Particle Physics: A Beginner's Guide

Learned a lot of fascinating things, but as a non-scientist, it was pretty technical. You don't really need a physics background, and they're aren't any math equations, but it was so full of information that it feels like I'm taking a college course. I guess with a subject as difficult as this, if it were simplified I wouldn't really learn that much. I've read a few other books on the subject (Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction by Frank Close, Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics by Martinus Veltman and The Particle Garden by Gordon Kane). I learned a lot by each one, because they each cover physics in a different way. If you are willing to put in some time and effort, you will be rewarded. For beginners, I would recommend going to the Wikipedia article about particle physics, and saving and printing the purple, green, red and yellow chart with all the particles; and cutting, saving and printing the chart with the 61 particles. The Particle Adventure is also a great free beginner website.

This book is as advertised, but was published in 2010. There have been numerous discoveries and significant progress in particle physics since then.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Just what the doctor ordered, Not only an excellently written book but well researched and informative. Overall a great read. 5 stars

Its an interesting book, but trying to obtain a systematic understanding of particles from reading this book is not feasible. Just as a for example, there is no use of charts and tables anywhere in this book to present the quarks, leptons, bosons, hadrons, etc. The classes of particles are quickly and minimally introduced and then the author proceeds as if one now understands what a hadron or boson is and where it fits in the big scheme of things. The author has written a history book, a history of the techniques and discoveries in particle physics. There is no systematic organized presentation of the types of particles in this book. One reviewer recommended the website particleadventure.org. Yes! This site is excellent and I got more from it in a hour than I would ever get from this book in terms of a quick systematic understanding of particles and the standard model. I bought this as a kindle for $5, so no big loss, I will probably skim though it some time. But it not what I wanted and it is the most roundabout way of explaining particle physics I can imagine. Its a history of techniques book, and an interesting one in that regard.

Raised as an atheist and loving science, for me, it was a great read. Scientific fact cannot be argued against and the more I know about quantum physics, time, E=mc2 etc. it's a no brainer where we came from.

Not captivating at all. The book felt a bit all over the place.

A little to much history. Needs a little more math.

Very well written, understandable, clear, would recommend to anyone interested at the beginners level, distinctly outlines the underlying principles and foundations.

Excellent. Book weight and size is extremely good for reading continuosly, matter is also very crisp and to the point. Later chapters are not so for beginners which is good for preparation of next level.

This is a great little book that is likely to be of interest to folk with varying levels of knowledge of the area. It's handy size means it lends itself to travelling around with the reader. A great one to do a chapter at a time - maybe with revisits. Do not worry if not all is clear - push on and it will give a good feel to anyone of this fascinating subject.

Für einen Beginner in der Teilchen Physik sehr gut geeignet, gut geschrieben und auch immer wieder mit Bildern, Schemen und ähnlichem erklärt. Man sollte jedoch vorher eine gewisse Ahnung von Physik haben (mehr als Schulwissen), da ich denke, dass ich ohne mein Studium manche Dinge nicht ganz verstanden hätte.

This book offered me much more than I had anticipated. It also moves along very quickly-which is an advantage if you are already somewhat familiar with the material, You may need to back track at times, as I did, in order to follow the pace.I'm an enthusiast of quantum/particle physics, not a student. A very well written book, as are all of the books that Brian Martin either authors or coauthors.

Generally clear but, as usual, such guides do occasionally "leap" stages in their explanations to laymen.