[HN Gopher] The Golden Age of Quantum Physics
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The Golden Age of Quantum Physics
Author : privatdozent
Score : 69 points
Date : 2021-09-04 11:08 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.privatdozent.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.privatdozent.co)
| auntienomen wrote:
| The video at the bottom -- taken at the conference by Langmuir --
| is remarkable.
| drumhead wrote:
| Do younger physicists still come up with revolutionary
| discoveries in physics anymore. Most of the recent Nobel
| prizewinners have been in their 40's or older.
| [deleted]
| leephillips wrote:
| Einstein was about 41 when he got the Prize. Usually it's
| awarded many years after the work that it's awarded for. And
| most of the Prizes were not for "revolutionary discoveries",
| just important work.
| vardhanw wrote:
| Is there a good book which covers the historical development of
| quantum theory (in the 1900-1930's period) along-with the in
| depth technical exposition? Reading either independently does not
| provide the kind of engagement which can be provided with a
| combined exposition.
| auntienomen wrote:
| The definitive history is Abraham Pais' treatise _Inward
| Bound_. He was a particle physicist who turned to writing
| history. Had the advantage not having been there and known the
| players.
| leopd wrote:
| "Thirty Years that Shook Physics", by George Gamow, fits the
| bill pretty well.
| sparrigan wrote:
| You absolutely want this, relatively obscure, book:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Interpretation-Quantum-Me...
|
| There are some translation/copy-writing issues but don't let
| that put you off. It has a solid coverage of quantization of
| Hamiltonian mechanics in both matrix mechanics and wave
| mechanics, and then the unification of the two - all following
| the historical narrative.
| leephillips wrote:
| Looks interesting, but at $969 for the hardcover and over
| $100 for the paperback, I think I'll wait for the movie.
| HarryHirsch wrote:
| The autopricers are a pox on the market. It's even worse
| when you contact the seller, making them a reasonable
| offer, and they reply that their pricing algorithm knows
| better.
| leephillips wrote:
| I know. There was an amusing article a while back showing
| autopricers from two merchants fighting with each other.
| I think one of the lessons was that you can pretend to
| have your own copy for sale, then keep lowering the
| price. The bot will follow you all the way down to almost
| zero--then you buy the book.
| privatdozent wrote:
| Check out Purrington (2018), <<The Heroic Age>>
| edge17 wrote:
| I'm a fan of biographies. The first half of Walter Isaacson's
| Einstein biography fits this. Helped me appreciate how
| unobvious certain things were prior to discovery.
| srathi wrote:
| Quantum by Manjit Kumar is my favorite. It is a novel like
| walkthrough of quantum development over the years.
| jeffwass wrote:
| Below snippet is from the bottom of the article :
|
| Those interested in reading more about the "golden age" of
| quantum physics are encouraged to look up the books:
|
| Purrington, R. D. 2018. _The Heroic Age. The Creation of
| Quantum Mechanics 1925-1940_. Oxford University Press.
|
| Greenspan, N. T. 2005. _The End of the Certain World. The Life
| and Science of Max Born_. Wiley.
|
| Kumar, M. 2008. _Quantum. Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate
| about the Nature of Reality_. Icon Books.
| seaman1921 wrote:
| Was hoping to find Feynman in there :)
| auntienomen wrote:
| Feynman was Silver Age of quantum physics. Dirac was already
| middle aged when they met.
| billfruit wrote:
| What about Von Neumann? How do his contributions to Quantum
| Mechanics weigh up in terms of the development of the field.
| [deleted]
| kgwgk wrote:
| He was 23 years old at the time.
|
| (But he was already doing important work on QM, like the
| introduction of the density matrix earlier that year. https:/
| /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Foundations_of_Qu...
| would be published five years later.)
| sam-2727 wrote:
| Hah! For a second, I thought from the HN title that this was
| written in 1927.
| dang wrote:
| Thanks - I've taken it out of the title now.
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