Whats the best summery of all basic info that could be found at a liberary.

Hawkings "Brief History of Time" was good, and well written. Also try "The Elegent Universe" by Brian Greene. You could go onto some websites...college proffesors' lecture notes are often posted online...that's how I learned the basic theory. Nothing beats a good book, though.

In Search Of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality

and the sequel

Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality

both by John Gribbin are great, starting with an assumption of school level knowledge and advancing through a lot quantum physics. It's a good book for beginners but even intermediates will find parts of it new or interesting.

Hawkings "Brief History of Time" was good.

 

No!No! Dreadful book! Please don't buy it!

I'd heard similar reviews as what Severian said.

 

The Elegant Universe is more about superstring theory then QM, although I suppose there's a relationship between the 2.

No!No! Dreadful book! Please don't buy it!

 

How so?

I'd heard similar reviews as what Severian said.

 

The Elegant Universe is more about superstring theory then QM' date=' although I suppose there's a relationship between the 2.[/quote']

 

Greene explains quantum mechanics before he gets to string theory, and does a good job of it too.

 

I enjoyed a brief history time, why bad reviews?

I liked Hawkings book, and now I'm reading one a friend gave me called: Stephen Hawkings Universe...by David Filkin.

 

Its short, but interesting.

 

Bettina

I didn't know that The Elegant Universe started off with QM, that's interesting, may have to look into that book!

 

I enjoyed a brief history time, why bad reviews?

I heard that he oversimplifies things to a point where they can become technically incorrect. Otherwise I've just heard generally mixed opinions on it.

 

When there's a book which everyone I know who has read it says it's great (Schrödinger cat/kitten books) compared to the Hawking's one which on this site alone has had JaKiri, Radical Edward & Severian give it negative reviews I'd go for the one which everyone likes!

Whats the best summery of all basic info that could be found at a liberary.

At what level of math preparation ?

Greene explains quantum mechanics before he gets to string theory, and does a good job of it too. I enjoyed a brief history time, why bad reviews?

I enjoyed reading it, too. But it´s as much a book on QM as your local newspaper is a book on economy.

I don´t know the book by Brian Greene but if it´s anything like these (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html), then the same applies there.

Simply no substance.

 

On topic:

Sadly, I´ve never been the person who is able to learn from books. For me, they´re a great tool to look things up but not one to learn a certain topic. However, there are some really good lecture notes available for free download (or as html sites). Take a look around in the web. If it´s a page of a univerisite´s physics department you can be rather sure that at least you´re not presented complete crap.

Thanks For all the posts