Six Not-So-Easy Pieces Einstein’s Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time

by Feynman, Richard P.; Leighton, Robert B.; Sands, Matthew

• ISBN13: 9780465025268
• ISBN10: 0465025269
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-22
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

Six lectures, all regarding the most revolutionary discovery in twentieth-century physics: Einstein's Theory of Relativity. No one--not even Einstein himself--explained these difficult, anti-intuitive concepts more clearly, or with more verve and gusto, than Feynman.

Author Biography

The late Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) was Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology. He was awarded the 1965 Nobel Prize for his work on the development of quantum field theory. He was also one of the most famous and beloved figures of the twentieth century, both in physics and in the public arena.

Table of Contents

Publisher's Note	p. vii
Introduction	p. ix
Special Preface	p. xvii
Feynman's Preface	p. xxiii
Vectors	p. 1
Symmetry in physics	p. 1
Translations	p. 2
Rotations	p. 5
Vectors	p. 9
Vector algebra	p. 12
Newton's laws in vector notation	p. 15
Scalar product of vectors	p. 18
Symmetry in Physical Laws	p. 23
Symmetry operations	p. 23
Symmetry in space and time	p. 24
Symmetry and conservation laws	p. 29
Mirror reflections	p. 30
Polar and axial vectors	p. 35
Which hand is right?	p. 38
Parity is not conserved!	p. 40
Antimatter	p. 43
Broken symmetries	p. 46
The Special Theory of Relativity	p. 49
The principle of relativity	p. 49
The Lorentz transformation	p. 53
The Michelson-Morley experiment	p. 54
Transformation of time	p. 59
The Lorentz contraction	p. 63
Simultaneity	p. 63
Four-vectors	p. 65
Relativistic dynamics	p. 66
Equivalence of mass and energy	p. 68
Relativistic Energy and Momentum	p. 73
Relativity and the philosophers	p. 73
The twin paradox	p. 77
Transformation of velocities	p. 79
Relativistic mass	p. 83
Relativistic energy	p. 88
Space-Time	p. 93
The geometry of space-time	p. 93
Space-time intervals	p. 97
Past, present, and future	p. 99
More about four-vectors	p. 102
Four-vector algebra	p. 106
Curved Space	p. 111
Curved spaces with two dimensions	p. 111
Curvature in three-dimensional space	p. 123
Our space is curved	p. 125
Geometry in space-time	p. 128
Gravity and the principle of equivalence	p. 129
The speed of clocks in a gravitational field	p. 131
The curvature of space-time	p. 137
Motion in curved space-time	p. 137
Einstein's theory of gravitation	p. 141
Index	p. 145
About Richard Feynman	p. 153
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