Author: Feinman R.
Publisher: M.: Nauka
Year of publication: 1988
Pages: 144
ISBN 5-02-013883-5
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Download: stsiv1988.djvu
LIBRARY QUANTUM
ISSUE 66
R. FEINMAN
LIBRARY KVANT issue 66
R. FEINMAN
STRANGE THEORY OF LIGHT AND MATTER
Translation from English by O. L. TIKHODEEVA by S. G. TIKHODEEVA
Edited by
Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences L. B. OKUN
MOSCOW "SCIENCE" MAIN EDITORIAL SERVICE
PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL LITERATURE 1988
UDC 535(023)
Richard P. Feynman
THE STRANGE THEORY OF LIGHT AND
AIIx G. Mautner Memorial Lectures
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1985
EDITORIAL TEAM:
Academician Yu.A. Osipyan (chairman), academician A.N. Kolmogorov (Deputy Chairman), Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics. Sciences A.I. Buzdii (scientific secretary), academician A.A. Abrikosov, academician A.S. Borovik-Romanov, academician B.K. Vainshteii, Honored Teacher of the RSFSR B.V. Vozdvizhensky, academician V.L. Ginzburg, academician Yu.V. Gulyaev, academician A.P. Ershov, Professor S. P. Kapitsa, Academician A. B. Migdal, Academician S. P. Novikov, Academician of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR V. G. Razumovsky, Academician R. Z. Sagdeev, Professor Ya. A. Smorodinsky, Academician S. L Sobolev, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences D. K. Faddeev
Feynman R.
QED-strange theory of light and matter: Trans. from English - M.: Science. Ch. ed. physics and mathematics lit., 1988.- 144 p. - (B-chka "Quantum". Issue 66.) ISBN 5-02-013883-5
A popular book on classical and quantum electrodynamics, providing a qualitative explanation of many beautiful physical effects.
For schoolchildren, students, teachers.
"World" 57-87
ISBN 5-02-013883-5
© 1985 by Richard P. Feynman © Science Publishing. Main editorial office of physical and mathematical literature, translation into Russian, 1988
FOREWORD BY THE TRANSLATION EDITOR
The book you are holding in your hands is unique. Its author, a remarkable theoretical physicist, one of the main creators of modern quantum electrodynamics, spoke about the foundations of this science with extraordinary skill.
Although the lectures that made up the book were addressed to humanists, the book will, without a doubt, be read with keen interest and great benefit by a high school student, a physics student, a physics teacher, and a professional physicist.
Having learned about the upcoming Russian edition, Richard Feynman sent a letter containing some corrections and clarifications of the original English text. All of them are taken into account during the translation.
While the book was still in production, the sad news came about the death on February 15, 1988 of the remarkable theoretical physicist of our century, the great physicist-teacher Richard Feynman.
L. B. Okun
FOREWORD BY LEONARD MOTHEPA
The Elike J. Mautner Memorial Lecture was organized in honor of my wife, Elike, who passed away in 1982. Elike was a major in English literature but had a consistent interest in many areas of science. Therefore, a foundation was created in her name for the purpose of conducting an annual series of lectures that would introduce thinking and interested people to the ideas and achievements of science.
I am very pleased that Richard Feynman has agreed to give the first series of lectures. We have been friends for 55 years, since childhood in Far Rockaway, New York. Richard had known Elike for about 22 years, and she had long wanted him to put together an explanation of particle physics that would be understandable to her and other non-specialists.
In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to those who participated in the creation of the Elike J. Mautner Foundation and made these lectures possible.
Los Angeles, California, May 1983
INTRODUCTION BY RALPH LAYTON
Richard Feynman became legendary in the world of physics because of his unique way of looking at the world: taking nothing for granted and thinking through everything anew, he often achieved original and profound understanding of nature, and his style was characterized by freshness and elegant simplicity.
He is also known as an enthusiastic physics teacher. Feynman, who turned down countless offers to give a speech at a prestigious society or organization, may be an easy target for a student passing by his office who asks to speak at the local school's physics club.
This book is a risky undertaking that, as far as we know, has never been attempted before. This is an honest, straightforward explanation to a lay audience of a rather complex subject - quantum electrodynamics. It is designed in such a way as to give the interested reader a correct idea of the type of reasoning that physicists resort to in order to explain the behavior of Nature.
