Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Quantum Moment

By: Robert P. Crease, Alfred Scharff Goldhaber
Narrated by: Sean Runnette
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

The fascinating story of how quantum mechanics went mainstream.

The discovery of the quantum - the idea, born in the early 1900s in a remote corner of physics, that energy comes in finite packets instead of infinitely divisible quantities - planted a rich set of metaphors in the popular imagination.

Quantum imagery and language now bombard us like an endless stream of photons. Phrases such as multiverse, quantum leap, alternate universe, the uncertainty principle, and Schrödinger's cat get reinvented continually in cartoons and movies, coffee mugs and T-shirts, and fiction and philosophy - phrases reinterpreted by each new generation of artists and writers.

Is a quantum leap big or small? How uncertain is the uncertainty principle? Is this barrage of quantum vocabulary pretentious and wacky or a fundamental shift in the way we think?

All of the above, say Robert P. Crease and Alfred Scharff Goldhaber in this groundbreaking book. The authors - one a philosopher, the other a physicist - draw on their training and six years of co-teaching to dramatize the quantum's rocky path from scientific theory to public understanding. Together, they and their students explored missteps, mistranslations, jokes, and gibberish in public discussions of the quantum. Their book explores the quantum's manifestations in everything from art and sculpture to the prose of John Updike and David Foster Wallace. The authors reveal the quantum's implications for knowledge, metaphor, intellectual exchange, and the contemporary world. Understanding and appreciating quantum language and imagery, and recognizing its misuse, is part of what it means to be an educated person today.

The result is acelebration of language at the interface of physics and culture, perfect for anyone drawn to the infinite variety of ideas.

©2014 Robert P. Crease (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Signposts to God cover art
Guns, Germs and Steel cover art
Third Thoughts cover art
Is God a Mathematician? cover art
Algorithms to Live By cover art
Why Does E=MC2 and Why Should We Care cover art
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry cover art
Simply Dirac cover art
Quantum Physics for Beginners, Into the Light cover art
The Story of Western Science cover art
Our Mathematical Universe cover art
Welcome to the Universe cover art
The Clockwork Universe cover art
Dreams of a Final Theory cover art
The Lightness of Being cover art
The Fabric of the Cosmos cover art

What listeners say about The Quantum Moment

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    36
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    32
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good read

Book full of concepts and theories explained in simple language.

Must listen, multiple times to truly digest its content.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely brilliant!!

I’m a layman to the world of Quantum Mechanics, and have been avidly reading everything I can on the subject. This audiobook is extremely well written and exquisitely read. The historical details and the individual insights have helped my understanding tremendously. I’m sure I will reread this audiobook again and again! Thanks for making it available. Laurie.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating but heavy!

Really comprehensive overview of the twists and turns of the discoveries in quantum physics... which made my poor little brain ache!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent listen

It was a really good review throughout the couple of centuries since the Quantum was discovered. Very thorough and easy to listen to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very interesting

Great book. Exceeded my expectations!
Good overview on Newtonian and Quant physics, including social and philosophical considerations.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!