Book Description
Celebrated for his brilliantly quirky insights into the physical world, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman also possessed an extraordinary talent for explaining difficult concepts to the general public. Here Feynman provides a classic and definitive introduction to QED (namely quantum electrodynamics), that part of quantum field theory describing the interactions of light with charged particles. Using everyday language, spatial concepts, visualizations, and his renowned "Feynman diagrams" instead of advanced mathematics, Feynman clearly and humorously communicates both the substance and spirit of QED to the layperson. A. Zee's new introduction places both Feynman's book and his seminal contribution to QED in historical context and further highlights Feynman's uniquely appealing and illuminating style.
Customer Reviews:
A wonderful little book!.......2007-07-15
In his Introduction to this wonderful "extra-difficult popular book ", A.Zee divides its prospective readers in three groups:1)-students who might be inspired by this book to go on and master QED.2)- intelligent laypersons curious about QED and 3)-professional physicists. Personally, I fall between groups 1 and 2: I have been a "student" of physics all my life, but at the same time I'm just a "layperson", since physics is not my specialty.
Having said that, I consider that Feynman has succeeded in conveying the basic ideas of QED to the "intelligent layperson", but I also believe that very few laypersons will finish reading this book. On the other hand, whoever finishes reading it properly, "mulling over each sentence carefully", would end up having a correct understanding of QED. And Feynman accomplishes this feat without once mentioning fermions, bosons or leptons! He makes an exception for baryons, though!
Of course, things would become much easier when the reader has some mathematical background, like knowing what vectors and complex numbers are. Then he or she will know how to add two "Feynman arrows" without there being any need to tell him or her to "attach the head of one arrow to the tail of another". The reader would also know that "shrinking and turning" is nothing but the multiplication of two complex numbers!
There is also one thing I would like to point out about Feynman's remark at page 15 regarding the behavior of light as particles("I'm telling you the way it does behave-like particles.")Those little Feynman arrows, turning and stopping between two points of a path, why do they turn at different speeds for different colors? Neither Feynman nor QED tells us anything about it, and it remains a mystery. For me, those arrows are nothing but the old "Fresnel vectors", that are used to represent a sinusoidal function of time in old classical physics. The length of the vector is the amplitude of the sinewave, and its projection on the reference axis gives the value of that function at any given time. As for the angular speed of rotation, it is the frequency of that sinewave times 2 pi. I cannot understand light or electromagnetic fields without this concept of frequency, and consequently of wavelength: this is why the stopwatch turns faster for blue than for red light. Besides, waves are used in Quantum Field Theories to represent all elementary particles, so why not photons as well? And what happened to the old W=h.c/lambda, if there be no more lambda?And how does one explain the Doppler effect and the cosmological redshift without a wave? Feynman probably would have been able to find an explanation of these effects without resorting to the wave concept, but there are very few Feynmans around...So dear reader, if you know how to explain the Doppler shift without using waves, please let me know!
All in all, this book is a must read for all those who are curious about modern physics, but who cannot understand the "real thing", with all its details and equations. This is why I strongly recommend it.
Finally understood refraction.......2007-04-17
When I was a senior in high school, I asked my physics teacher why light bent when it entered a lens. He responded with an analogy about soldiers marching on a field and entering a marsh. The first soldiers entering the marsh would slow down and "bend" the column until all the soldiers were in the marsh.
The analogy made no sense to me because we were talking about light, not soldiers. He responded that light travels in waves and if I viewed the soldiers as a wave front, I could understand his analogy. I left the conversation feeling very stupid for not "getting it." and thinking the analogy had so many holes in it. For example, it didn't explain why the lens was a marsh as far as light goes.
It wasn't until I read QED that I realized I didn't get the soldier analogy because my teacher was wrong - light doesn't travel in waves, it travels in discrete little packets called photons.