If you are planning to study physics (or are already studying), you will not find anything in this book that you will have to “relearn.” This is a complete description, accurate in every detail, of a certain framework on which new, improved concepts will rest without changes. For those of you who have already studied physics, this will be a revelation of what you were actually doing when performing complex calculations!
As a child, Richard Feynman was inspired to study calculus by a book that began: “What one fool can do, another can do.” He would like to address his readers with similar words: “What one fool can understand, another can understand.”
I found this book on the shelf of my physicist brother. I read on the cover that this was a series of lectures for HUMANITIES and was delighted. “Hey, this is a book written for me, not for you” - with these words I expropriated these lectures for myself and began to understand for a long time the jungle of quantum electrodynamics.
Quantum electrodynamics is, of course, fascinating and useful (although I’m unlikely to be able to apply this knowledge in life, except to show off in front of my friends and comrades), but at the same time it is extremely difficult, in some places completely incomprehensible, and a brain explosion is guaranteed for the humanities. Especially at the end of the book, where Feynman moves from the properties of light (and it was not difficult to understand the concepts of interference, reflection and the particle-wave theory of light) to the structure of the world and elementary particles. When it came to multi-colored quarks, gluons, muons and W-bosons, I was almost confused and could not imagine it all. Well, it’s not possible for me to understand antiparticles, since in my real world it is impossible to move backwards in time!
In this book, Richard Feynman explains what light is, what matter is made of, and how particles interact, but he does not explain why this happens. And I love the question “why?” And when Feynman, using arrows on graphs rotated at certain angles, explains how to calculate the probabilities of light passing or reflecting from glass, I stubbornly tried to find the answer to the question, why some photons are reflected and some are not. Most importantly, Feynman tells how to use QED (which is essentially the theory of probability for elementary particles using vector algebra techniques). And with the help of QED, he is ready to explain almost any process in the universe (except for gravity and something else). And all quantum electrodynamics boils down to 3 actions:
1. A photon flies from one place to another
2. An electron flies from one place to another
3. An electron emits or absorbs a photon.
Don't you understand anything? Then read these lectures - and you will understand something!
Those who have read Feynman's autobiography know that he has a great sense of humor. And even when giving lectures, this physicist does not turn into an important and abstruse professor; he still ironizes himself and his audience, often jokes and does not lose his charm. Oh, it’s a pity that I will never be able to attend his lectures and listen to them live! If I had a chance to do this, I would definitely not miss a single lecture, even if I didn’t understand green-antiblue gluons and b-quarks. By the way, b-quark means beauty quark, that is, “pretty quark.” There are also “strange quarks”, “charming quarks”, and not so cute “up” and “down” quarks.
Well, in conclusion, a short story about how Feynman’s lectures have already come in handy in my life.
Actually under the cut...
For a long time, my friends tried to persuade me to watch the series “The Big Bang Theory”, but I still refused. But in the wake of Feynman’s lectures, she still decided to get involved in the next series. Remember how it starts?
Sheldon: If the photon is directed towards a plane with two slits, one of which has a detector, there will be no interference. If there is no detector, there will be. If you return the detector when the photon has left the plane but has not reached the end point, the interference will disappear again.
Leonard: I agree. And what's the joke?
Sheldon: Nothing. Just a good idea for a print on a T-shirt.
© Richard P. Feynman, 1985
© Translation. S. Tikhodeev, 2012
© AST Publishers, 2018
A unique autograph of the famous Feynman diagram, signed by Feynman himself; image courtesy of Jay M. Pasachoff, Fields Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College. The diagram was depicted on the first pages of his copy of the first edition QED.
Translation Editor's Preface
The book you are holding in your hands is unique. Its author, a remarkable theoretical physicist, one of the main creators of modern quantum electrodynamics, spoke about the foundations of this science with extraordinary skill.
Although the lectures that made up the book were addressed to humanists, the book will, without a doubt, be read with keen interest and great benefit by a high school student, a physics student, a physics teacher, and a professional physicist.
Having learned about the upcoming Russian edition, Richard Feynman sent a letter containing some corrections and clarifications of the original English text. All of them are taken into account during the translation.
While the book was still in production, the sad news came about the death on February 15, 1988 of the remarkable theoretical physicist of our century, the great physicist-teacher Richard Feynman.
