“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t really understand it.”
Despite the fact that this quote, and other variants, may be falsely attributed to Einstein, it’s likely that the majority of adults can’t pretend to understand quantum mechanics let alone explain them to a child.
If you think popular scientists have a hard time trying to explain mind-numbing physical phenomena to an average six-year-old child, what about explaining them to a 3-year-old baby?
Maybe you’re confident that you could, but I know I’d have a hard time with it.
Nevertheless, Christopher Ferrie thinks that’s possible and he’s written Quantum Physics for Babies, and other books, to help you and your baby with that.
Quantum Bedtime Stories
Christopher Ferrie is a PhD mathematician and a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Quantum Software and Information at the University of Technology-Sydney, with a long, award-winning career.
Self-described as a “quantum theorist by day, father by night”, Ferrie also “moonlights as a children’s book author.”
It all started as a joke.
In 2013, Ferrie wanted to make a prop nerdy baby book with only the cover as a joke, then, after encouragement from his family, he spent some time on creating the actual content for the book.
Ferrie published Quantum Physics for Babies as a real book through a self-publishing platform, then to Amazon.com, where readers asked him to write more similar books, which he did.
He wrote two more books, “Newtonian Physics for Babies” and “Optical Physics for Babies”, as part of what’s now known as the Baby University series, which include other titles including General Relativity for Babies, Rocket Science for Babies and Quantum Entanglement for Babies.
Early Start, Grow Smart!
Ferrie starts his book with a blue ball, against a white background, saying that “all balls are made of atoms,” then, from there, tries to touch on the most basic concepts of quantum sciences and physics in general, like matter, atoms particles, energy, and its dynamics.
Ferrie demonstrates obvious pedagogical talents, as highlighted throughout this beautifully illustrated book.
Quantum Physics for Babies follows an alphabetical structure that associates each letter of the alphabet with a concept derived from physics; each is accompanied by a short explanation: A for atoms, E for energy, J for joules, N for neutrinos, etc.
In your quantum reading to your children, forget mathematical equations and focus on thought-provoking principles with simple allegories.
For example, seen from afar, a sandy beach appears as a smooth and “continuous” one, but on close inspection, we see it’s composed of an infinite number of “discontinuous” grains.
Babies start absorbing new knowledge at a very young age, and at amazing speed. In fact, they start developing language sensitivity while still in the womb
This is also an opportunity for parents not only to get their children to read and like reading but to give them a good start toward a life in which scientific approaches to complex concepts takes priority.
The child exposed to this sort of learning would find themselves immersed in universes that motivate them, stimulate their imagination, and eventually make use of the knowledge they accumulated over time.
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