[FRIAM] two books

Thu Dec 6 17:04:38 EST 2018

I just finished reading Philip Ball's *Beyond Weird, Why Everything You
Thought You Knew About Quantum Physics is Different*, and while he doesn't
really deliver on the book's subtitle, he does a very good job of laying
out the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics, and its
discontents, and the later attempts to reformulate the question.

As one who learned quantum mechanics as a chemist, I have to say that the
lack of reality that bothers the physicists never really bothers me.  I
don't really care how an electron spreads itself in space to create a wave
function.   I get electron densities from the wave function magnitudes,
which serve to glue together nuclei of different elements into molecules,
and changes of electron densities, which allow reactions to happen.

-- rec --

On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 11:02 AM Ron Newman <ron.newman at gmail.com> wrote:

> Frank,
> And what's your view of "What is Real?", by Adam Becker?  I'm thinking of
> having a look at it.
>
> Ron
> Ron Newman, M.S., M.M.E.
> Partner, Caditz-Newman <http://newman.caditz.us>, Smart Infrastructure
> for Autonomous Vehicles
> Founder, IdeaTreeLive.com <http://www.Ideatreelive.com> Knowledge Modeling
> Piano <https://www.ronnewmanpiano.com>
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>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 6:40 AM Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> We decided that The Road to Reality was unreadable because it's neither
>> here nor there.  It was very Advanced without being mathematical enough.
>> Kind of like a long badly written Scientific American article.
>>
>> To make a long story short, we finally read Gauge Fields, Knots and
>> Gravity by John Baez more or less successfully.  The first part of the book
>> covers manifolds, differential forms and, in general, the math you need for
>> general relativity and quantum field theory.  If you want another opinion
>> ask Jon Zingale or Barry Mackichan.
>>
>> Frank
>>
>> Or travel back in time and ask Hywel.
>> -----------------------------------
>> Frank Wimberly
>>
>> My memoir:
>> https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly
>>
>> My scientific publications:
>> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2
>>
>> Phone (505) 670-9918
>>
>> On Tue, Dec 4, 2018, 11:21 PM Nick Thompson <nickthompson at earthlink.net
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, Dave,
>>>
>>> Missed this note the first time.  Frank and Hywel had a go at this a
>>> couple
>>> of years ago, and I bought the book and tried to join them.  Whew!  It
>>> was
>>> at that point I gave up on the notion that I could read anything if I
>>> tried
>>> hard enough.  Hywel has since died, but I think there was at least one
>>> other
>>> person involved, who, with Frank, might be able to give you some
>>> guidance.
>>>
>>> Nick
>>>
>>> Nicholas S. Thompson
>>> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>>> Clark University
>>> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Prof David
>>> West
>>> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2018 10:26 AM
>>> To: friam at redfish.com
>>> Subject: [FRIAM] two books
>>>
>>> I just finished reading What is Real? by Adam Becker. A straightforward
>>> discussion of Quantum Physics and the "Copenhagen Interpretation," and
>>> the
>>> arguments surrounding it. it offers an indirect but scathing study of how
>>> science is really done and how far the practice of science is from the
>>> ideal
>>> of a "scientific method." Also an interesting discussion of the
>>> relationship
>>> between 'science' and 'phi8losophy'. Might be of interest to several
>>> FRIAMers.
>>>
>>> Starting to read Roger Penrose's, The Road to Reality: a complete guide
>>> tot
>>> he laws of the universe. I would really like some advice / comments from
>>> the
>>> mathematicians in the community as to the value of the book and the
>>> likely
>>> hood that I might gain sufficient understanding of manifolds, symmetry
>>> groups, etc. etc. to understand some of the conversations on the list
>>> and at
>>> the mother church.
>>>
>>> dave west
>>>
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