Boojums All the Way through: Communicating Science in a Prosaic Age by N. David Mermin (PDF)

Description

Boojums All the Way Through is a collection of essays that deals in a variety of ways with the problem of communicating modern physics to both physicists and non-physicists. The author is Professor David Mermin, a well-known theoretical physicist, who recently won the first Julius Edgar Lileinfeld prize of the American Physical Society ‘for his remarkable clarity and wit as a lecturer to nonspecialists on difficult subjects’. David Mermin’s wry humour is clearly apparent in most of these articles, but even those that are more serious are characterized by a liveliness and commitment to finding startlingly simple ways of presenting ideas that are traditionally regarded as complex. This book will appeal to physicists at all levels, to mathematicians, scientists and engineers, and indeed to anyone who enjoys reading non-technical accounts of new ways of looking at modern science.

User’s Reviews

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

⭐This is a remarkable collection. Twenty-six essays by N.D. Mermin, Horace White Professor of Physics Emeritus at Cornell, and winner of the first Julias Edgar Lilienfeld prize of the American Physical Society ‘for his remarkable clarity and wit as a lecturer to nonspecialists on difficult subjects’.This is the guy who managed to add the term “Boojum” to the vocabulary of physics, and who summarized the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics in just four words “Shut up and calculate”. When reading this book, be prepared for more such gems. You will encounter deep truths about physical reality summarized in brief statements like “There is no time, only clocks”.Mermin creates pure pedagogical jewels by defining “The Baseball Principle” (whether or not you watch baseball games on television has no effect on the statistics of the outcomes) and “The Strong Baseball Principle” (the baseball principle applied to one particular game), by arguing in favor of both, and then by going on to demonstrates that quantum mechanics leads to hard experimental facts that demonstrate the baseball principle can only be true if the strong baseball principle is binned. Puzzled? You should be. This cuts through the very core of quantum physics.The book will be an easy read if you are familiar with the principles of quantum mechanics and relativity at an undergraduate level. Less so, if you aren’t.Is this a book for you? Have a look at Mermin’s homepage: […] . If you like the stuff you see there: don’t hesitate and buy this collection of funny, puzzling and enlightening essays. You’ll love it.

⭐Like one other reviewer, I bought the book to get Mermin’s explanation of the Bell inequality. He did make that very clear, twice. In fact, that is my problem with the whole book. It is a collection of essays and presentations that have appeared elsewhere in stand-alone format. It is therefore to be expected that a lot of background material will be found multiple times. A little more editing would have smoothed the transitions and given the reader some idea why he had already seen these comments.The mathematical musings section is reminiscent of the best of Martin Gardener, playing with special numbers and learning in detail how Stirling’s approximation works.Several of the essays are essentially book reviews, and in this type of book, they seem hard to justify since the audience is not very likely to make use of them.In short, I read it quickly, understood most of it easily, but was rather disappointed. I should have bought a used copy.

⭐David Mermin is just incredibly great at explaining (with art and humor) things which a layperson might assume are out of reach. Thank you, David Mermin, for expanding my world and reflecting its mystery! I am such a huge fan of yours now. Keep writing for us! It was Louisa Gilder’s mention of you in a video I saw online that tipped me off to you. Thank you, Louisa!

⭐I suppose the title of this book steers a lot of junior physics people away from it. The author’s name should steer these people back. This is the Mermin that Feynman complemented on his popular exposition on Bell’s inequality. In fact that is the reason why I read this thing. After Wheeler’s Quantum Measurement’s book and Berstein’s Quantum Profile’s book I had to see what all the hoopla was about. Sure enough Mermin is the king of popular exposition and I’ve been through a lot of popular exposition on Bell’s inequality…from Pagels to Penrose. This book is loaded with other expositories too on relativity and mathematics and general physics stuff. A good cheap read that will get you deeper into physics on a non-specialist level.

⭐Neutral score as this review does not relate to the contents of the book . It appears the provided Kindle Version is not compatible with my 3 year old Kindle Paperwhite ( 3 yrs ffs ) . I have requested a refund but I would have preferred a richer interaction like : Can I get a OS/firmware upgrade for my old (!) kindle ? Can the incompatible format be downloaded and converted by some means .

⭐Interesting approach to science teaching.

⭐This book gives a very lucid description of Bell’s inequality, which shakes our very fundamental beliefs in how things work.I find Bell’s inequality VERY disturbing.It does not furnish us with an understanding, however. Perhaps nothing does.

⭐A good demonstration of some of the incomprehensible strangeness of quantum physics, and the commentary that this strangeness has generated. Not good in explaining what the mechanical demonstrations represent: What are the particles? What are the switches? What is the “Stuff left behind”? Etc.

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