Monograph by
Josef M. Jauch.
Are Quanta Real?: A Galilean Dialogue attempts to explain the concepts of
quantum physics, especially the counter-intuitive ones.
The work proceeds as a dialogue between the same
characters who appeared in
Galileo's
1630 work
Dialogue on the Two Major Systems of the World, which attempted to explain the then-equally revolutionary notion of the Earth not being at the center of the Universe
1.
The two principal characters' names are
Simplicio and
Salviati. Simplicio does not understand quantum physics and has some rather
naïve notions regarding how it works. Salviati understands it fully and is only too happy to point out Simplicio's errors.
There is a third character,
Sagredo, who appears a bit more sympathetic to Simplicio but nonetheless demurs to Salviati as the authority.
Although Jauch is a bit rough on poor Simplicio, and sets up a few straw men to knock them down, the book is well worth reading. It explains quantum physics while maintaining a practical approach to its concepts.
Are Quanta Real? was first published in Geneva in
1971, and then by Indiana University Press in
1973.
Douglas R. Hofstadter uses the dialogue form in his book
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
and claims
Are Quanta Real? as the inspiration for it. He also frequently mentioned this book in his
Scientific American column Metamagical Themas.
1 You may not realize this, but
General Relativity has placed the Earth back at
the center of the Universe, since an important result of the
cosmology resulting from General Relativity is that
Everything is at the center of the Universe.