Quantum Legacy: The Discovery that Changed Our Universe.BARRY PARKER Pocket calculators. Lasers. Automobiles. Microwave ovens. Televisions. Each of these common items is indispensable to us today, yet most people hardly know how they work or the discoveries that made them possible. To explain the science behind the inventions, Parker starts with the lynchpin lynch·pin n. Variant of linchpin. lynchpin Noun same as linchpin Noun 1. to these discoveries--quantum mechanics. He recounts Max Planck's "lucky guess" that understanding how energy radiates from hot metal could be the cornerstone of a new energy theory. Parker leapfrogs through the work of the people who built on Planck's theory. These include Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr Noun 1. Niels Bohr - Danish physicist who studied atomic structure and radiations; the Bohr theory of the atom accounted for the spectrum of hydrogen (1885-1962) Bohr, Niels Henrik David Bohr , Louie de Broglie de Broglie. For persons thus named use Broglie. , Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrodinger. In doing so, the author explains quantum mechanics quantum mechanics: see quantum theory. quantum mechanics Branch of mathematical physics that deals with atomic and subatomic systems. It is concerned with phenomena that are so small-scale that they cannot be described in classical terms, and it is and its implications today. Prometheus, 2002, 282 p., b&w photos/illus., hardcover, $29.00. |
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