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

Learn about Einstein's theory of relativity from a physics Nobel laureate and "one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century" (New York Review of Books) in six memorable lessons

It was Richard Feynman's outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics. From 1961 to 1963, Feynman delivered a series of lectures at the California Institute of Technology that revolutionized the teaching of physics. In Six Not-So-Easy Pieces, taken from these famous Lectures on Physics, Feynman delves into one of the most revolutionary discoveries in twentieth-century physics: Einstein's theory of relativity. The idea that the flow of time is not a constant, that the mass of an object depends on its velocity, and that the speed of light is a constant no matter what the motion of the observer, at first seemed shocking to scientists and laymen alike. But as Feynman shows, these tricky ideas are not merely dry principles of physics, but things of beauty and elegance.
 
No one — not even Einstein himself — explained these difficult, anti-intuitive concepts more clearly, or with more verve and gusto, than Feynman. Filled with wonderful examples and clever illustrations, Six Not-So-Easy Pieces is the ideal introduction to the fundamentals of physics by one of the most admired and accessible physicists of all time.
 
“There is no better explanation for the scientifically literate layman.” –Washington Post Book World
1121316382
Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time

Learn about Einstein's theory of relativity from a physics Nobel laureate and "one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century" (New York Review of Books) in six memorable lessons

It was Richard Feynman's outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics. From 1961 to 1963, Feynman delivered a series of lectures at the California Institute of Technology that revolutionized the teaching of physics. In Six Not-So-Easy Pieces, taken from these famous Lectures on Physics, Feynman delves into one of the most revolutionary discoveries in twentieth-century physics: Einstein's theory of relativity. The idea that the flow of time is not a constant, that the mass of an object depends on its velocity, and that the speed of light is a constant no matter what the motion of the observer, at first seemed shocking to scientists and laymen alike. But as Feynman shows, these tricky ideas are not merely dry principles of physics, but things of beauty and elegance.
 
No one — not even Einstein himself — explained these difficult, anti-intuitive concepts more clearly, or with more verve and gusto, than Feynman. Filled with wonderful examples and clever illustrations, Six Not-So-Easy Pieces is the ideal introduction to the fundamentals of physics by one of the most admired and accessible physicists of all time.
 
“There is no better explanation for the scientifically literate layman.” –Washington Post Book World
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Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time

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

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

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

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Overview

Learn about Einstein's theory of relativity from a physics Nobel laureate and "one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century" (New York Review of Books) in six memorable lessons

It was Richard Feynman's outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics. From 1961 to 1963, Feynman delivered a series of lectures at the California Institute of Technology that revolutionized the teaching of physics. In Six Not-So-Easy Pieces, taken from these famous Lectures on Physics, Feynman delves into one of the most revolutionary discoveries in twentieth-century physics: Einstein's theory of relativity. The idea that the flow of time is not a constant, that the mass of an object depends on its velocity, and that the speed of light is a constant no matter what the motion of the observer, at first seemed shocking to scientists and laymen alike. But as Feynman shows, these tricky ideas are not merely dry principles of physics, but things of beauty and elegance.
 
No one — not even Einstein himself — explained these difficult, anti-intuitive concepts more clearly, or with more verve and gusto, than Feynman. Filled with wonderful examples and clever illustrations, Six Not-So-Easy Pieces is the ideal introduction to the fundamentals of physics by one of the most admired and accessible physicists of all time.
 
“There is no better explanation for the scientifically literate layman.” –Washington Post Book World

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780465025282
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 03/22/2011
Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format: eBook
Pages: 184
Sales rank: 789,659
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) was the 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 vii

Introduction Roger Penrose ix

Special Preface xvii

Feynman's Preface xxiii

1 Vectors 1

1-1 Symmetry in physics 1

1-2 Translations 2

1-3 Rotations 5

1-4 Vectors 9

1-5 Vector algebra 12

1-6 Newton's laws in vector notation 15

1-7 Scalar product of vectors 18

2 Symmetry in Physical Laws 23

2-1 Symmetry operations 23

2-2 Symmetry in space and time 24

2-3 Symmetry and conservation laws 29

2-4 Mirror reflections 30

2-5 Polar and axial vectors 35

2-6 Which hand is right? 38

2-7 Parity is not conserved! 40

2-8 Antimatter 43

2-9 Broken symmetries 46

3 The Special Theory of Relativity 49

3-1 The principle of relativity 49

3-2 The Lorentz transformation 53

3-3 The Michelson-Morley experiment 54

3-4 Transformation of time 59

3-5 The Lorentz contraction 63

3-6 Simultaneity 63

3-7 Four-vectors 65

3-8 Relativistic dynamics 66

3-9 Equivalence of mass and energy 68

4 Relativistic Energy and Momentum 73

4-1 Relativity and the philosophers 73

4-2 The twin paradox 77

4-3 Transformation of velocities 79

4-4 Relativistic mass 83

4-5 Relativistic energy 88

5 Space-Time 93

5-1 The geometry of space-time 93

5-2 Space-time intervals 97

5-3 Past, present, and future 99

5-4 More about four-vectors 102

5-5 Four-vector algebra 106

6 Curved Space 111

6-1 Curved spaces with two dimensions 111

6-2 Curvature in three-dimensional space 123

6-3 Our space is curved 125

6-4 Geometry in space-time 128

6-5 Gravity and the principle of equivalence 129

6-6 The speed of clocks in a gravitational field 131

6-7 The curvature of space-time 137

6-8 Motion in curved space-time 137

6-9 Einstein's theory of gravitation 141

Index 145

About Richard Feynman 153

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