Can someone recommend some good sites where I could get some info on this subject? Or even some good books would help, too.
Thanks.

Berkely university has some lectures online on the topic of Quantum mechanics (and hundreds of others as well).

I am at a Citrix convention right now so I can't look up the links right now, but it shouldn't be hard to find on the internet.

If you haven't allready checked it out, then just go to wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanic

(10th June 2009 08:33)Giff Wrote:  If you haven't allready checked it out, then just go to wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanic

Yes yes yes, but I want whole sites--comprehensive and easy to read because I'm no scientist, and something that'll keep me focused. Because wikipedia has all these links and they are *such* a distraction. D:

I don't recall what scientist said it, but the phrase is "If you think you understand Quantum Mechanics, you don't understand Quantum Mechanics".

As a fan of the band Eels (and their only static member Mark Oliver Everett aka 'E') I watched the documentary "Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives" about E's father Hugh Everett, who first proposed the multiple/parallel universe idea.

The series is on Youtube somewhere, it gives some of the basics on Quantum Mechanics.

You can learn some interesting things about the quantum world here, but beyond that it's going to be hard to do it without a background in mathematics.

Books I've seen recommended:
Richard P. Feynman- QED: the strange theory of light and matter.
Nick Herbert- Quantum Reality.

Good luck

Yeah the thing we have to realize about what we hear on these science shows and you tube featurettes explaining black holes and such is that the science that backs these theories up amounts to several chalkboards worth of equations. Now, I am an atheist. But that doesn't mean I don't think there is a creation or deeper explanation to the universe to be FOUND. Thats why I always stay tuned in to the cosmologists and what they theorize through their observations, although understand all those complex equations, I do not.

But what do you guys think? Can science provide a deep and satisifying explanation to the universe for us atheists like religion has for our theistic cousins? I'd especially like to hear from EvF if you happen to read this post.

I like Hawkings, "A Brief History of Time."

(10th June 2009 19:06)leo-rcc Wrote:  I don't recall what scientist said it, but the phrase is "If you think you understand Quantum Mechanics, you don't understand Quantum Mechanics".

That would be the great Richard Feynman

obsessed_philosopher, it's quite a difficult subject to understand, especially from a layman's point of view.

I have some very good books, which unfortunately assume a background in mathematics, so I don't think they'd be of much help.

If you'd like I could run through the basics with you, just reply here or PM. Plus I can answer questions, so in that sense I'm better than a book

(9th June 2009 18:40)Tabby Wrote:  Can someone recommend some good sites where I could get some info on this subject? Or even some good books would help, too.
Thanks.

So what part do you want to know about? Molecules, atoms, photons, waves, orbits? Look up Heisenbergs uncertainty principle. Quantum mechanics is hard to understand for someone who hasn't had to sit through a chemistry or physics class. The concepts aren't too hard but the thing is that you have a lot of crazy math equations to go along with it. Those can be tricky.