Best book by Richard Feynman

Tim Robbins

Hi,
I bought a couple of Richard Feynman books recently. Wasn't sure what to get just had a quick in shop and got two:

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard Feynman

and

Six Not-so-easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry and Space-time (Penguin Press Science) (Paperback)

If you are a Feyman fan, what do you think his best book is?
Cheers

Son Goku

Tim Robbins wrote:

Hi,
I bought a couple of Richard Feynman books recently. Wasn't sure what to get just had a quick in shop and got two:

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard Feynman

and

Six Not-so-easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry and Space-time (Penguin Press Science) (Paperback)

If you are a Feyman fan, what do you think his best book is?
Cheers

His actual best work is his Ph.D. Thesis and a paper published at the Pacano conference.

As for his best book for the general public, it is definitely Six-not-so-easy pieces. It's probably the only popular science book where things are actually explained. The guts of the mathematics of special relativity is in that book.

aequinoctium

The Character of Physical Law

QED: the strange theory of light and matter

Six Easy Pieces is fine too but not as good as Six Not So Easy Pieces

Tim Robbins

Son Goku wrote:

His actual best work is his Ph.D. Thesis and a paper published at the Pacano conference.

As for his best book for the general public, it is definitely Six-not-so-easy pieces. It's probably the only popular science book where things are actually explained. The guts of the mathematics of special relativity is in that book.

Hi,
Just finished chapter two of the pleasure of finding things out where he comes up with a theorm about building a computer on atoms. Madness.

JoeB-

Hi

Because of this thread I want one of his books!!!

I'm thinking of getting ' Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman! ' from 'The Book Depository for about €10 with free delivery. I'm not sure if this has much on physics or whether it's about his Feynman's life, which is very interesting by all acounts!!!

The other option is 'The Pleasure of Finding Things Out'... which looks really good as well and is definitely about physics.

They don't have the 'six not so easy pieces' so i can't get that...

Which of the two I've given would be most recommended? I have ordered two other books yesterday so I can hold off on this order for a few days.

(The Book Depository is highly recommended as a bookshop, free delivery and good prices.)

Cheers
Joe

Son Goku

JoeBallantine wrote:

The other option is 'The Pleasure of Finding Things Out'... which looks really good as well and is definitely about physics.

The pleasure of finding things out is the better book. It gives you good physics and a sense of the man's personality.

The other is a set of anecdotes that can be fairly easily found on the net.

I might as well say what he is actually famous for in physics. Basically his first achievement was inventing the path integral approach, which is an entirely new way of doing Quantum Mechanics.
Along with another guy, he put together Quantum Field Theory, which is the combination of Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.

Tim Robbins

Son Goku wrote:

The pleasure of finding things out is the better book. It gives you good physics and a sense of the man's personality.

The other is a set of anecdotes that can be fairly easily found on the net.

I did a good bit of Physics ar part of an Engineering degree, a long time ago. I don't think Science is thought very well.

aequinoctium

his 3 volume book 'The feynman lectures' is supposed to be very good. a friend of mine has them all.
the 1st volume is basically 'six easy pieces' & 'six not so easy pieces'

his lectures can also be viewed on you-tube. they're good

Tim Robbins

I was reading up his idea of a computer built on atoms again. Basically the spin of the atom determines whether the information is a 1 or 0. Unless I read it wrong, he never said what changes the spin of the atom? Anybody like to shed some light for me?

Son Goku

Tim Robbins wrote:

I was reading up his idea of a computer built on atoms again. Basically the spin of the atom determines whether the information is a 1 or 0. Unless I read it wrong, he never said what changes the spin of the atom? Anybody like to shed some light for me?

Magnetic Fields are used to flip anything's spin usually.
Although they don't just flip it. Usually, if the particle starts with spin down, they move it into a superposition where the particle is simultaneously spin up and spin down and then they make it more and more purely spin up, until it simply is spin up.

Professor_Fink

Tim Robbins wrote:

I was reading up his idea of a computer built on atoms again. Basically the spin of the atom determines whether the information is a 1 or 0. Unless I read it wrong, he never said what changes the spin of the atom? Anybody like to shed some light for me?

Feynman didn't take the idea very far. There has been massive growth in the field since 1993 when it was realised that you can factor numbers efficiently on a quantum computer, but the foundational work is due to a different set of people.

Anyway, here is a quick explanation of how you put together a quantum computer. To start with you need quantum bits (qubits). These are two level quantum systems such as electron spins, nuclear spins or the polarization of photons (to name but a few). Then you need a way to manipulate individual qubits. For electron and nuclear spins this is usually done with laser pulses (for electron spins) or radio frequency pulses (neclear spins). For photon polarization, polarizing beam splitters are usually used. The next component is a way of interacting qubits. In electron and nuclear spins this is usually either magnetic dipole, Ising or an exchange interaction. There are many other ways, including measurement based techniques, but the three I listed are probably the most widely considered. Basically they change the state of a spin conditional on a second spin. Photons don't interact directly, so either you need to use a non-linear material or use measurements.

These criteria give you a system capable of performing any quantum computation, provided you can satisfy a number of other criteria (being able to start with a well defined state, being able to keep noise low, being able to measure qubits, etc)

Tim Robbins

All interesting stuff, thanks.

nesf

I've been toying with the idea of getting myself these for ages: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-Definitive-Extended/dp/0805390456/ref=pd_sbs_b_1/203-1803258-9085529?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2A590G2MP1O3A&colid=RVUSOMCYEI1W

aequinoctium

as i was saying above, they're great

nesf

aequinoctium wrote:

as i was saying above, they're great

Yeah, one of my lecturers recommended them to me years ago as being a really good read and something worth having on your shelf. Especially if you want to see someone who really knows how to take complicated things and explain them simply, which is a rare talent.

Ed D.

Well, the man's an unqualified genius, so I'd say read as much of him as you can understand.

mikhail

People here are kind of emphasising the physics books (which are amazing) over the more anecdotal and autobiographical stuff. I just want to say that the latter are also wonderful books, full of humour, joie de vivre and insight into what science is and why it matters.

Podge_irl

You Must be Joking Mr. Feynman is absolutely fantastic and an amazing insight into what was not only a brilliant physicist but an exceptional human being.

magicbastarder

not by feynman, but james gleick's bio of him is one of the best bios i've read.

http://www.amazon.com/Genius-Life-Science-Richard-Feynman/dp/0679747044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277726455&sr=8-1