In QED, Feynman opens his first chapter by saying a couple of things. First he tells you that the theory he's going to describe to you has been experimentally verified out to 10 decimal places so it's probably right. He then gives you a quick review of what matter is and then tells you "light comes in particles. Not waves, particles." No wavicles, just little bits of light. He tells you that photons go from place to place, an electron goes from place to place and the electron will sometimes either absorb or emit a photon. From that basis, the rest of the book shows how that model explains why light bends when it enters a lens, why mirrors reflect, why oil slicks show different colors, why peacock feathers iridesce along a with host of other phenomena. He also explains why light has wave-like properties despite the fact that light comes in packets.
The first reviewer is right - there are questions left unanswered but that doesn't diminish the book. The framework Feynman develops in four chapters gives you a clear mental image of what's going on. Bohr and Pauli disliked Feynman's approach because it violated the Copenhagen approach of eschewing all models. In their view, only mathematics would suffice to understand quantum mechanics. I for one, am very glad Feynman ignored them, developed his approach and eventually gave the 4 lectures that are the basis of the book.
If you think light travels in waves, read this book. It's truly wonderful. If you're as dumb as I am, you'll have to read it multiple times but it's definitely worth it.
I want to love this book but can't.......2007-04-11
Yes the book explains QED without any math, but it doesn't really explain it very well. I admire what Feynman is trying to do, but I don't believe he succeeds. I'll give one example. The book is built around using vector addition and multiplication to show how to come up with probability sums and products. So far so good. The problem is that we never get an explanation for why the vectors point the way the do, are rotated just so, etc. Without that it's simply voodoo, and nothing has been explained.
It's not that you'd need math for any of that. You wouldn't. It's not the lack of math that leaves the reader in the dark, it's simply Feynman's not having the time to elaborate given the lecture format. Twenty pages on how waves work and reinforce and cancel etc. would at least provide the frame work for understanding more or less what is going on in the vector spinning.
Feynman certainly made an amazing use of the time he had in the brief lecture series the book is drawn from, but unfortuantely a brief lecture series aimed at the scientifically illiterate is just not a reasonable forum for presenting even a very basic understanding of QED.
Very readable........2007-03-19
Unlike Feynman's lecture series, you'll be able understand every word of the first two of the books three sections. Is a great feeling to understand Feynman.
Quantum mechanics for the intelligent layman.......2007-02-17
This book has to be the ultimate proof that if you really understand something, you can explain it to anyone willing to listen carefully.
Most people would agree that Quantum Mechanics is the most complex idea ever. Here, the idea is presented accurately, but without any scientific or mathematical jargon. It's just amazing that this is possible.
Book Description
Famous the world over for the creative brilliance of his insights into the physical world, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman also possessed an extraordinary talent for explaining difficult concepts to the nonscientist. QED--the edited version of four lectures on quantum electrodynamics that Feynman gave to the general public at UCLA as part of the Alix G. Mautner Memorial Lecture series--is perhaps the best example of his ability to communicate both the substance and the spirit of science to the layperson.
The focus, as the title suggests, is quantum electrodynamics (QED), the part of the quantum theory of fields that describes the interactions of the quanta of the electromagnetic field-light, X rays, gamma rays--with matter and those of charged particles with one another. By extending the formalism developed by Dirac in 1933, which related quantum and classical descriptions of the motion of particles, Feynman revolutionized the quantum mechanical understanding of the nature of particles and waves. And, by incorporating his own readily visualizable formulation of quantum mechanics, Feynman created a diagrammatic version of QED that made calculations much simpler and also provided visual insights into the mechanisms of quantum electrodynamic processes.
In this book, using everyday language, spatial concepts, visualizations, and his renowned "Feynman diagrams" instead of advanced mathematics, Feynman successfully provides a definitive introduction to QED for a lay readership without any distortion of the basic science. Characterized by Feynman's famously original clarity and humor, this popular book on QED has not been equaled since its publication.
