About the book:This book will tell you about the origin and development of quantum mechanics, about its new concepts. It will describe how the new theory deciphered the secrets of the structure of atoms, molecules, crystals, atomic nuclei, and how quantum mechanics is dealing with the problem of the most fundamental of all properties of matter - the interaction of particles and the relationships between fields and matter.The book was translated from the Russian by and was first published by Mir in 1966.This is a digitally typeset LaTeX version of the book. Project details https://gitlab.com/mirtitles/rydnik-abc-qmCredits to itanveer for the original scan. Credits to Hemant Garach for providing the missing pages 258-259 from the scan.We cleaned the 2-in-1 scan and added a new cover and bookmarks.The Internet Archive LinkOriginal scan as uploaded by itanveer. IA link for the same. Please note pages 258-259 are missing from the scan.There is a Bengali version of the book available also. Thanks to Siddharth for pointing this link:Link to the Bengali version.ContentsFROM CLASSICAL MECHANICS TO QUANTUM MECHANICSIn Lieu of an Introduction 11The Outlines of the New World 12The Temple of Classical Mechanics 15The Temple Collapses 17How the New Theory was Named 18Physicists Build Models 20Not Everything Can be Modelled 23The Invisible, Untouchable World 25Difficult but Interesting 26THE FIRST STEPS OF THE NEW THEORYHeat and Light 29Blacker than Black 31Exact Laws, Not Rough Approximations 32The Ultraviolet Catastrophe 34Classical Physics at an Impasse 35The Way out 36Quanta of Energy 38The Elusive Quanta 40An Unaccountable Phenomenon 43Photons 44What is Light? 46The Visiting Cards of Atoms 48Why do Bodies Emit Light? 50The Biography of the Atom Written by Niels Bohr 53From Where do We Reckon the Energy? 57Excited Atoms 59The First Setbacks 61FROM BOHR'S THEORY TO QUANTUM MECHANICSA Remarkable Article 65A Little about Ordinary Waves 66Getting Acquainted With Matter Waves 67Why Can't We See de Broglie Waves? 68The Wave is Found 71Two-Faced Particles 75P1lot Waves 76Together or Separately? 78A Visit to the Shooting Range 80Waves of Probability 83Probability Enters into Physics 84Cautious Predictions 87Waves of Particles and Particles of Waves 90On the Way to the Wave Law 91Measuring Instruments Take over 95The Uncertainty Relation 98What IS to Blame, the Instrument or the Electron? 101An Attempt with Rather Faulty Tools 103Another Marvel 106The Uncertainty Relation Once Agam 109Matter Waves Again 112The Wave FunctiOn 114Waves and Quanta are United 116ATOMS. MOLECULES. CRYSTALSClouds in Place of Orbits 120Monotony in Diversity 124Another Marvel- But as Yet Unexplained 125The Atomic Architect at Work 128Crazy Atoms 130Atoms and Chemistry 132The Birth of a Spectrum 136Fat Lines and Double Lines 140Atoms Get Married 142Solid Bodies are Really Solid 147Skeletons and Multistorey Structures of Crystals 149Insulators Can Conduct Current 155How does Current Move in a Metal? 158Those Wonderful "Semi-Things" 162Useful 'Dirt' 164Generous and Greedy Atoms 165THE INTERIOR OF THE ATOMIC NUCLEUSOn the Threshold 171The First Step 173The Second Step 176The Search for the Mysterious Meson 180The Strongest Forces of All 181Once Again about the Stability of Nuclei 185Tunnels in Nuclei 187Does the Nucleus Consist of Shells? 191Where do Gamma Rays Come from? 193The Nucleus as a Liquid Drop? 196The Liquid-Drop Nucleus Splits 198The Secrets of Nuclear Fission 200How Many Nuclei Can There Be? 203The Nucleus as Shells and Liquid Drop Together 204Particles Fly out of the Nucleus that Were Never There 207The Electron Has an Accomplice 209Electrons are Born in Nuclei 212The Hungry Nucleus 215FROM ATOMIC NUCLEI TO ELEMENTARY PARTICLESThe Discovery of a New World 219The Invisible Dividing Line 221A Bit More about the Theory of Relativity 224The First Difficulties 226An Unexpected Discovery 228A Still More Unexpected Discovery 231The Birth of a 'Hole' 235The Outlines of Emptiness 237Complete Emptiness? 240Emptiness depends on Bodies 242Matter and Fields 245There is No Emptiness 246What the Whales Rest on 249Particles Change Their Guise 251The Two-Faced Pi-Meson 254A Clue to Meson Exchange 256The Secret of Interaction 259The Kingdom of Virtualities 264The Virtual Becomes Real 265In the Search for New Particles 268Sorting the Booty 270Antiparticles Come into Action 274Particles Disintegrate 276Physicists Classify Interactions 279The Mystery of the K-Mesons 281Is the Left Any Different from the Right? 283A Way out is Found 287Worlds and Antiworlds 290What Goes on Inside Particles? 292The Mysterious Resonances 295The Curtain Rises 297Resonances Get Citizenship 299Triplets, Octets- 302Quarks 306Old Ideas Hold One Back 308The Reverse of the Obvious 310The Ubiquitous Quantum 312FROM QUANTUM MECHANICS TO ·>Indeterminable Determinacies 315The Biography of Quantum Mechanics 320Quantum Mechanics Gets Its Second Wind 324