy at times, but on the whole I thought this was a splendid book. Not that it exactly explained why quantum will mechanics is the way it is – I have a feeling we will never know the answer to that question – but rather it was breezy and got into a surprising amount of depth. The dog and her bunnies turned out to be a good device for explaining why we do not see quantum effects in the macroscopic world. For the realists among us, Orzel explains that the wave-particle duality is real, and the particle truly does not have a definite state until it is "observed." Likewise, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is a purely quantum effect and has no classical analog. It is good for an experimental physicist like me to be reminded of that every now and then. Orzel spends considerable time with the Copenhagen and the many-worlds interpretations. He does not like the Copenhagen interpretation, but if he embraces the many-worlds interpretation, he did not convince me. The quantum Zeno effect was vaguely familiar to me, and Orzel explains it fairly clearly: Oversimplified slightly, if you repeatedly make measurements immediately after you start a transition, you repeatedly put the system back into the initial condition, and the system never completes the transition. In classical mechanics, the system would keep going, perhaps with small perturbations. Quantum tunneling is nothing to someone who is used to electromagnetic waves, but entanglement can drive a naïve realist crazy. The book was published in 2009, and I think entangled photons have since been discovered over much greater distances than described in the book. Unless I completely misunderstand, one of two entangled photons could travel to Alpha Centauri, while the other one went back and forth to Jupiter a zillion times.* As soon as we measure the second photon, the state of the Alpha Centauri photon will be determined instantly (in our reference frame), but we will have to wait several years to receive a telephone call at the speed of light.† The chapter on quantum teleportation might be a little too "hairy" for the casual reader, but I had not realized that a particle is not literally teleported; rather, another particle down the road somewhere is prepared, with some difficulty, in the same state as the initial particle (sort of, but not precisely, as a fax machine sends a copy of an original). The attraction between, say, an electron and a proton is caused by an exchange of virtual particles. These particles are exceedingly short-lived and are never observed. They may sound like woo, but in fact they are the basis for the most precise calculations in physics. The last chapter of the book discusses misuses of quantum physics by quacks who promise free energy from something known as zero-point energy; quantum healing, which is so convoluted that you will have to read it to believe it was written by someone with an advanced degree; healing at a distance, supposedly based on a unified field theory, which does not exist, or entanglement, or something; and homeopathy, which evidently has taken up entanglement since I last studied it. Such a lot of nonsense! As Orzel notes, quantum mechanics is not magic. I had a relatively few quibbles, most of which I will not detail here. I thought that the Dirac bracket, <a|b>, should have been defined more clearly. Physicists may not be "widely admired for their ability to think up clever names," but Dirac very cleverly divided his brackets into two segments, <a| and |b>, and called them bras and kets. (I had a professor in the 1960's who said that it took him several years before he could say "bra" without blushing, but in fact the Dirac bra was invented before the brassiere.) I do not know why Orzel used gamma, rather than the usual lambda, for the wavelength of light. A mirror that is "not quite perfect" would have better been described as a partially reflecting or transmitting mirror. You do not send a laser through a crystal; you send a <i>laser beam</i>. And finally, never, as I once did, let a philosopher hear you say that virtual particles annihilate each other <i>in order to satisfy the uncertainty principle</i>. * I will take this opportunity to point out (a) that the book uses far, far too many footnotes in order to include material that mostly should have been written into the text, and (b) that entanglement is very, very fussy, and it would be very difficult in reality for a photon to travel all the way to Alpha Centauri without having an interaction that destroys the entanglement. Such an interaction brings about decoherence, which is covered in some detail in the book. Decoherence is arguably one reason we do not see quantum effects with macroscopic objects. † Unfortunately, we cannot use entanglement to send messages instantaneously to Alpha Centauri, because if we knew the state of "our" photon before sending it off, it would be a different experiment, with no entanglement.

