Saturday March 22, 2008 6:30 am Edmonton, Alberta

This page last updated on: Sunday, April 20, 2008 9:11 AM

It is -2 C with a high forecast of +9 C. Sunrise 7:29 Sunset 19:47 Hours of daylight: 12:18

A. Morning Musings

Another morning of feeling alert and energized.

Much of today is already committed to various tasks. I expect to spend about an hour at one of my favorite bookstores, Greenwoods. There are a number of good coffee shops within easy walking distance of the bookstore so it should be a very enjoyable morning. We have a restaurant planned for this evening. The day should be a great one.

Now to begin with Rumi and a cup of freshly brewed Tim Hortons coffee. East meets West.

Here is a small exerpt from the Rumi reading: "Your old life was a frantic running from silence".

Learning Category	Planned Activities for Today	Time
Literature	Begin morning with a Rumi reading
Literature	Continue reading "The Way the Crow Flies" by Ann-Marie MacDonald	1 hr
Science	Continue reading "Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed" by Jim Al-Khalili	1 hr

B. Actual Learning Activities

6:40 am

Here are two early morning images:


coffee	mouse

Now for a little high octane physics.

Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed (2003)

Jim Al-Khalili

Chapter 2 Origins

"Most of scientific progress is a messy and slow process and it is only with hindsight, and with an overall understanding of a theory or phenomenon, that its story can be told pedagogically instead of chronologically." [p. 28]

Yes, and the same statement applies to each individual's Learning.

At the end of the 19th century physics was full of unexplained phenomena - essentially it was a "glorious mess".

"Its [quantum mechanics] development took thirty years and the combined intellectual might of the world's greatest minds." [p. 30]
"It wasn't until the 1920's that the real revolution took place, and a completely new worldview (quantum mechanics) replaced Newton's 'mechanics' when it came to describing the underlying structure of the subatomic world." [p. 30]

Let's have a look at the sub-headings for this chapter:

How it all began
Planck's constant
Black-body radiation
Einstein
Particles of light
Einstein's Nobel Prize (explanation of the photoelectric effect)
The dual nature of light
Bohr: physicist, philosopher, phootballer
A French prince rides in (de Broglie)

Four important names in the early history of quantum mechanics are Max Planck (German), Albert Einstein (Swiss), Niels Bohr (Danish) and Louis de Broglie (French).

Two important phenomena that needed explanation were that of black-body radiation and the photoelectric effect.

Max Planck suggested that energy came in discrete lumps, called quanta, rather than as a continuous set of values as implied by Maxwell's equations. The idea was primarily mathematical - it solved the problem of the values that were observed in black-body radiation experiments. But at the time he did not realize the theoretical significance of the idea.

Einstein, in 1905, put forward the idea that light should be considered as a series of individual particles called photons.

"... he [Niels Bohr] is today rightly regarded as the true father of quantum mechanics. Planck and Einstein may have started things off, but Bohr was to contribute far more." [p. 45]

Bohr came up with the idea of the structure of an atom as consisting of a series of orbits of different energy levels.

Louis de Broglie suggested that if matter and energy were interchangeable, and if energy could be thought of as having properties of both particles and waves, then so could matter.

The remainder of this book focuses on what we now know about quantum mechanics rather than on the historical development of these ideas.

Tags: physics, science, quantum

1:50 PM

As expected, I had fun at Greenwood's bookstore.

Symmetry: The Patterns of Nature. (2008). Marcus du Sautoy.
- This is my favorite mathematical topic.
The Poincare Conjecture. (2007). Donal O'Shea
- This is about the mathematics of the shape of the universe and the Fields Medal for 2006.
The Best of All Possible Worlds (2006). Ivar Ekeland
- The subtitle is Mathematics and Destiny. I have read other books by Ekeland and enjoyed them.
The Infinite Cosmos. (2006). Joseph Silk.
- The subtitle is Questions from the Frontiers of Cosmology. This looks like fun.
Proust was a Neuroscientist. (2007). Jonah Lehrer.
- This is very close to my view when I began reading Proust. It was his insights into psychology and memory that fascinated me.
The Anatomy of a Story. (2007). John Truby.
- This is a compilation of guidelines for one who wishes to become a storyteller.
Selected Works on the Pleasures of Reading. (2008). Robertson Davies.
- A collection of essays by Davies. Should be enjoyable.
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things. (2002). Jon McGregor.
- A novel, with a poetic style.

I have also spent a good hour reading "The Way the Crow Flies". It has suddenly taken a very dark turn. The words just flow as I am reading it. Almost every page mentions some minutia detail of life in Canada in the early 1960's. I am continually startled at what I can recall. Proust again ...

Books on the Go Today

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