A Quantum Valentine’s Day Gift For You
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
As a gift for you, or for you to share with someone you love, I’ve created a free book about quantum physics and the spirit of this holiday!
Cutting to the chase, you can find the words and images from the book below. If you’d like the PDF, you can find it here. For convenience, I’ve uploaded the book to Amazon, which means you can easily purchase a printed copy. Note that the price is the minimum I was allowed to set, which presumably means that is the cost of production plus Amazon’s cut.
What does “free” mean?
In this case, it has a precise legal meaning. It is licensed under CC BY-SA. This means you can do whatever you want with it, even sell it, so long as I am credited as the original creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. Terms of the license can be found at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.
In case you were wondering, and without getting into the details, which I can do in a later post, here are the high-level steps if you too want to make a book:
- Write the words.
- Create the illustration.
- Put them together using Inkscape and export them as square images.
- Combine them into a PDF document using MikTeX.
- Go to Kindle Direct Publishing and upload your files.
The Quantum In You
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
My heart loves all,
The quantum in you.
Nitrogen, calcium,
And phosphorus.
There’s so much in common,
Between two of us.
Hydrogen, carbon,
And oxygen.
There’s a lot going on,
Under your skin.
From your head to your toes,
You’re made of this stuff.
To look on the outside,
Is never enough.
Inside and out,
Atoms and space,
To think of them all,
Makes my heart race.
Within each element,
There’s more going on.
Protons, neutrons,
And electrons.
Go deeper still,
And you will find quarks —
The building blocks,
Which give you your spark.
These tiny things,
Do not you define.
They’ve been here,
Since the beginning of time.
Quarks made into stars,
Then went supernova.
To do it again,
Over and over.
But the cycle has slowed,
Relatively speaking,
To make way for you,
Now living and breathing.
The quarks build atoms,
To make what you are,
The love of my life,
An ancestor of stars.
This quantum stuff,
Builds up to make you,
Red roses, and
Violets of blue.
When I look at you with love,
From top to bottom,
I see all that you are,
And all that is…
Quantum!
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Thanks for joining the journey!
Dr. Chris Ferrie
