HELP!!! Before my brain melts :)

[shinok]

does anybody know of anty good books about partical physics and quantum mechanics?? i find both these disciplines very interesting but also find that they completly blow my mind, i always find myself trying to work out the basic principles but end up even more confused,

Any suggestions would be much appreciated

Thanks in Advance

[Planetesimal]

You could start with:

"Introduction to Superstrings and M-theory" by Michio Kaku

"The Quark and the Jaguar" by Murray Gell-Mann.

"The Feynman Lectures" by Richard Feynman

"Space-Time Structure" by Erwin Schrodinger

That should be enough to be going along with!

[JamesF]

Perhaps Jeff Forshaw and Brian Cox's "Everything that can happen does happen". I've just finished Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe" which is actually about String Theory, but starts off with a fairly broad explanation of Quantum Theory. It's not exactly light reading, particularly once you get into the String Theory stuff though.

James

[George Jones]

You could start with:

"Introduction to Superstrings and M-theory" by Michio Kaku

This book by Kaku is meant for postgraduate physics students, in other words, for folks that already have degrees in physics, and who are doing a Ph.D. in physics.

"The Quark and the Jaguar" by Murray Gell-Mann.

This is a good popular-level book that gives Gell-Mann's take on quantum theory.

"The Feynman Lectures" by Richard Feynman

These Lectures are very good, but are meant for good physics students. The third volume gives Feynman's take on quantum theory. Feyman's popular-level book on quantum stuff is "QED: The Strange Story of Light and Matter", based on the (video) lectures

http://www.vega.org....deo/subseries/8

This a good complement to the Forshaw and Cox book noted by JamesF.

"Space-Time Structure" by Erwin Schrodinger

A book on general relativity meant for physicists and advanced physics students.

According to Robby Krieger and Jim Morrison, "People Are Strange"; quantum theory is stranger.

[Planetesimal]

I've read them and I don't have a degree in physics, but then I am a bit keen that way!

A more easy-going book by Kaku would be "Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time".

You could try "Wrinkles in Space and Time" by George Smoot, where he describes how his team mapped the Cosmic Microwave Background, illustrated by some physics.

There's always Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" (the illustrated version is nice to read), and a more advanced take by Hawking and Roger Penrose: "The Nature of Space and Time".

[George Jones]

I've read them and I don't have a degree in physics, but then I am a bit keen that way!

Yes, I often enjoy reading books for which I don't have the "official qualifications". I just thought a heads-up about their levels might be useful; notice that I didn't recommend that any of books shouldn't be read.

[Tiki]

Feynmans Lectures are superb, just keep reading them through.

[George Jones]

My favourite specialist books on the topics in the original post:

"Introduction to Elementary Particles" by D. J. Griffiths for particle physics;

"Lectures on Quantum Theory" by C.J. Isham for quantum theory.

Griffiths has a new book, "Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Physics" that I have pre-ordered. From Amazon's website: "Suitable for undergraduate students in non-science as well as science subjects, it uses problems and worked examples to help readers develop an understanding of what recent advances in physics actually mean."

This looks like it is an excellent book that is up to Griffiths' usual high standards,

http://www.amazon.co...51884452&sr=8-2

Use the LOOK INSIDE! feature to look at the Table of Contents. Anyone who has an Amazon account can sample portions of the book.

shinok and others here might find this book to be extremely interesting.

[ollypenrice]

One more for Feynman's QED. It's delicious!!

Olly

[Andymarrison]

My vote also goes to QED by Richard Feynman.

[Andymarrison]

...there's also a really good blog site called "Quantum Diaries", where researchers in the field post their stories about what's going on right now at the LHC etc, but which also has quite a few "starter" articles explaining the key features of the "Standard Model" (which is our current best, but by no means complete, theory of how everything fits together) and some of the basic principles of Quantum Mecanics. If nothing else it's a really interesting insight into the world of researchers at the very forefront of knowledge.

CERN have some good introductory material, too, at http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/Science/Science-en.html

My background is in this area of physics, and I don't understand it either...!

[Andymarrison]

...also The Sky at Night at 12.10am tomorrow morning (Monday 5 November) is all about "The Story of Stuff" - dark matter; atoms; fundamental particles etc.

[symesie04]

Really depends on what your level is. But maybe the books below would be good starting points. The first book is brilliant and gives general overviews of the basic physics that as the title suggests you really should know. These are sound starting points for trying to understand the likes of "entaglement" and "String theory" which the book also attempts to explain. The best thin is the book can be read cover to cover in a couple of hours which means you can read it over and over to really get your head straight on the basic concepts within physics before tackling the heavy nitty gritty.

The second book is self explanatory.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Physics-Ideas-Really-Need-Know/dp/1847240070

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1841882380/ref=asc_df_184188238010442254?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=hydra0b-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=1841882380&hvpos=1o1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1114772924972420142&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=

[shinok]

Thanks for the reply everone, there is a few books been suggested i have checked out and look and look the muts nuts

[Alastair Rae]

I'd add In Search Of Schrodinger's Cat by John Gribbin. His The Universe: A Biography is good too.

[JB80]

The second book is self explanatory.

http://www.amazon.co...=&hvptwo==

I picked this one up at a book sale, I haven't got around to reading it yet.

One I recently finished was 'Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You' by Marcus Chown.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quantum-Theory-Cannot-Hurt-You/dp/057123545X

It's definitely a good read on a basic level and written well enough to make the explanations easy to understand as it can be.