Synopsis The novel, In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality by John Gribbin, is about quantum physics and the applications to the world they have. The book has been written as an in depth overview of the bizarre quantum world for those without prior knowledge of it. One point made is that in the quantum world (on the atomic and subatomic levels), things aren’t like what classical physics dictates and rely more upon probabilities than definitive answers, thus making a more complex and intriguing topic. The book tells a basic story of the development of quantum theory starting in the early 1800’s to the present time including concepts such as the wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, and the Copenhagen Interpretation. Later in the book, more advanced topics such as the many worlds theory, Schrödinger’s cat experiment, time travel, and other various theories are described. This is written with many examples applicable to the natural world and shows the applications quantum physics has to the world such as molecular biology and computers. Setting: The setting in this story covers many areas. The majority of the storyline consists of the northwest parts of Europe where most of the major scientific …show more content…
Planck was a German theoretical physicist known well for his work determining that electrical oscillators within an atom only emits or absorbs specific sizes of energy similar to how a ATM only outputs money in set amounts. He concluded with the equation E=hv, where E is energy, v is the frequency of the wave the energy is moving in, and h is a constant known as Planck’s constant. Ironically, he was a classical physics man and saw his discovery as a mathematical trick and dismissed it as being anything major. In actuality, Planck gave birth to a new form of physics and can be though as the father of quantum mechanics because of it. This won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in