How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel (PDF)

Description

Learn the basics of quantum physics with this clever, fun, and lighthearted introduction to modern physics based on a series of conversations with Chad Orzel and his dog Emmy.When physics professor Chad Orzel went to the pound to adopt a dog, he never imagined Emmy. She wasn’t just a friendly mutt who needed a home. Soon she was trying to use the strange ideas of quantum mechanics for the really important things in her life: chasing critters, getting treats, and going for walks. She peppered Chad with questions: Could she use quantum tunneling to get through the neighbor’s fence and chase bunnies? What about quantum teleportation to catch squirrels before they climb out of reach? Where are all the universes in which Chad drops steak on the floor? With great humor and clarity, Chad Orzel explains to Emmy, and to human readers, just what quantum mechanics is and how it works—and why, although you can’t use it to catch squirrels or eat steak, it’s still bizarre, amazing, and important to every dog and human.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐”he called it spukhafte Fernwirkung”Spooky action at a distance?” she translates”Since when do you know German?””Dude, look at me” she turns sideways for a second, showing off her black and tan coloring and pointed nose. “German shepherd, remember?” So goes the banter between a dog and his owner as they discuss the strange world of quantum physics. This highly readable book will take you into the realms of quantum tunneling, Schrodinger’s Wave equations, the quantum zeno effect and other topics of this strange world of the very small. Chad Orzel writes a very clear, readable book using his dog Emmy to explain the physics of quantum mechanics. The style which he uses his conversations with his dog to set up the explanations is an ingenious method and for those who are not familiar with the subject provides a short glossary; for those who want to read more suggested readings are also given. What I liked about this book is how Mr. Orzel takes on the tasks of dispelling certain myths about quantum physics in a very nonthreatening manner. Usually it is his dog who has the incorrect interpretation of the concept and upon examples and strong analogies, the concept is explained and by the end of the chapter Emmy understands. For example, Emmy begins chapter 2 with a lost bone and failure to understand Chad’s joke about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. After Emmy finds her bone (under the TV) Chad begins to explain the principle and at the end of the chapter Emmy comes back to help us summarize what we learned. The use of Emmy is a clever way to introduce the “What does that mean?” into a book that could be a dry and dusty tome about a subject that many would probably never read about. The use of Emmy is not over done nor is it condescending towards the reader. You are taken along with Emmy into Orzel’s explanations with no abrupt jumps in transition. Overall the book is a joy to read, but unfortunately there are parts where you may have to just back up and read again. Quantum physics is a hard topic to explain to those who are not familiar with the topic and while Orzel does a very good job at explanations, sometimes the reader will have to re-read a passage to grasp what he is saying. This is not the fault of the author, it is the fault of the subject. The world of these tiny objects is quite beyond what we can perceive so we have to be very imaginative to explore this world. Because of this, written explanations can get wordy or burdensome trying to illustrate these difficult concepts. Orzel does a good job of clearing the air and helping the reader understand. As a teacher of high school physics, I have read many books on quantum physics and this one, I must say, tops the list in readability, interest and clarity. I even would venture to use it as a text in a high school class to introduce the topic of quantum physics. While it helps to have a background knowledge of physics when reading this book, any one can learn from this book and enjoy it. As the college syllabus reads “Prerequisites-none”.

⭐Clearly Emmy was getting the gist of this “Quantum stuff” better than I did. Although mostly an enjoyable read, I admit to getting lost in the weeds at times and probably didn’t come away with all that I should have. My brain just isn’t primed for a non-deterministic reality. Assuming the future is a “blank sheet of paper” until it is written on, then it follows that once the present is recorded it becomes the un-changeable past. When I, the “court reporter,” reads back the recorded past, a determined pathway from then to now is obvious. No uncertain remains. That we are unable to read the future as clearly as the past doesn’t make the future fundamentally indeterminate, it just means our ability to determine (measure) it is limited by our symbiotic relationship with an expanding universe. A one way ticket for us, but not for time which exists equally in the past, present and future. It seems to me that what’s missing in these theories is a better understanding of what is referred to as Space-Time, when perhaps a better description would be Space+Time, freeing up the 4th dimension from the other 3. But like I said, Emmy is getting the gist of this better than I.

