5 ms·

Feynman Lectures on the Strong Interactions

110 points by chmaynard 6y ago

donw 6y ago
As an aside, if you have not read it, you should chew through "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!"[1]. It's a fun read, and really gives you an insight into both Feynman's life, and they way that he approached solving problems and teaching others. I have gotten massive leverage from "if you can't explain it to a five-year-old, you don't really understand it" as a learning and coaching tool (a.k.a. "The Feynman Technique") [1] https://amzn.to/3fu9zCE https://amzn.to/3fu9zCE
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- nishnik 6y ago
  And then: What do you care about what other people think? In the first chapter he goes on to tell about beauty/taste[1]. One of his friends told him that you scientist won't be able to appreciate art as much as us artists. Then Feynman explains how he can imagine the cellular level function, why is the flower colorful, and how it interprets to insects having some sense of colour for why should beauty only be on centimeter level? [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Do_You_Care_What_Other_People_Think%3F https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Do_You_Care_What_Other_...
pickdenis 6y ago
I've been on a personal quest to understand quantum electrodynamics and perhaps quantum chromodynamics. It is quite daunting as my formal math education pretty much stopped at linear algebra. I'm currently going through one of MIT's 8.04 (Quantum Physics 1) through OpenCourseWare and it's been pretty accessible so far. The jump from classical quantum mechanics to quantum field theory, however, seems pretty large and out of reach of anyone who doesn't want to spend a LOT of time studying pure math. In other words, I look forward to being able to enjoy these in about 3 years ;)
- sungam 6y ago
  If you have not already read it I would highly recommend Feynman's QED: The strange nature of light and matter - I am certainly not a mathematician or physicist but Feynman has a genius for communicating to the layman at a level that facilitates intuition about how a system behaves
- ShinyRice 6y ago
  I don't understand why you're getting snagged up on in QFT, I've recently done a course on that and it wasn't that complicated, though that's if and only if you've studied or at least understood the algebra of creation and destruction operators found in the quantum harmonic oscillator, and classical field theory. I didn't have a course on classical field theory, but I did have a chapter of a course dedicated to it. In terms of math, I've only encountered linear algebra, multivariable calculus with A LOT of Dirac deltas and a smidge of complex analysis, necessary to calculate the Feynman propagator.
  - jiggawatts 6y ago
    My problem with QED/QFT is that it gets about five levels of abstraction too far from physical intuition and then really starts layering on the algebra. At the end, it's totally abstract and I very strongly suspect (but cannot prove) that nobody knows what it all means in the end. My current pet project is to try and write a "renderer" that uses QED, or better yet, some more advanced subset of the Standard Model instead of the oversimplified "raycasting" model typically used in computer graphics. I'd be happy with a "quantum" Cornell Box, ideally in a fully relativistic model that can simulate the speed of light, diffraction, interference, etc... I'm trying to see how far modern physics has gone and still be in contact with a fully general, numerical, real theory. Not just the abstract properties of statistical theories, if you know what I mean. So far it hasn't been a fruitful journey, I can't even find a reasonable description of an electron's U(1) field equation as described by QED. I get that it has a bunch of properties such as its symmetries, transformations, etc... but this is like the description of an elephant by a blind man touching each part.
    - 6y ago
rwilson4 6y ago
Any recommendations on QCD textbooks for Physics grad students? I left that field a while back but I had always hoped to understand it, beyond just hand-wavy explanations.
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
On arxiv, in a technical paper, one doesn't often find a personal apology to a long-dead boss for how long it took to complete one's assigned duties. I found that very touching.

110 points by chmaynard 6y ago

donw 6y ago

As an aside, if you have not read it, you should chew through "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!"[1]. It's a fun read, and really gives you an insight into both Feynman's life, and they way that he approached solving problems and teaching others. I have gotten massive leverage from "if you can't explain it to a five-year-old, you don't really understand it" as a learning and coaching tool (a.k.a. "The Feynman Technique") [1] https://amzn.to/3fu9zCE https://amzn.to/3fu9zCE

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
nishnik 6y ago
And then: What do you care about what other people think? In the first chapter he goes on to tell about beauty/taste[1]. One of his friends told him that you scientist won't be able to appreciate art as much as us artists. Then Feynman explains how he can imagine the cellular level function, why is the flower colorful, and how it interprets to insects having some sense of colour for why should beauty only be on centimeter level? [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Do_You_Care_What_Other_People_Think%3F https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Do_You_Care_What_Other_...

pickdenis 6y ago

I've been on a personal quest to understand quantum electrodynamics and perhaps quantum chromodynamics. It is quite daunting as my formal math education pretty much stopped at linear algebra. I'm currently going through one of MIT's 8.04 (Quantum Physics 1) through OpenCourseWare and it's been pretty accessible so far. The jump from classical quantum mechanics to quantum field theory, however, seems pretty large and out of reach of anyone who doesn't want to spend a LOT of time studying pure math. In other words, I look forward to being able to enjoy these in about 3 years ;)

sungam 6y ago
If you have not already read it I would highly recommend Feynman's QED: The strange nature of light and matter - I am certainly not a mathematician or physicist but Feynman has a genius for communicating to the layman at a level that facilitates intuition about how a system behaves
ShinyRice 6y ago
I don't understand why you're getting snagged up on in QFT, I've recently done a course on that and it wasn't that complicated, though that's if and only if you've studied or at least understood the algebra of creation and destruction operators found in the quantum harmonic oscillator, and classical field theory. I didn't have a course on classical field theory, but I did have a chapter of a course dedicated to it. In terms of math, I've only encountered linear algebra, multivariable calculus with A LOT of Dirac deltas and a smidge of complex analysis, necessary to calculate the Feynman propagator.
- jiggawatts 6y ago
  My problem with QED/QFT is that it gets about five levels of abstraction too far from physical intuition and then really starts layering on the algebra. At the end, it's totally abstract and I very strongly suspect (but cannot prove) that nobody knows what it all means in the end. My current pet project is to try and write a "renderer" that uses QED, or better yet, some more advanced subset of the Standard Model instead of the oversimplified "raycasting" model typically used in computer graphics. I'd be happy with a "quantum" Cornell Box, ideally in a fully relativistic model that can simulate the speed of light, diffraction, interference, etc... I'm trying to see how far modern physics has gone and still be in contact with a fully general, numerical, real theory. Not just the abstract properties of statistical theories, if you know what I mean. So far it hasn't been a fruitful journey, I can't even find a reasonable description of an electron's U(1) field equation as described by QED. I get that it has a bunch of properties such as its symmetries, transformations, etc... but this is like the description of an elephant by a blind man touching each part.
  - 6y ago

rwilson4 6y ago

Any recommendations on QCD textbooks for Physics grad students? I left that field a while back but I had always hoped to understand it, beyond just hand-wavy explanations.

AnimalMuppet 6y ago

On arxiv, in a technical paper, one doesn't often find a personal apology to a long-dead boss for how long it took to complete one's assigned duties. I found that very touching.