Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory

I have a bachelor of science degree in physics, and though I'm not the best at it I'm pretty solid in both advanced math and basic physics. I just wasn't cut out to be like the physicists George Gamow writes about at the turn of the century that turned classical physics on its head.

Though some people say this book is directed at laymen, you really should have some physics background to appreciate it. It starts with the ultraviolet catastrophe prediction which led to the rethinking light as photons and ultimately the birth of quantum mechanics. Later, Niels Bohr applied the same thinking to atomic structure.

George Gamow was a Russian physicist and contemporary of many of the famous physicists in this book. He offers up a lot of the show more history of the science, as well as humorous anecdotes of those involved firsthand at the revolution in physics that occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Do yourself a favor and only get the version that includes the 1932 parody of "Faust" if you read this book.

I cannot recommend it to non-physicists, but this is my second time reading this book and I find not only quantum mechanics fascinating, but George Gamow's matter-of-fact way of describing the problems and how those scientists came up with their radical ideas to model what we observe in nature. show less

Breezy introduction to the modern physics revolution 1900–1930, with cute line illustrations. Somewhat amusing to hear Gamow refer to the next generation of theoretical physicists (Feynman, Hoyle, etc.) as less promising than the previous…but was he right after all?