⭐Physicist Chad Orzel talks to his dog. This is not all that unusual. Many pet owners talk to their pets and dogs make particularly good listeners. What might be a little strange is that Professor Orzel talks to his German Sheppard mix Emma about quantum physics. It turns out that dogs have a good intuitive grasp of quantum physics so they are able to have long conversations on quantum physics. In How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, Chad Orzel relates these conversations in which he explains to an eager Emma the basics of quantum physics. Emma interrupts his explanations with just the sort of questions the reader might happen to have. The dog and physicist talk about such topics as the uncertainty principle, virtual particles, quantum tunneling and entanglement.It’s a fun idea and Chad Orzel does a terrific job explaining physics to the lay reader in the guise of talking to his dog. He seems to have a good feel for how a dog acts and thinks, and I have no trouble imagining that if a dog could talk about physics she would be just as excitable, and as easily distracted by squirrels, bunnies, and treats.The most important chapter in this book must be the last one, Beware of Evil Squirrels. Here Professor Orzel warns the read of the misuses and outright scams involving quantum physics. There are any number of con artists and New Age frauds who make use of scientific sounding terminology to mislead their victims into believing that one can get free energy from “vacuum energy” or heal oneself of all diseases by imagining oneself to be perfectly healthy. As Orel explains, despite the many weird and wonderful manifestations of quantum physics, it is not magic, and follows the same sort of rules as anything else in the universe, including the common sense rule that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.I found How to Teach Physics to Your Dog to be appealing and informative. I think that some of the explanations were a bit hard to follow but that is perhaps more my fault than the writer’s.

⭐Lost me by the end of page 25 (Plancks’ discovery of the particle properties of light – effectively the foundation of quantum physics . . . )This is yet another science book written by someone who clearly has no capacity to put themselves into the mind of the unknowing reader.Essentially, the author has written down what HE knows with no cognisance paid to what WE don’t know.The book leaves you with a misplaced sense of intellectual failure – a failure on your part to understand what the author is saying. In truth the failure is actually the failure of the author to understand the reader.I am a biochemist – I do not expect to be spoon fed with easy knowledge – I am prepared to work at it, however this book – like so many ‘popular’ science books (particularly physics books) – simply skims over a large and complex body of knowledge with very little regard for whether or not any meaningful insight is being made available to the reader.It’s not about you Mr Orzel, or your colleagues in the physics department (or you dog) it’s about the READER.I think anyone who attempts to write a science book should ask themselves this: if you knew nothing of the subject about which you are writing would what you have written mean anything to you?Read your book mr Orzel and try to imagine you know nothing – nothing of the concepts, nothing of the subject language etc. – I think, like me, you would not get beyond page 25.

⭐My Dad’s a retired Superintendent Radiographer and was also a secondary school Physics teacher later in life and so this book made an ideal little Christmas gift for him. He had a stroke recently and so anything that holds his attention these days and makes him laugh is always a huge bonus to me. And although he is still only a few chapters in, he reckons that it is a very good as well as an ‘accessible’ read so far. And amazingly, it only cost me just 14p for a brand new sealed copy plus p&p too?!!I am unfortunately very ignorant on such matters myself due to a very poor school education that required a lot of hard work to catch up on when at College – and, in all honesty, Physics and Chemistry were definitely NOT my favourite subjects! However, I may just sneak a little read of this book in the New Year, if only just see if I can understand, or maybe even learn something from it?I’m not quite sure exactly what kind of impression it has left on our dog, Tia-Maria, though? – but still she did consent to sit quietly on my Dad’s knee and listen (in what did appear to be a fascinated silence?) while he read some of the key points out to her? Our other dog, Mitzi-Ditzi, however was distinctly less interested and she chose to crawl under the sofa in search of any ‘vintage’ Bonio crumbs instead!!! ;o>

⭐Enjoyed this but think – overall – the whole dog thing detracted from, rather than added to understanding. Sometimes it helped and sometimes it was funny but, for me, more often it seemed forced and unhelpful.Having said all that, I’d still recommended the book, especially in light of all the absurd pseudoscientific crud being published these days.Definitely worth a read.PSDid Niels Bohr run off with one of the author’s great-great-great aunts, much to the chagrin of all of the family since, or am I detecting an anti-Bohr virtual particle erroneously?

