Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World

Quantum mechanics gives us a picture of the world that is so radically counterintuitive that it has changed our perspective on reality itself, raising profound questions about concepts such as cause and effect, measurement, and information. Despite its seemingly mysterious nature, quantum mechanics is already broadly applied in fields such as chemistry, computer science, and cryptography. It also plays an important role in the development and innovation of some of today's most amazing - and important - technologies, including lasers, transistors, microscopes, semiconductors, and computer chips. This course gives you the logical tools to grasp the paradoxes and astonishing insights of quantum mechanics in 24 half-hour lectures designed specifically for nonscientists. No comparable presentation of this subject is so deep and so challenging, yet still eminently accessible. Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World is generously illustrated with diagrams, demonstrations, and experiments and is taught by a professor who is both a riveting lecturer and a pioneer in the field. Working on the principle that any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner, award-winning Professor Benjamin Schumacher teaches you how to reason like a physicist in working out the features of the quantum world. You will gain a deeper understanding of things like a ñquantum leapî and the ñuncertainty principle,î both of which have been used - and misused - in popular culture. Lucid, witty, and intensely interesting, Professor Schumacher's lessons will resonate with you long after you have finished watching them.