Are Quanta Real?

created by Gorgonzola

(thing) by Gorgonzola (10.1 hr) (print) ? 1 C! Sun Jun 25 2000 at 5:03:12

Monograph by Josef M. Jauch.

Are Quanta Real?: A Galilean Dialogue attempts to explain the concepts of quantum physics, especially the counter-intuitive ones.

The work proceeds as a dialogue between the same characters who appeared in Galileo's 1630 work Dialogue on the Two Major Systems of the World, which attempted to explain the then-equally revolutionary notion of the Earth not being at the center of the Universe¹.

The two principal characters' names are Simplicio and Salviati. Simplicio does not understand quantum physics and has some rather naïve notions regarding how it works. Salviati understands it fully and is only too happy to point out Simplicio's errors.

There is a third character, Sagredo, who appears a bit more sympathetic to Simplicio but nonetheless demurs to Salviati as the authority.

Although Jauch is a bit rough on poor Simplicio, and sets up a few straw men to knock them down, the book is well worth reading. It explains quantum physics while maintaining a practical approach to its concepts.

Are Quanta Real? was first published in Geneva in 1971, and then by Indiana University Press in 1973.

Douglas R. Hofstadter uses the dialogue form in his book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid and claims Are Quanta Real? as the inspiration for it. He also frequently mentioned this book in his Scientific American column Metamagical Themas.

¹ You may not realize this, but General Relativity has placed the Earth back at the center of the Universe, since an important result of the cosmology resulting from General Relativity is that Everything is at the center of the Universe.

printable version
chaos

It's very hard to destroy the Universe	Does the Universe have granularity?	Musing on the nature of reality is fun	Center of the universe
Tasty chicken meal	quantum physics	An admin password for the universe	Quanta
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid	Create a universe	quantum	Quantum mechanics
Galileo's apology for the Dialogue on the Great World Systems	Metamagical Themas	Larry Hagman is the Center of the Universe	ontology
Monograph	.hack//INFECTION

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