The Quantum Rules: How the Laws of Physics Explain Love, Success, and Everyday Life - Softcover

Das, Kunal K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1632204592 ISBN 13: 9781632204592

Verlag: Skyhorse, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

Now a New York Times Bestseller!

Here is a book to lead you through the fascinating intersections of life and physics with humor and intelligence.

Find out how the laws of physics define every aspect of our lives and society, from human nature and relationships to geopolitical issues like financial markets, globalization and immigration. The Quantum Rules is a different kind of physics book, as easy to read as a novel and directly relevant for everyday life issues that affect us all. It is not meant to dazzle you with unproven speculations that have no bearing on your life. Rather, The Quantum Rules will familiarize you with the important and established laws at the heart of physics, in a way never done before – by showing how the defining patterns of our lives, our behavior and our society already follow similar rules.

Never took an interest in science before? No problem! you will still understand everything and find plenty to relate to. A scientist or a science junkie? You will find a different perspective on things you may already know. Best of all, you will discover how to have meaningful conversations about physics in a way that won’t make eyes glaze over, and in which all can gladly participate.

The Quantum Rules also does something you would never expect from a book on physics – it makes you laugh, often. Its new and original take on established natural laws injects plenty of dry humor into this serious subject, by using life to explain physics and in turn using physics to understand life.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kunal K. Das is a Professor of Physics and an active researcher in the fields of Nanotechnology and Ultracold Atoms with ongoing funding from the National Science Foundation. He has authored dozens of refereed journal publications and has held teaching and research appointments at several institutions including SUNY, Penn State, Fordham, Optical Sciences Center, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Atypically for a physicist, he has a lifelong interest in the humanities and pop culture and a passion for classic literature, giving him a unique view of physical laws from the perspective of broader human experiences. He is currently a Professor at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and a Scholar of the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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The Quantum Rules

How the Laws of Physics Explain Love, Success, and Everyday Life

By Kunal K. Das

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright © 2015 Kunal K. Das
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-63220-459-2

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, 
INTRODUCTION, 
CHAPTER 1 A QUANTUM OF HAPPINESS, 
CHAPTER 2 THE HEISENBERG COMPROMISES, 
CHAPTER 3 ENTROPY IS MESSING WITH YOUR LIFE, 
CHAPTER 4 THE LAZINESS CLAUSE, 
CHAPTER 5 GLOBAL EFFECTS OF POTENTIAL GRADIENTS, 
CHAPTER 6 COPING WITH IT ALL BY SCALING AND RENORMALIZATION, 
CHAPTER 7 STEREOTYPING STATISTICAL MECHANICS, 
CHAPTER 8 FLUCTUATION WILL LEAD TO DISSIPATION, 
CHAPTER 9 THE WAVE MECHANICS OF RELATIONSHIPS, 
CHAPTER 10 RULES OF ATTRACTION, 
CHAPTER 11 NEWTON'S LAWS OF HUMAN DYNAMICS, 
CHAPTER 12 QUANTUM THEORY OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS, 
CHAPTER 13 SEXUALLY BROKEN SYMMETRY, 
CHAPTER 14 RESONANCE WILL SET YOU FREE, 
CHAPTER 15 FAME AND THE EXISTENTIAL CRISIS OF SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT, 
CHAPTER 16 MY TIME IS NOT YOUR TIME, 
CHAPTER 17 OPTIMISM COLLAPSE ON THE WORLD LINE, 
CHAPTER 18 IT IS ALL ON THE SURFACE, 
CHAPTER 19 THE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE, 
CHAPTER 20 THE MIDDLE PATH INTEGRAL OF LIFE, 
CHAPTER 21 A CURRENT FORMULA FOR SUCCESS, 
AFTERWORD, 
INDEX, 

CHAPTER 1

A QUANTUM OF HAPPINESS

Quantization happens when a physical system is restricted by boundary conditions, to exist in only certain very specific states. Likewise, our mental states, as in how we feel, depend on the boundary conditions in our lives, meaning all the bonds and constraints that keep us where we are, with whom we are, and doing what we do.The mechanisms that can alter quantum states suggest ways to reach happier states in life.