⭐Since the day I rescued copies of the original “Mr Tomkins” books from a school library “discard” pile, I’ve always been an enthusiastic reader of books which try to explain advanced science and technology concepts in a fun way, and this book (and it’s newer counterpart about relativity) caught my eye recently.The concept is simple: Chad Orzel’s dog, Emmy, may be a typical mutt obsessed with walks, squirrels and discarded food, but she’s also intelligent enough to have a basic grasp of quantum concepts, and a view to how they might be exploited in her favour, for example by passing simultaneously around both sides of a tree to catch a squirrel. Each chapter starts with Chad explaining why “it’s not quite like that”, and going on to explain the real physics to her in some detail. This works well, breaking up some quite complex discussions with amusing dialogue between master and hound, and makes the book eminently readable.The books scores because it’s bang up to date, and goes beyond the basic quantum concepts into more complex areas like decoherence, entanglement and quantum teleportation, supplementing explanations of the basic concepts and “thought experiments” with the details and outcomes of relatively recent experimental verification. Similarly “quantum” is the current buzzword beloved of pseudo-scientific charlatans, and the last chapter is a timely effort to debunk those who abuse it for get-rich-quick schemes and medical quackery.I also particularly liked the way that the author is not afraid to embrace the concepts of measurement errors and accuracy. These are vital tools to understand how well, or badly, something has been established, and I was very pleased to see such an accessible book using them well.The explanations themselves are a mixed bunch, some being very complicated and taking me a couple of goes to read and absorb. Given that I probably have rather more background that the target demographic (I do have a good Physics degree, albeit a few years old) this may mean that some readers could struggle with the most complex parts. I suspect a few more diagrams in these areas might have helped. However overall the book succeeds, and will probably prompt keen readers to re-read or seek out secondary explanations where they don’t understand first time.In the Kindle edition some of the graphics are a page or two adrift of the relevant text, and the footnotes (which often contain important or amusing asides) are presented in a bunch at the end of each chapter, which is not very reader friendly. I suspect the paper version of the book is better in this respect.This books is well worth reading, and has certainly helped to refresh and update my understanding of a complex field, while giving me a welcome laugh at the dog’s antics. I look forward to reading the relativity volume later this year.

⭐This is one of those books that I would not recommend anyone read in one sitting: maybe it’s just me, but as soon as I tried to read more than one chapter at a time my brain started begging for mercy, turning into cream cheese, and dripping out through my ears… not an experience I would recommend to anyone ;)That said, taken in in small chunks, Orzel’s book does magically manage to make quantum physics somewhat comprehensible (I’m not sure I have the right kind of brain to grasp it completely: see cream cheese issue above), interesting, and frequently funny. Some of the weirdnesses of quantum physics are explained in such a way as to demonstrate the sheer strangeness of how matter behaves at quantum level (regarding the behaviour of waves, the squirrel maths was both amusing and helpful!), and Emmy the dog is an irresistible protagonist in the journey.I suspect some background in the subject would be tremendously helpful, but as a reasonably intelligent but not scientifically trained individual with no maths or physicas beyond GCSE level, I more or less followed along and learned a great deal along the way… I was amused and delighted to find, when watching

⭐Big Bang Theory – Season 1-4 Complete [DVD

⭐], that I have certainly retained some things as I understood a good deal more than I used to. I dare say I will learn more with re-reading! Very enjoyable, and highly recommended.

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