20 ms·
When Feynman met Dirac (2020)
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- gerikson 6y agoI really need to re-read Gleick's "Genius".
- pseudolus 6y agoGreat article with a number of well-known references to biographies of Feynman. For those interested in Dirac, some excellent biographies have emerged over the years including: "The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom" and "Dirac: A Scientific Biography ". [0][1]. [0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002LDM8QS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002LDM8QS/ref=dbs_a_def_r... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Dirac-Scientific-Biography-Helge-Kragh/dp/0521380898/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Dirac+a+scientific+biography&qid=1617620520&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Dirac-Scientific-Biography-Helge-Krag...
- wolfi1 6y agoone anecdote about Dirac. Dirac and Heisenberg discussed about religion. They involved Pauli in the discussion and Pauli summed up Dirac's point of view: "“Es gibt keinen Gott und Dirac ist sein Prophet. (There is no God and Dirac is his Prophet.)"
- aborsy 6y agoThis comment is not very popular, especially in America, but Feynman was by and large a showman. His most celebrated publication is path integral approach. Dirac had a paper earlier (known as Dirac’s little paper), so did Norbert Wiener in a different context, on this approach. They didn’t pursue path integrals, as they could not (and still people can’t) make sense of them rigorously. Feynman looked up that paper and expanded on it. He also drew useful diagrams, but you know ... :)
- adrian_b 6y agoI agree that his original contributions might not be so important as believed by those who actually do not know them in detail. On the other hand, as a child I have enjoyed very much the Feynman Lectures on Physics, much more than most other similar books. I am certainly very grateful to him, because his work had a very positive influence on me, when I was young.
- wunderflix 6y agoSo he was awarded the Nobel Prize for being a "showman"?
- jorgenveisdal 6y agoWouldn’t be the first. Bob Dylan, Winston Churchill, Barack Obama etc
- morelisp 6y ago
- Jolter 6y agoAnyone with a link that isn’t behind an auth-wall?
- signa11 6y agoare there similar books on lev landau ?
- sn41 6y agoNot a biography, but a collection of memorial articles and reminisces: https://www.elsevier.com/books/landau-the-physicist-and-the-man/j-b-sykes/978-0-08-036383-7 https://www.elsevier.com/books/landau-the-physicist-and-the-... Also, I found the autobiography by Sagdeev (one of the <50 who finished the "Theoretical Minimum" of Landau) to have some nice anecdotes about Landau: Roald Sagdeev, "The Making of a Soviet Scientist: My Adventures in Nuclear Fusion and Space"
- signa11 6y agothank you kindly!
- AzzieElbab 6y agosuch simpler times. nowadays one of them would be busy cancelling the other. judging from the replies, some are tempted to do so retroactively
- racl101 6y agoFeyman has some post mortem heat on him under the lens of revisionism. Namely, as it pertains to his treatment of women. In short, some people think he was sexist at best and an abuser of women at worst.
- AzzieElbab 6y agoThat is terrifying. I learned physics from his textbooks - ussr samizdat. I googled allegations against him and all I saw was a wall of vague text from a cardboard cut, predatory sensationalists, all cross referencing each other
- morelisp 6y ago> all I saw was a wall of vague text from a cardboard cut, predatory sensationalists, all cross referencing each other I assure you his FBI file - https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/fbi-files-on-richard-feynman-1165/#366875-responsive-documents https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/fbi... - is not vague, predatory, sensationalist, and does not cross-reference any discussion you may find on the web today. His ex-wife reportedly testified that on several occasions when she unwittingly disturbed either his calculus or his drums he flew into a violent rage, during which time he attacked her, threw pieces of bric-a-brac about and smashed the furniture. Feynman's autobiographical writings about women are also disgusting enough by modern standards. I don't understand why you would think having developed an excellent physics course is incompatible with that (or vice versa).
- AzzieElbab 6y agowhat do you think would be the worst, most shocking revelation in your own 300pages long FBI file? especially one that includes a deposition from a former spouse who was seeking divorce settlement at the time, plus depositions of everyone you broke up with? i can only speak for myself, but my hypothetical file would have made considerably more interesting read than feyman's
- iamgopal 6y agoWhen I read those papers, I feel, How much relaxed (less stressed) one must be to create this. Current dopamine inducing attention grabbing world makes it really difficult for such deep studies.
