Quantum Fuzz: The Strange True Makeup of Everything Around Us

390 Pages·2017·6.83 MB·English

by  Michael S. Walker

Published 2017 by Prometheus Books Quantum Fuzz: The Strange True Makeup of Everything Around Us.
Copyright © 2017 by Michael S. Walker. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
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Cover image from NASA/CXC/M. Weiss
Cover design by Jacqueline Nasso Cooke
Cover design © Prometheus Books
Interior cartoons illustrated by Sidney Harris, ScienceCartoonsPlus.com.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Walker, Michael S., 1939-author.
Title: Quantum fuzz : the strange true makeup of everything around us / by Michael S. Walker.
Description: Amherst, New York : Prometheus Books, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031862 (print) | LCCN 2016035281 (ebook) | ISBN 9781633882393 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781633882409 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Quantum theory.
Classification: LCC QC174.12 .W347 2017 (print) | LCC QC174.12 (ebook) | DDC 530.12—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031862
Printed in the United States of America

Foreword
by David Toback
Preface
PART ONE: DISCOVERY AND UNDERSTANDING (1900–1927)
Chapter 1. Introduction to Parts One and Two
Chapter 2. Planck, Einstein, Bohr—Experiments and Early Ideas
Chapter 3. Heisenberg, Dirac, Schrödinger—Quantum Mechanics and the
Quantum Atom
Chapter 4. Application—Six Hundred Million Watts!
PART TWO: INTERPRETATION AND MIND-BOGGLING
IMPLICATIONS (1916–2016)
Chapter 5. The Essential Features of Quantum Mechanics
Chapter 6. Clash of Titans—What Is Real? Uncertainty, Entanglement, John
Bell, and Many Worlds
Chapter 7. What Does It All Mean?—Quantum Mechanics, Mathematics, and
the Nature of Science
Chapter 8. Applications—Quantum Computing, Code Cracking,
Teleportation, and Encryption
PART THREE: OUR WORLD OF RELATIVITY AND THE QUANTUM,
FROM THE BIG BANG TO THE GALAXIES
Chapter 9. Galaxies, Black Holes, Gravity Waves, Matter, the Forces of
Nature, the Higgs Boson, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and String
Theory
Section I: Obtaining a Map of the Universe (Basically an Introduction to
Understanding the Universe in Which Our Trip Takes Place)
Section II: Sightseeing (A Quick Tour through the Evolving Universe, from
the Big Bang and the Very Small to the Present and the Very Large,
with Stops Afterward to Explore Particular Sights, including Those
Topics in the Title to This Chapter)
Section III: Key Aspects of the Big Bang Model
Section IV: Approaching the Big Bang (Creating the Conditions of the Hot
“Quark Soup” just after the Big Bang, to Explore the Fundamental
“Building Block” Particles of Nature and the Particles That
Convey Nature's Forces)
PART FOUR: THE MANY-ELECTRON ATOM AND THE
FOUNDATIONS OF CHEMISTRY AND MATERIALS
SCIENCE
Chapter 10. Introduction to Part Four
Chapter 11. Energy, Momentum, and the Spatial States of the Electron in the
Hydrogen Atom
Chapter 12. Spin and Magnetism
Chapter 13. Exclusion and the Periodic Table
Chapter 14. The Physics Underlying the Chemistry of the Elements
Chapter 15. A Few Types of Chemical Bonds, for Example
Chapter 16. The Makeup of Solid Materials
Chapter 17. Insulators and Electrical Conduction in Normal Metals and
Semiconductors
PART FIVE: QUANTUM WONDERS IN MATERIALS AND DEVICES,
LARGE AND SMALL
Chapter 18. Nanotechnology and Introduction to Part Five
Chapter 19. Superconductors I—Definition and Applications in
Transportation, Medicine, and Computing
Chapter 20. Fusion for Electrical Power, and Lasers Also for Defense
Chapter 21. Magnetism, Magnets, Magnetic Materials, and Their
Applications
Chapter 22. Graphene, Nanotubes, and One “Dream” Application
Chapter 23. Semiconductors and Electronic Applications
Chapter 24. Superconductors II—Large-Scale Applications in Science, Power
Generation, and Transmission
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: The Nature and Spectrum of Electromagnetic Waves
Appendix B: Empirical Development of the Periodic Table of the Elements
Appendix C: Quantum Computer Development
Appendix D: The Atomic Sizes and Chemistries of the Elements
Appendix E: The Production of X-Rays
Notes
Glossary
References and Recommended Reading
Index
We live in a special time in history. The knowledge of the world is expanding at
an exponential rate. Perhaps more important, to quote one of my favorite
scientists of all time, Carl Sagan: “We live in a society exquisitely dependent on
science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science
