QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter: Amazon.ca: Richard Phillips Feynman: Books

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From Library Journal

This volume, constituting the printed version of the first of the Alix G. Mautner Memorial Lectures to be given periodically at UCLA, certainly gets this new series off to a flying start. World-renowned for the liveliness and creativity of his physical insights, Caltech physicist Feynman provides another of his tours de force as he clearly explains the arcane workings of quantum electrodynamics, a theory which Feynman himself helped to establish. Starting with such familiar phenomena as the reflection and refraction of light, Feynman goes on to describe in detail the interactions between electrons and light. Although the text requires more concentration to grasp than most science popularizations, things never get out of hand. A good choice for collections serving informed readers. Thomas E. Margrave, formerly with Physics & Astronomy Dept., Univ. of Montana, Missoula
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Physics Nobelist Feynman simply cannot help being original. In this quirky, fascinating book, he explains to laymen the quantum theory of light, a theory to which he made decisive contributions. The New Yorker Feynman's lectures must have been marvelous and they have been turned into an equally entrancing book, a vivid introduction to QED which is leavened and enlivened by his wit. Anyone with a curiosity about physics today should buy it, not only to get to grips with the deepest meaning of quantum theory but to possess a slice of history. -- Pedro Waloschek Nature --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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4.7 out of 5 stars (49 customer reviews)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating, Jun 1 2004

By

Kevin Seeger "DudeSeeg" (Woodland Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Paperback)

Get it? Illuminating. This book explains the interaction between light and matter, which is illuminating. If you understand the pun, then you have the brain capacity to understand this book.

Richard Feynman possessed some kind of special brand of genius which enabled him to masquerade as a regular guy. He was able to cut to the quick of Nature's mysteries and explain in plain english what he saw there for the benefit of those of us lacking in genius.

Feynman freed us from the need to relate to quantum physics by memorizing a set of arcane mathematical expressions, and delivered to us a way of understanding the probabilistic nature of quantum reality by drawing a bunch of little arrows pointing this way and that. His method, known as "Feynman diagrams", is so simple that it seems almost childlike, yet it works every time.

The theory of Quantum ElectoDynamics is the most complete theory that science has in its arsenal. The theory explains 99% of everything we see at the classical level of reality. Feynman was never quite able to tie in the oddities observed in the interaction of nuclei or gravitrons, but reality as we observe it is more or less dictated by the interaction of electrons, and this theory describes that interplay perfectly.

Feyman's "sum over histories" explains reality even better than Newton's seemingly incontrovertable laws of Nature, which in actuality, decribe only the end result of the sum over histories. Where Newton described one reality, the one observed by all of us, Feynman described every microscopic reality, each as real as the other, and all culminating in the one macroscopic reality as described by Newton. Feynman described particles moving faster than light, and even backwards in time - all of which is explained in his "strange theory of light and matter", and all of which is endlessly verifiable in the laboratory.

For anyone willing to break out of the Newtonian mindset which humanity has been in for over 300 years, and which is still taught in today's high school science classrooms, this book is a must read. Treat yourself to 150 pages of plain english which will infuse you with wonder for the rest of your days.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!, Jan 14 2003

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TsungpLee (USTC, China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Paperback)

Richard Feynman always amazes me. This book is my first experience with QED. when I was just one high school student, I read it during a boring holiday, I was attracted by it at once!
the book tells you what is physics, tells you how beautiful physics is!
I think everyone who have fundamental physics knowledge can understand QED from the book,. someone usually say S.Hawking's"the brief history of time" is excellent, but I don't think so. the book is more excellent ,maybe the best popular science book!

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and Informative, Mar 6 2002

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Kenneth James Michael MacLean (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Paperback)

A book on physics that is entertaining? Hard to believe, but during the reading of this book I not only got a grasp on some of the fundamental concepts of Quantum Electro Dynamics, but thoroughly enjoyed the way it was explained. Feynman is a master teacher. He has the ability to take complex concepts and boil them down so that even a physics dummy can understand them. It is obvious when reading the text how complete Feynman's understanding of the material is. You know how you can read a science book and not really get what the author is trying to explain? Sometimes that comes from your own lack of intelligence, but a lot of times it's because the author wasn't totally clear about what he was writing. In this book, you really get the underlying concepts becasue Feynman's understanding of the subject is so complete. I found myself absorbing some of the QED concepts almost by osmosis.
The book is composed of 4 lectures Feynman gave at UCLA in the mid 80's.
QED is about the interaction of light and matter. Feynman starts the explanation of QED by dealing with the partial reflection of light onto 2 surfaces of glass, and uses arrow diagrams to make the explanation easy to understand.
He uses the arrow diagrams in the other lectures which continue the discussion of QED's attempt to explain the interaction of photons with matter. The last lecture deals with subatomic particles and QED's relationship to the rest of physics.
The part of the book I enjoyed most was the 3rd lecture called "Electrons and Their Interactions" which explains how electrons go from point to point in space/time. He gets into the famous "Feynman Diagrams" showing how electrons and photons seem to travel backwards in time, and how photons can go faster or slower than the conventional speed of light. It's fascinating!
What's great about these lectures is their clarity and humor. The author doesn't take himself too seriously and as a result the book is a delight to read, as well as being enlightening.
Kudo's as well to the editor who distilled the material down to a manageable length of 152 pages.
Can a book on Quantum Electro Dynamics be really fun to read? This one is.

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