The Quantum Labyrinth How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality

by Halpern, Paul

• ISBN13: 9781541672987
• ISBN10: 1541672984
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2018-11-06
• Publisher: Basic Books
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Summary

The story of the unlikely friendship between the two physicists who fundamentally recast the notion of time and history

In 1939, Richard Feynman, a brilliant graduate of MIT, arrived in John Wheeler's Princeton office to report for duty as his teaching assistant. A lifelong friendship and enormously productive collaboration was born, despite sharp differences in personality. The soft-spoken Wheeler, though conservative in appearance, was a raging nonconformist full of wild ideas about the universe. The boisterous Feynman was a cautious physicist who believed only what could be tested. Yet they were complementary spirits. Their collaboration led to a complete rethinking of the nature of time and reality. It enabled Feynman to show how quantum reality is a combination of alternative, contradictory possibilities, and inspired Wheeler to develop his landmark concept of wormholes, portals to the future and past. Together, Feynman and Wheeler made sure that quantum physics would never be the same again.

Author Biography

Paul Halpern is a professor of physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, and the author of sixteen popular science books, including The Quantum Labyrinth. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.