"he called it spukhafte Fernwirkung "Spooky action at a distance?" she translates "Since when do you know German?" "Dude, look at me" she turns sideways for a second, showing off her black and tan coloring and pointed nose. "German shepherd, remember?" So goes the banter between a dog and his owner as they discuss the strange world of quantum physics. This highly readable book will take you into the realms of quantum tunneling, Schrodinger's Wave equations, the quantum zeno effect and other topics of this strange world of the very small. Chad Orzel writes a very clear, readable book using his dog Emmy to explain the physics of quantum mechanics. The style which he uses his conversations with his dog to set up the explanations is an ingenious method and for those who are not familiar with the subject provides a short glossary; for those who want to read more suggested readings are also given. What I liked about this book is how Mr. Orzel takes on the tasks of dispelling certain myths about quantum physics in a very nonthreatening manner. Usually it is his dog who has the incorrect interpretation of the concept and upon examples and strong analogies, the concept is explained and by the end of the chapter Emmy understands. For example, Emmy begins chapter 2 with a lost bone and failure to understand Chad's joke about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. After Emmy finds her bone (under the TV) Chad begins to explain the principle and at the end of the chapter Emmy comes back to help us summarize what we learned. The use of Emmy is a clever way to introduce the "What does that mean?" into a book that could be a dry and dusty tome about a subject that many would probably never read about. The use of Emmy is not over done nor is it condescending towards the reader. You are taken along with Emmy into Orzel's explanations with no abrupt jumps in transition. Overall the book is a joy to read, but unfortunately there are parts where you may have to just back up and read again. Quantum physics is a hard topic to explain to those who are not familiar with the topic and while Orzel does a very good job at explanations, sometimes the reader will have to re-read a passage to grasp what he is saying. This is not the fault of the author, it is the fault of the subject. The world of these tiny objects is quite beyond what we can perceive so we have to be very imaginative to explore this world. Because of this, written explanations can get wordy or burdensome trying to illustrate these difficult concepts. Orzel does a good job of clearing the air and helping the reader understand. As a teacher of high school physics, I have read many books on quantum physics and this one, I must say, tops the list in readability, interest and clarity. I even would venture to use it as a text in a high school class to introduce the topic of quantum physics. While it helps to have a background knowledge of physics when reading this book, any one can learn from this book and enjoy it. As the college syllabus reads "Prerequisites-none".

Es una obra bastante interesante que introduce de una manera muy amena al lector a la teoría de la mecánica cuántica, la forma en la que el autor hace analogías de los fenómenos que explica con "situaciones de la vida real" es muy ingeniosa. El libro llegó en perfecto estado en tiempo y forma.

So yes, this is a more accessible way of explaining quantum physics but let's face it: it IS quantum physics, so it will be complicated. The conversations with the dog allow interesting and simple comparisons, though, and so you will definitely learn things you probably didn't know existed, as quantum physics isn't something we learn in school at all -and it's a shame, really, because it's fascinating and this book is proof their are ways to gave everybody a good introduction on the topics. So all in all, a nice encounter with some big misters of this universe. It's not always a super easy read but it's one worth it!

This is one of those books that I would not recommend anyone read in one sitting: maybe it's just me, but as soon as I tried to read more than one chapter at a time my brain started begging for mercy, turning into cream cheese, and dripping out through my ears... not an experience I would recommend to anyone ;) That said, taken in in small chunks, Orzel's book does magically manage to make quantum physics somewhat comprehensible (I'm not sure I have the right kind of brain to grasp it completely: see cream cheese issue above), interesting, and frequently funny. Some of the weirdnesses of quantum physics are explained in such a way as to demonstrate the sheer strangeness of how matter behaves at quantum level (regarding the behaviour of waves, the squirrel maths was both amusing and helpful!), and Emmy the dog is an irresistible protagonist in the journey. I suspect some background in the subject would be tremendously helpful, but as a reasonably intelligent but not scientifically trained individual with no maths or physicas beyond GCSE level, I more or less followed along and learned a great deal along the way... I was amused and delighted to find, when watching Big Bang Theory - Season 1-4 Complete [DVD ], that I have certainly retained some things as I understood a good deal more than I used to. I dare say I will learn more with re-reading! Very enjoyable, and highly recommended.

Very interesting read. A must read for quantum physics enthusiasts/ beginners!

Bought it as a present and ended up reading it myself as well. It teaches you concepts of quantum physics in layman's terms.