L. B. Okun
Foreword by Leonard Mautner
The “In Memory of Elix J. Mauthner” lecture was organized in honor of my wife Elix, who died in 1982. Elix studied English literature, but had a consistent interest in many areas of science. Therefore, a foundation was created in her name for the purpose of conducting an annual series of lectures that would introduce thinking and interested people to the ideas and achievements of science.
I am very pleased that Richard Feynman has agreed to give the first series of lectures. We have been friends for 55 years, since childhood in Far Rockaway, New York. Richard had known Elix for about 22 years, and she had long wanted him to put together an explanation of particle physics that she and other lay people could understand.
In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to those who participated in the creation of the Elix J. Mautner Foundation and made these lectures possible.
Los Angeles, California, May 1983
Introduction by Ralph Leighton
Richard Feynman became legendary in the world of physics because of his unique way of looking at the world: taking nothing for granted and thinking through everything anew, he often achieved original and profound understanding of nature, and his style was characterized by freshness and elegant simplicity.
He is also known as an enthusiastic physics teacher. Feynman, who turned down countless offers to give a speech at a prestigious society or organization, may be an easy target for a student passing by his office who asks to speak at the local school's physics club.
This book is a risky undertaking that, as far as we know, has never been attempted before. This is an honest, straightforward explanation to a lay audience of a rather complex subject - quantum electrodynamics. It is designed in such a way as to give the interested reader a correct idea of the type of reasoning that physicists resort to in order to explain the behavior of Nature.
If you are planning to study physics (or are already studying), you will not find anything in this book that you will have to “relearn.” This is a complete description, accurate in every detail, of a certain framework on which new, improved concepts will rest without changes. For those of you who have already studied physics, this will be a revelation of what you in fact did by performing complex calculations!
As a child, Richard Feynman was inspired to study calculus by a book that began: “What one fool can do, another can do.” He would like to address his readers with similar words: “What one fool can understand, another can understand.”
Pasadena, California, February 1985
This book is a transcript of lectures I gave on quantum electrodynamics at the University of California. The lectures are recorded and edited by my good friend Ralph Leighton. It must be said that the manuscript has undergone significant changes. Mr. Layton's teaching and writing experience proved very valuable in our attempt to introduce this central branch of physics to a wider audience.
Often in “popular” presentations of science, apparent simplicity is achieved at the expense of describing something completely different, at the expense of a significant distortion of what they are trying to describe. Respect for our subject did not allow us to do this. We spent many hours in discussions, trying to achieve maximum clarity and simplicity, and uncompromisingly rejecting distortions of the truth.
Lecture 1. Introduction
Elix Mautner was very interested in physics and often asked me to explain things to her. I explained everything well (the same way I explain to students at Caltech when they come to me on Thursdays), but in the end I could not tell what was most interesting to me: we always got stuck on the crazy ideas of quantum mechanics. I told her that I couldn't explain it in an hour or an evening - it would take a long time - but I promised that someday I would prepare a series of lectures on this topic.
I prepared some lectures and went to test them in New Zealand - because New Zealand is far away, and if the lectures were not successful, it would be nothing! In New Zealand they decided that the lectures were good. So these are the lectures that I actually prepared for Elix, but unfortunately I can't go directly to her now.
I would like to tell you about famous in physics, and not about the unknown. Usually people are interested in the latest developments that allow us to move from one theory to another, so it is not possible to say anything about a theory that we have thoroughly understood. They always want to know what we ourselves don’t know. Therefore, instead of confusing you with many half-baked, little-researched theories, I would like to talk about a subject that has been studied very thoroughly. I love this area of physics and think it is wonderful. It's called quantum electrodynamics, or QED for short.
The main goal of my lectures is to describe as accurately as possible the strange theory of the interaction of light and matter, or, more precisely, the interaction of light and electrons. It will take a lot of time to explain everything I want. But we have four lectures ahead, so I won't rush, and we'll figure it out.
The history of physics consists of synthesizing several theories based on many phenomena. For example, thermal, light, sound, motion and gravity phenomena have been known for a long time. However, after Sir Isaac Newton explained the laws of motion, it turned out that some of these seemingly unrelated things were different aspects of the same phenomenon. For example, sound phenomena are nothing more than the movement of air atoms. So sound is no longer considered something separate from movement. It was also discovered that thermal phenomena are easily explained by the laws of motion. Thus, huge sections of physics merged into a simpler theory. On the other hand, gravity could not be explained by the laws of motion, and even today it stands apart from all other theories. Gravity cannot yet be explained by any other phenomena.