Hurley 1

Abby Hurley

Dr. Alexander

PHY 191H

4 December 4, 2015

Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality

By: Manjit Kumar

Think small. No, not centimeter, or even millimeter small, but smaller-than-an-
atom small. That is the type of matter that quantum mechanics seeks to explain. In
Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality, Manjit
Kumar explains the history and theory of this strange and fairly new side of physics. He
takes the reader through a journey of famous physicists’ lives and their discoveries that
lead to what we know about quantum physics today. He solely focuses on the debate
between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr over the idea of probability in quantum
mechanics.

Kumar does a good job of explaining a very confusing topic. Quantum mechanics
just simply does not make logical sense based on Newtonian physics or observable
motion. Kumar attempts to help the reader understand these strange ideas by showing
how the discoveries were made and how the ideas evolved over time. By including
biographical information about each physicist, the reader could connect with them and
better understand the scientific formulas discovered. Kumar took the reader through the
struggles of the scientists that were on the forefront of quantum mechanics. He
explained the experiments done and what breakthroughs they lead to. Overall, this book
does a great job and introducing and explaining quantum mechanics and the theories
involved.

Quantum mechanics explains the building blocks of everything in the universe,

atoms. You must first know how the fundamental pieces work in order to understand the
system. So what does this mean on the large scale? That is the big question. What
does quantum physics mean about the nature of reality? Does it mean that nothing can
be absolute? I think that quantum physics is a way of saying that everything in the
universe is always changing, just like position of the electron in the atom. Who’s to say
that this small-scale conclusion doesn’t apply to the large scale of the universe? I think
that quantum physics might be an admittance that not everything is absolute, like
Newtonian physics once stated, but rather hectic and always changing. No one may
ever know the true nature of reality, but quantum mechanics is definitely a step in the
right direction.