Quantum Physics

By: Alistair Rae

Narrated by: David Thorn

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

From quarks to computing, this fascinating introduction covers every element of the quantum world in clear and accessible language. Drawing on a wealth of expertise to explain just what a fascinating field quantum physics is, Rae points out that it is not simply a maze of technical jargon and philosophical ideas, but a reality which affects our daily lives.

©2005 Alastair Rae. (P)2013 Bolinda Publishing

Simply fantastic

this was a fantastic audiobook with an excellent layout. It methodically step through advanced principal in a simple understandable way. I highly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.

I needed more than one listening

What did you like best about Quantum Physics: Bolinda Beginner's Guides? What did you like least?

On the first listening I did not like it much. It might be that I just did not concentrate enough. Some months later I listened it again and enjoyed so much that I listened it twice.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Quantum Physics: Bolinda Beginner's Guides?

The book is well written and it is done for broad audiences, but the fact is that this is more like a schoolbook.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

If you prefer catchy anecdotes and so forth choose another book, but if you are looking for a well done popularized "schoolbook" take this since this presents the facts in nice and well organized manner

Could you see Quantum Physics: Bolinda Beginner's Guides being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No I do not see this would make a good movie. Since this is a well done audio schoolbook

Sort of a Platypus of an Audiobook

This audiobook gets to the point quickly without much backstory or history, I like that. It's blends together both quantum mechanical concepts with quantum mechanical applications and a little quantum theory philosophy. It quickly delves into the central tenants of quantum mechanics with the wave particle duality, the uncertainty principle, Pauli exclusion principle, superpositions and a little on entanglement. There is not much particle physics (quarks, standard model, antiparticles) in here, but it keeps focused that way. The book is a bit of a hodgepodge though. It goes quickly into the concepts, then detours into how classical physics is related, then onto a DETAILED discussion on superconductivity, then to quantum computers and qubits, then to quantum philosophy and interpretations. So it's both focused and diverse in an odd sort of mix, but overall a good audiobook which treats the audience like an educated adult sans 'coddling'. Listening at 1.5x speed seemed a good pace.

If I wanted to hear Al Gore, I would have...

If I wanted to hear the idiot Al Gore I would have subscribed to Al Jazeera. After he gets done blaming us for “global warming” aka weather, it gets much better. Skip to chapter 3. Narrator is good, book is good. Would be real happy to hear someone who doesn’t have an agenda. It would have been WAY better if I wasn’t feeling guilty about driving to work.

Good, but tedious at times, and a bit monotonous

a good quantum physics audiobook to sleep to get a basic summary of...or good to sleep to

Good for Student Review, If You Can Stay Awake

My first experience of a Bolinda Guide in audio, and I won't race back for more. The work is admirably concise and begins promisingly enough with a very basic look at problems of measurement, the kind of fundamentals too often skipped. But it is dry. Very dry. Not a single witticism, aside, description, protagonist, or metaphor creeps in to increase the word count. The reader is good enough, a Brit with the plumy hues of an old Shakespearean. Yet with nothing to feed his thespian talents he quickly slips into a rich, hypnotic drone. Potential buyers should also know that this is indeed the "physics" of quantum physics. Nothing thus far (I am two third through, and may give up) on Bohr, entanglement, dead cat paradoxes, and such glamorous theoretical topics. Instead, we get descriptions of the workings of electrical generation, the crystal structures of transistors, and the like. I would find this interesting, but in such a colorless rendering it is hard to absorb. No one is to blame. This might be useful for student review. It is concise, accurate, clear. But, in my opinion, it is not the sort of audiobook most people will want, and not what most people expect when they grab a work with "quantum" in the title. If anyone bought it and disagrees, I hope they will post a contrary opinion. Again, students may be the exception, and that is the purpose of the series, I believe.