The occasional writing update, with bonus LOLEmmy:
(Photo credit: Kate)
Introduction
Current Revision: 1
Total Words: 422 (dialogue only)
Chapter 1: Particle-Wave Duality
Current Revision: 5a
Total Words: 5,279
Chapter 2: The Uncertainty Principle
Current Revision: 7
Total Words: 4,499
Chapter 3: The Copenhagen Interpretation
Current Revision: 2
Total Words: 4,801
Chapter 4: The Many-Worlds Interpretation
Current Revision: 3
Total Words: 4869
Chapter 4 has been far and away the most difficult bit to write, which is why the dog is so exhausted. This is what I get for setting myself the goal of writing a reasonable layman-level discussion of decoherence, rather than just madly waving my hands and moving on to other things.
It's also the subject matter where I'm most out of my depth, so I've been calling in outside help. An earlier revision was sent to Michael Nielsen for comments, and he made some really helpful suggestions, and the just-finished version 3 will be sent off tomorrow to another expert for further commentary. I appear to have avoided saying anything actively stupid so far, which is nice, but probably just dumb luck.
The total text thus far comes in just shy of 20,000 words (19,870, but who's counting?), which would be half of my contractual obligation. Of course, probably 2,000 of those words are "really," which is the worst of my writing tics, so I'm sure these will be edited down somewhat...
Bonus out-of-context dog dialogue: "I don't know. It's awfully Zen. 'What is the pattern of one photon interfering?'"
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I think this is the best lolemmy so far.
Hi Prof Orzel:
Your book sounds interesting. But as a lay person (retired engineer) the thing that I find unsettling about alot of QM books is the lack of a thorough discussion on the topic: so and so behaves "as if". Those two words "as if" conveys alot of info. One can still pick up a good physics book and find the hydrogen atom described as having the electron orbiting the proton with a Bohr's radius and other such things taht are not observable. Even the founders of QM were using such terminology.
When one (a physicist) is attempting to apply "meaning" to mathematical expressions one is just attempting to relate the mathematical terms to things that seem familiar.
To aid in my own understanding of QM I have tried to find an answer to the following simple scenario.
The hydrogen atom supposely can emit and absorb radiation (a single photon) at approximately 21cm wavelength. Now this wavelength is many, many orders of magnitude larger than the atom. There is no "explanation" as to how the atom can determine if the wavelength is proper for absorption or not until the photon has passed the atom. But of course we can't see this interaction only the finally result: a photon is absorbed or scattered. In fact the whole idea of a photon having a "wavelength" is a carryover from a familiar concept of an EM wave!!!
A thorough discussion of concepts like this would be most helpful at least to me. QM is strange but only because we want to associate familiar terms with unknowable interactions.
Good luck on your book.
This lolemmy looks like prime last page material.