Reviews

The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen by Brian Cox, Jeffrey R. Forshaw

charlypeters's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

3.0

I learnt a fair bit but not as much as this book tried to teach me. Impressed they managed to make it borderline humorous at times.

andreana_k's review against another edition

3.0

I'm surprised I understood this. Well, like 70% of it. Okay understood is a stretch, I followed 70% of it. Okay 60%. Granted it was dumbed down a lot and bless Brian Cox's heart he tried with the whole clocks thing but I guess you can only dumb down Quantum mechanics so much.

heyehs's review against another edition

3.0

I preferred Brief History of Time. This was not really accessible to me. Too many equations and the analogy lost me by the middle of the book. It really does go in deep.

pandagopanda's review against another edition

4.0

Okay, this took me a long time to read, but I found it consistently interesting! And somehow soothing? Cox and Forshaw are clearly skilled and passionate communicators, and adopt a keen but easygoing tone. The explanations are really well organised and steadily paced throughout, so though concentration is required, they keep you with them. It was published in 2011, just the year before the Higgs Boson was observed in experiments at the LHC, confirming the Standard Model - the outline of which is the crescendo of the book.
I always appreciate a nice looking and feeling book, and though this is a simple Penguin paperback, the cover is made from a wonderful pearlescent cardstock and the title is in a gorgeously Star Trek-esque typeface in rainbow colours. Magic!

rosemarieshort's review against another edition

3.0

I ploughed through, struggling valiantly, with a books which was written for someone several IQ points and a mathematics A Level above me. I would recommend this book for anything who has those things (the former not hard, the latter absolutely essential to follow this particular read). It was a sacrifice made for a project I'm currently working on. Whilst I can't say I'm phenomenally wiser for battling through I can say that I can see merit and worth here and don't regret reading it. Just don't remember much of it.

haakansoderstrom's review

4.0

No sabiendo nada de matemáticas, es muy difícil de abordar, pero está escrito de tal manera que me pude hacer una vaga idea de los conceptos explicados. Si bien todo lo que explica no es para nada intuitivo y no tiene un ejemplo concreto en la realidad para hacer analogía, se las arreglan bastante bien para explicar todo sin apabullarte con fórmulas.
Una gran lectura, a la que sin lugar a dudas volveré.

lucyevelyn13's review against another edition

challenging

3.25

marioncromb's review

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

As a physicist I know (or knew, once upon a time) most of this stuff already. But because its aimed at a general audience it can offer different ways of thinking about quantum physics (and in ways that are sorta scientifically sound/not fudging the details much) which was nice. Its also nice that it doesn't shy away from the maths, taking you through equations and what they mean/represent. I didn't understand the refusal to even mention complex numbers till about 180 pages in, i feel it would probably help people trying to understand the clock metaphor to know at least from a footnote that its mathematically described by complex numbers if they wanted to look it up. I think Feynman also uses the clock metaphor which is probably where they got it from. Trying to understand the clocks was maybe the slowest part of the book for me as i was trying to translate it to the maths. But like i say - the new perspective is rewarding. More footnotes in a similar vein (e.g maybe mentioning the word 'integral' in all the places they refused to use integrals because the maths was complicated) would have also been good because i feel like it would be a good book for eg first year undergrads as a jumping off point. The final chapter certainly feels like an undergrad physics problems class exercise!
Definitely understood the stuff on chemistry and semiconductors etc waaay more from this than the terrible Quantum Approach to Solids lectures I sat through.
Mostly factually correct on the science, but some of the historical anecdotes are a bit dubious (for example Fourier was not Napoleon's governor of Egypt, he was head of a science institute in Cairo, and governor of a place in France. The manner of his death is also unverified, other sources say heart attack)

car0's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

2.5

sometimesdazai's review against another edition

3.0

Semacam nge-review ulang materi kuliah semester-semester akhir (dulu)~~~