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"In search of perfection": Review of Quantum Mechanics: Symbolism of Atomic Measurements, by Julian Schwinger (edited by Berthold-Georg Englert). Reviewed by Alasair I.M. Rae. Nature, 14 June 2001.
Schwinger shared the 1965 Nobel prize for physics with Richard Feynman and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga for their invention of the theory of quantum electrodynamics. The author notes the difference between opening a book by Feynman (in which a page is usually text with a half dozen equations) and one by Schwinger (in which a typical page is full of mathematical equations with little text). The first chapter of this book sets out Schwinger's philosophical thoughts on the topic, which is followed by his description of Bohr's principle of complementarity, analysis of the Stern-Gerlach experiment, and treatment of the standard problems of the harmonic oscillator in one, two and three dimensions. The reviewer concludes that the book is "an interesting example of the way the subject was understood by one of the greatest physicists of the last century."
--- Annette Emerson
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