Customer Reviews:
Mind-blowing.......2006-12-10
Feynman makes it easy for the curious amateur to understand. This book is accessible and mind-blowing. Everyone should read it. And there is little if any math so don't be intimidated.
Just the facts, Ma'am.......2006-08-07
In the Introduction to the 'Strange Theory of Light and Matter' Feynman tells us that what he likes to talk about is the "part of physics that is known, rather than a part that is unknown." And he goes on to give us a thumbnail sketch, a "physicist's history of physics," which shows how physicist's, in their quest to describe the world, continually reduce a group of seemingly unrelated phenomenon to a single phenomenon. So heat and sound were found, thanks to Newton, to be reducible to laws of motion, while electricity, magnetism and light were reducible to Maxwell's electromagnetic wave. In this way physicist's explain the world.
Here one is almost tempted to say that they proceed much as religion and ideology do. Religion has from the beginning of recorded history been taking phenomenon and feelings, like storms and suffering or aging and despair, and molding them into an internally coherent explanation of all that is and was and will be. They do this by separating the relevant from the incidental, then uncovering the essential by excluding the accidental. They simplify. In similar ways ideologues like the communists take what at one time were discreet incidents and disparate facts (for instance, the poverty of the third world and imperialism) and weave them into a grand general explanation. Is science merely the latest avatar of religion? - Or perhaps it is an ideology without tears?
Not so fast! Feynman goes on to show us that attempts to explain the atomic world foundered on the laws of motion. He shows us that the rescue of those shipwrecked on the shoals of classical theory involved the invention of a new, counter-intuitive theory, Quantum Mechanics. He then goes on, while discussing a small portion of that theory, to give us the (deliberately) hilarious and 'absurd' example of how physicists predict how many photons, out of a given number, will be reflected back from a surface. 'Draw little arrows on a piece of paper' and watch the clock, he tells us. And with no explanation as to why this procedure works! Of course, for physics, what matters is that it does work. Physicists have been forced "away from making absolute predictions to merely calculating the probability of an event." But where is the essential, the eternal, the necessary?
Perhaps this is what Feynman is driving at. Science describes, it doesn't explain why. We should all wonder at that. The great 'philosophical' questions that drive theology and political ideology are beyond the purview of physics. Science doesn't create worlds; nor does it 'interpret' or change them, it simply describes what it finds. (It is technology that changes the world.) Freud saw fit to end one of his books by saying that 'our science is no illusion, but it would be an illusion to believe you can find elsewhere what it does not offer.' But how much truer this is of physics! One is then perhaps not surprised to come away from this little book wondering exactly what the status of philosophy, psychoanalysis, politics and religion would be in a genuinely scientific world.
But of course there will never be, given human irrationality, an entirely scientific human culture. This book is a superb introduction to quantum electrodynamics. It's 'experimentalism' and agnosticism towards grand philosophical explanations I found very congenial and convincing. Feynman is an engaging personality and this is an entertaining book. While one doesn't need a degree in physics and math to understand him a lay competence and interest in math and physics is certainly necessary. For those of us still living in a Newtonian world, a dwindling number to be sure, this book will have several surprising moments. But that really is part of the show!
The shortest, clearest and "most physical" description of quantum theory without compromise in the accuracy.......2006-01-21
I had read a few books on quantium physics before, some are serious textbooks, and some are books for general readers, without even a single equation. This book, catagorized as the latter case, is the shortest, clearest and "most physical" description I've ever read.
It really tells you what the physicsts are doing behind the equations. I felt I solved many of the puzzles I had before, especially the intuitive meaning of the wave function and how the amplitudes really combine "visually".
It's a must read if you have tried other books on quantum theory but get confused (which I think is very likely). One major difference of this book from other books is Feynman didn't try to invent analogous but confusing things to explain difficult concepts. He really introduces you the subject itself.
