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

by Feynman, Richard Phillips

• ISBN13: 9780465023936
• ISBN10: 0465023932
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-05
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

Richard P. Feynman shows so clearly and entertainingly in the lectures chosen for this volume, that the principles of physics are things of beauty and elegance.

Author Biography

Richard P. Feynman was raised in Far Rockaway, New York, and received his Ph.D. from Princeton. He held professorships at both Cornell and the California Institute of Technology. In 1965 he received the Nobel Prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics. He died in 1988.

Table of Contents

Publisher's Note	vii
Introduction by Roger Penrose	ix
Special Preface	xvii
Feynman's Preface	xxiii
ONE: Vectors	1	(22)
1-1 Symmetry in physics	1	(1)
1-2 Translations	2	(3)
1-3 Rotations	5	(4)
1-4 Vectors	9	(3)
1-5 Vector algebra	12	(3)
1-6 Newton's laws in vector notation	15	(3)
1-7 Scalar product of vectors	18	(5)
TWO: Symmetry in Physical Laws	23	(26)
2-1 Symmetry operations	23	(1)
2-2 Symmetry in space and time	24	(5)
2-3 Symmetry and conservation laws	29	(1)
2-4 Mirror reflections	30	(5)
2-5 Polar and axial vectors	35	(3)
2-6 Which hand is right?	38	(2)
2-7 Parity is not conserved!	40	(3)
2-8 Antimatter	43	(3)
2-9 Broken symmetries	46	(3)
THREE: The Special Theory of Relativity	49	(24)
3-1 The principle of relativity	49	(4)
3-2 The Lorentz transformation	53	(1)
3-3 The Michelson-Morley experiment	54	(5)
3-4 Transformation of time	59	(4)
3-5 The Lorentz contraction	63	(1)
3-6 Simultaneity	63	(2)
3-7 Four-vectors	65	(1)
3-8 Relativistic dynamics	66	(2)
3-9 Equivalence of mass and energy	68	(5)
FOUR: Relativistic Energy and Momentum	73	(20)
4-1 Relativity and the philosophers	73	(4)
4-2 The twin paradox	77	(2)
4-3 Transformation of velocities	79	(4)
4-4 Relativistic mass	83	(5)
4-5 Relativistic energy	88	(5)
FIVE: Space-Time	93	(18)
5-1 The geometry of space-time	93	(4)
5-2 Space-time intervals	97	(2)
5-3 Past, present, and future	99	(3)
5-4 More about four-vectors	102	(4)
5-5 Four-vector algebra	106	(5)
SIX: Curved Space	111	(34)
6-1 Curved spaces with two dimensions	111	(12)
6-2 Curvature in three-dimensional space	123	(2)
6-3 Our space is curved	125	(3)
6-4 Geometry in space-time	128	(1)
6-5 Gravity and the principle of equivalence	129	(2)
6-6 The speed of clocks in a gravitational field	131	(6)
6-7 The curvature of space-time	137	(1)
6-8 Motion in curved space-time	137	(4)
6-9 Einstein's theory of gravitation	141	(4)
Index	145	(6)
About Richard Feynman	151