- wsowens 6y agoThere were many attention grabbing things (Cold War escalation, civil unrest, etc.) in the world when Feynman wrote those papers. I can't find the exact clip, but I remember seeing an interview where an older Feynman reflected on that time. He described a sense of hopelessness and impending doom hanging over him for years after his involvement with the Manhattan Project. Here's a similar quote to that effect[1]: ...I can't understand it anymore but I felt very strongly then. I'd sat in a restaurant in New York, for example and I looked at the buildings and how far away, I would think, you know, how much the radius of the Hiroshima bomb damage was and so forth. How far down there was down to 34th Street? All these buildings, all smashed, and so on. And I got a very strange feeling. I would go along and I would see people building a bridge. Or, they'd be making a new road, and I thought, they're crazy, they just don't understand, they don't understand. Why are they making new things, it's so useless? Our times are certainly challenging, but I hope we can muster the strength and focus to keep building as others did in the past. 1. https://books.google.com/books?id=WO9D_BaDDhkC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91 https://books.google.com/books?id=WO9D_BaDDhkC&pg=PA91&lpg=P...
- hungryforcodes 6y agoI'm totally on board with this, and I've heard that quote too. But I think the OP was talking more about how our "distraction environment" today prevents us from having even 5 minutes of continued focus, unless we go through herculean efforts. Thus limiting our ability to do deep thinking, create deep work and make deep choices. But for sure there were many EPIC distractions of a more general nature in that time.
- chevill 6y agoIn addition to all of the craziness going on in the world at the time his wife was hospitalized and dying of tuberculosis while he was working on the Manhattan project.
- dzdt 6y agoSite seems to be hugged to death. Backup link?
- ddeck 6y agohttps://outline.com/KGVKhy https://outline.com/KGVKhy
- wunderflix 6y agoThe site is hosted on medium. I doubt that it can be hugged to death?
- BrandoElFollito 6y agoAs an ex-physicist, these were the golden years of physics. Studying and then doing your PhD at that time must have been fascinating. Today's physics really bland. Either we look into some fantasy worlds we will never test (quantum foam & co), or extremely niche ones. My sons are fascinated by science and I am lightly driving them towards biology (biophysics, bioinformatics, ...) because I feel this is where the revolutionary changes happen and will happen.
- domnomnom 6y agoWhy not computer science?
- Dudeman112 6y agoWhy computer science?
- BrandoElFollito 6y agoThey are not sufficiently interested in the theory of computation for this to work out. They are more into applied science (applied to everyday life). Theory of computation is certainly interesting, though.
- leephillips 6y agoComputer science is not science, it is mathematics. Great stuff, but quite different stuff.
- ur-whale 6y ago> Computer science is not science Disagree profoundly. And if perchance you got to that conclusion because you believe you can't apply the scientific method to CS (as in: formulate a theory about how the world "is", design an experiment to test the theory, run the experiment, rinse, repeat), you are mistaken: when dealing with systems of exploding complexity (which is, btw and imo, what physics is all about as well), this is a very fruitful attack strategy.
- punnerud 6y agoLook at Jørgen Veisdals other submissions on HN; 95% is articles he have written himself: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=jorgenveisdal https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=jorgenveisdal I think this is impressive compared to most users in here. Yes, this article is both written and submitted by Jørgen.
- sebastialonso 6y agoIt is impressive. To add information, Jørgen's Cantor Paradise is a paid subscription (a very good one) with occasional free articles. So what you identify as a prolific submission history can also identified by others, as self-marketing.
- devgoldm 6y agoIt's fascinating reading about giants of academia, that I've personally never thought to link together, interacting and disagreeing with one another in such a relatable way. I wonder if anyone's written about a younger Dirac and any interactions he got into with his heros, and so on and so forth back as far as possible? I'm sure there's an amazing story to be told through following this "thread of knowledge" through time...
- rramadass 6y agoThe best compliment to the two geniuses (from the article); and Wigner said, "He is a second Dirac, only this time human."