and technology.”1 This is a real problem and it needs to be fixed.
And, beyond that, there is an excitement to science that most people miss out
on. Part of the problem is that mathematics truly is the language of science, and
the mathematics involved has become so complex that only those with a high
degree of training can appreciate science in its native language. But now and
then a “translator” comes along who can convey the meaning, the beauty, and the
excitement to the rest of us.
What Mike Walker has done in this book places him on the cutting edge as
such a translator. Though he is a nonacademic, through this popular book he has
conveyed a clear understanding of the physical world, while circumventing the
math. As he demonstrates, you don't HAVE to go to a classroom to understand
the excitement. Then again, going to the classroom these days might not even
GET you the excitement because you'll get mired in the math, or they just don't
teach the fun stuff discussed here—even if you are majoring in physics. While
some of the details will not stand the test of time (which is true in any cutting-
edge field), I feel comfortable recommending this book also to all students, as a
supplement to the normal text so that they may more fully understand what is
going on beyond the math. Quantum Fuzz is not designed to replace course
textbooks, but it sure is a lot more fun, readable, and interesting.
At the core of this book is quantum mechanics. While it surely goes beyond
the ideas, and well into the applications, Walker brings to life one of the most
strange, fascinating, and beautiful descriptions of our physical world. He takes
great pains to describe that part of quantum mechanics particular to the atom,
and he uses it as a basis for explaining chemistry and everything around us. It is
this part of physics that is “translated” for us through the nonmathematical and
largely visual presentations of Quantum Fuzz. This book further “comes alive”
through sections now and then relating to the history of the development of
physics and chemistry, and to the lives of the many prominent scientists most
responsible for moving this history along.
I like the descriptions of how troubling early scientists found quantum
mechanics to be, despite its incredible successes at predicting the outcomes of
experiments. I love the stories of some of the great debates between science's
giants. For example, Albert Einstein (who hated quantum mechanics and its
counterintuitive conclusions but ultimately won a Nobel Prize for his work in the
area), is reputed to have said “God doesn't play dice with the Universe,” and
Niels Bohr (another Nobel laureate) responded with the not-quite-as-famous-but-
equally-important retort, “Don't tell God what to do.” Bohr was also to have
said, “Anybody who is not shocked by this subject has failed to understand it.”
And yet here it is, more than eighty years later, and quantum mechanics is
arguably the most successful, debated, and tested theory in history.
This is not the first book that interweaves science and history. Indeed, most
nonacademic books on this subject do so as a way of softening the conceptual
challenge. But Walker also explains chemistry as it follows from the physics,
and how the understanding of quantum mechanics has made possible much of
modern invention and technology. He does this from the vantage point of a
lifetime of work in industrial laboratories (and even includes brief descriptions
of some of the projects that he himself has worked on). And he goes beyond
what we see here on Earth to show how we use our knowledge and
understanding of quantum mechanics to interpret what we see of the cosmos, to
understand how the universe began with a big bang and came to be the way it is
today.
Ultimately, human beings and the things here on Earth are all made of atoms.
Yet most people know nothing of their diffuse, fascinating symmetries, and how
these forms determine much of the properties of our universe. This book is an
opportunity to come on board and sail to new lands of understanding.
I believe that you will enjoy this book as I did. And I am sure that you will
agree that scientific fact is, indeed, much stranger than fiction.
David Toback
Thaman Professor for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence
Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy
Texas A&M University
September 2016
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Professor Toback teaches a course in cosmology for nonscience majors and in
2013 published the very readable Big Bang, Black Holes, No Math.