"Money cannot buy you happiness" — an ancient bit of wisdom, often quoted, but seldom believed. You must have heard it often enough and perhaps even mutter it yourself occasionally. But if you do not feel wealthy, I bet you always had a lurking suspicion that this can't be right — surely you would be a lot happier if you had more money! Rich folks do seem to be generally happier, and wealth certainly opens up a lot of attractive possibilities. So it is only natural to doubt and wonder, particularly in the ultra-materialistic world we live in today where we have become absolutely dependent on our possessions. We often tend to feel that the more we possess, the better we would feel, and the happier our lives would be. Shopping has indeed become a wistful antidote for feeling down and low.

Life does not come with a guarantee of happiness. But that has never prevented anyone from feeling entitled to it, and we stay in hard pursuit of it all our lives. Ironically, by trying so hard, we often make it even more elusive. In fact, we can't even agree upon what happiness really means. Ask around: You will simply get personalized descriptions of everything happiness is not — laundry lists of all those things missing in people's lives that they think are keeping them from being happy. Each list would be a bit different, indicating a different definition of happiness for everyone.

So, with no universal definition or prescription on how to find it, our collective quest for happiness continues to be an essentially blind quest, and like any blind quest, the failure rate is quite high. Wouldn't it be nice to get an objective perspective on what happiness is all about — to be able to establish a few concrete facts that could guide us in this universal quest for happiness? With some almost poetic parallels, the character of quantum states can help us do just that.

Let us start with the one thing we can be sure of: Happiness is a state of mind. Although a bit of a cliché, this never fails to impress anyone stumbling upon it for the first time as a profound bit of insight. And it is essentially true; whether we feel happy or sad, it's all just a state of mind. But it does not tell us much that is of any practical use, such as how we might be able to influence and change our mental states.

This is where quantum mechanics comes in handy because quantum mechanics is all about "states": eigenstates, position states, momentum states, closed states, open states, bound states, entangled states, stationary states — even the whole universe is speculated to be in a quantum state. In quantum mechanics, the state of a system is simply the status of all the characteristics that describe it. Rather like how you might describe your own "state" right now — as a list of all the relevant variables in your life as they happen to be playing out currently. A subset of those variables that influence how you feel right now defines your current mental "state." Quantum mechanics has been rigorously dealing with all kinds of states for a whole lot of complicated things, so it can certainly give us a few pointers about the states of the mind as well. After all, each human being, and therefore the human mind, is defined by some sort of quantum state as well, albeit a very complex one. In recent years, there actually have been some serious attempts by respected scientists to explain consciousness with quantum theory.

The most important class of states in quantum mechanics are the stationary states, because they really got the whole field started. And the name says it all — once a system is in a stationary state it will remain there, stationary and unchanging, unless disturbed. Such states have some remarkable properties, as we will see. Introduced by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr in 1915, the concept of stationary states was the real birth of quantum mechanics, establishing it as a completely different view of nature, distinct from classical Newtonian physics.

It is particularly appropriate to begin our quest for happiness with stationary states, because in real-life terms, the stability of an unchanging stationary situation usually marks the first step toward happiness, implying that at least things are not getting any worse! Indeed, we all seek some level of stability in life to give us a sense of security. We have a name for the desirable stationary states in life: states of contentment. If you can manage to be content most of the time with what you have, then you can be reasonably assured that your life has been a success. As with quantum states, numerous stationary states are possible for every individual — each of those states corresponding to a different combination of situations with which someone could be content. Despite popular beliefs to the contrary, we don't all need to be rich and famous to be content. For example, you could be content with a stable desk job with a caring family to return to every evening in a middleclass suburb; or you could be enjoying the single life as a millionaire actor in a successful sitcom with a mansion by the beach and a Ferrari in your garage; or you could even achieve a high level of contentment working the night shift in the local four-year college where your kids can attend for free, and you enjoy your local community activities and the bowling league. We can keep adding to the list and could potentially find stability and contentment in any one of a wide variety of life situations. Yet, as we all know, lasting contentment is not easy to find, and that is because there is something very particular about stationary states — in life, as well as in quantum mechanics.

After all, if stability were all there was to stationary states, Bohr would hardly...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Skyhorse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1632204592
• ISBN 13: 9781632204592
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 320
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchpark GmbH; gpsr@buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Deutschland