Whew! Worth the effort..........2005-12-23
Feynman believed that if you truly understand a concept than you should be able to express it in a way that any educated person can understand it. Thus you have a smallish book (based on lectures) on some of the most obtuse subjects in physics in a way that is entertaining, readable, and understandable.
This is no "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman" (if you haven't read it you should...) but still shows his wit and curiosity. One reason I think the book is so good is that he was instrumental in working out many of the ideas he presents so he's not just repeating someone else's work.
The concepts can be hard to grasp but the book is well worth the trouble.
Feynman's Nobel prize winning subject, QED........2005-09-15
This book is basically a transcript of a series of lectures Professor Feynman gave at UCLA and in New Zealand. The lectures were given at the University of Auckland in New Zealand because Feynman wanted to "try out" the lectures on people far from home to see if they would work. [...] The book QED attempts successfully to give the reader an idea of how light works at a fundamental level and is actually very weird and untuitive due to our inherited and evolved senses and perception. Feynman preps the reader to anticipate these very strange unintuitive scientific findings and goes on to explain them very well.
Average customer rating:
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Qed - The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Penguin Press Science)
Richard P. Feynman
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Quantum Theory
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ASIN: 0140125051 |
Book Description
The stories in this book are those that Russian peasants tell their children and each other.
Download Description
This is a book written far away in Russia, for English children who play in deep lanes with wild roses above them in the high hedges, or by the small singing becks that dance down the gray fells at home. Russian fairyland is quite different. Under my windows the wavelets of the Volkhov (which has its part in one of the stories) are beating quietly in the dusk. A gold light burns on a timber raft floating down the river. Beyond the river in the blue midsummer twilight are the broad Russian plain and the distant forest. Somewhere in that forest of great trees--a forest so big that the forests of England are little woods beside it--is the hut where old Peter sits at night and tells these stories to his grandchildren.
Customer Reviews:
Imaginative Tales for Kids.......2000-03-27
This was the first storybook that was ever read to me. The Book tells the story of an uncle that lives in the chill of Russia during the winter with his nephews. As days go by, he starts telling stories to them ...
These stories, are perfect for children ages 10 and up. They are written pretty much as fables, all of them having some kind of insight as to how people are. No violence is included in the text, though some is meant to be understood, as in Little Red Riding Hood.
Do get this book. Read it out loud to your young and see their reaction.
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Old Peter\'s Russian Tales
Arthur Ransome
Manufacturer: BiblioBazaar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1434606066
Release Date: 2007-04-05 |
Book Description
With Illustrations by Dmitri Mitrokhin
Book Description
Dr. Peter Gilet takes Vladimir Propp's 31-part structure of the European folktale and suggests a reduction to five moves. This allows Propp's structure to be applied successfully to stories from Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas, thus providing a widespread tale type, perhaps the main tale type in oral literature. Dr. Gilet also suggests that this type has strong meaningful similarities with shamanic and puberty initiation rituals in pre-industrial societies. Just how meaningful will be the object of future research.
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Cuentos Rusos Del Abuelo Pedro Ii/Old Peter's Russian Tales
Manufacturer: Editorial Juventud, S.A.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 8434580829 |
Average customer rating:
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Cuentos Rusos Del Abuelo Pedro Ii/Old Peter's Russian Tales
Arthur Ransome
Manufacturer: Juventud
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Mythology
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
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Spanish
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ASIN: 8435507378 |
Books:
- Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Perspective (Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics)
- Quantum Mechanics and Its Emergent Macrophysics
- Quantum Mechanics: Historical Contingency and the Copenhagen Hegemony (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series)
- Quantum Theory of Many-Particle Systems
- Research Techniques in Human Engineering
- Schaum's Outline of College Physics, 10th edition (Schaum's Outlines)
- Schaum's Outline of Electric Circuits
- Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher (Helix Book.)
- Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity
- Spatio-Temporal Pattern Formation: With Examples from Physics, Chemistry, and Materials Science (Partially Ordered Systems)
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