Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics

Feynman's lecture is the simplest and the most intuitive explanation of the connection between spin and statistics that I have ever seen! This is a very readable book, no knowledge of quantum field theory is required, but a good understanding of relativity and quantum mechanics is essential for understanding the book. I think every physicist should read these lectures, although very simple, they add a lot to our understanding and even to our knowledge of fundamental physics.

What do you buy a 3rd year Computer Science and Mathematics student attending Michigan Technological University? Richard Feynman, John von Neumann, Enrico Fermi, etc. books have been my go-to as gifts for him in the past. He does read them thoroughly and they have helped his education.

This books is really cool. Its targeted to someone already kinda familiar with physics and Quantum Mechanics but you only need the most basic understanding. The book gives reasonably precise explanations (without too much math) of why anti-particles must exist. Feynman's style is generally quite readable. Overall, I had fun and learned a lot.I would not recommend this book for someone who has studied quantum mechanics at all however. It assumes you're familiar with a lot of the terminology and concepts.

When I readThe Feynman Lectures on Physics including Feynman's Tips on Physics: The Definitive and Extended Edition, I was hoping to understand the reasoning behind the exclusion principle, and was disappointed to find that RPF felt that this was too complex for undergraduates, so he asked them to take it on faith for the moment.Here he is talking to a more advanced audience, and explains it - he was right, it's tough. I'm still struggling to understand it, but I have confidence that this is a good book to help.[Added nearly a year later] Having reread the book several times, I finally understand Feynman's lecture! As is often the case, once I understand the principle, I see relationships to various other things I had not fully understood before.I should also comment on Weinberg's lecture: he's talking about more speculative areas than Feynman, which is perhaps one reason I found him less enlightening than Feynman, but in a rather vague way I follow what he's saying. Certainly these are fascinating ideas, but they don't sing to me like Feynman's lecture.

Very interesting litterature...In my university days this type of books very hard to get to sweden hence the books very unike and you often got one from a collecue and if you were lycky you could buy book if you visitid Stanford as an example....now you are only a couple of clicks and a short time vaiting before you have the books in your hand.Good buy.

Excellent lectures by two of the greats. A fitting homage to Dirac on whose shoulders they stood. Feynman’s part is more technical and more rewarding as well. Loved it!

This slender volume comprises the first two Dirac Memorial Lectures, endowed by St. John's College, Cambridge, in honor of one of its most distinguished alumni, Paul Dirac, one of the originators of quantum mechanics, and the first to successfully meld quantum mechanics with special relativity to produce what eventually became quantum field theory and the Standard Model of particle physics. The first lecture is by Richard Feynman, who helped perfect quantum electrodynamics, that portion of quantum field theory dealing with interactions of electrons and photons, the modern view of electricity and magnetism. The second is by Steven Weinberg, who pioneered the unification of electromagnetism with the weak nuclear force, pointing the way towards the Standard Model and beyond to an as-yet-unrealized dream of a Grand Unified Theory encompassing all of physics including gravity.The lectures themselves are terrific. This review is focussed on Feynman's lecture, which is the reason I bought the book. The target audience for the Dirac lectures according to Weinberg (page 67) was "undergraduates who have had a first course in quantum mechanics". Such a course would typically not include a lot of the material covered by Feynman. His lecture concerns itself with two very deep topics in quantum electrodynamics: how the inclusion of special relativity predicts antiparticles, and the relationship between a particle's spin and its behavior in aggregates (statistics). Basically, he starts by showing how a simple mathematical theorem requires that if we restrict our analysis of particle interactions to include only particles with positive energies, then particles travelling faster than the speed of light must be included in the analysis. It is then shown that in some reference frames these particles will be seen to travel backwards in time, which can be interpreted as antiparticles. Using a particularly simple particle interaction as an example, he then shows how in order for the probabilities of all the possible variations which must be included in the analysis to add up to one, particles with spin zero (and other whole integer numbers of spin) obey one kind of behavior in groups (Bose-Einstein statistics, hence the name bosons), whereas particles with spin 1/2 (and other half-integer spin numbers) follow a different kind of behavior in groups (Fermi statistics, hence the name fermions). He shows that a particle obeying Bose-Einstein statistics enhances the probability of a copy of itself spontaneously appearing, whereas a particle obeying Fermi statistics suppresses the probability of a copy of itself spontaneously appearing. The former behavior leads to a phenomenon called stimulated emission, which is the basis for lasers (not discussed further in this lecture). The latter behavior is the basis of the Pauli exclusion principle, whereby no two electrons can occupy the same state in an atom, which in turn is the basis for the periodic table of the elements and all the phenomena of chemistry.Feynman presupposes that the audience is familiar with the basic mathematical formalisms of quantum mechanics, such as the arithmetic of complex numbers, calculation of amplitudes, and their relation to probability. He also presupposes an acquaintance with special relativity, Minkowski diagrams, etc. He uses ingenious simplifications to make the calculation of the amplitudes and probabilities in his simple example more clear.Which brings me to why I give this book as opposed to the lectures only one star. It's not suitable for the general reader. Yet it masquerades as such. The name Feynman is displayed in large letters across the top, as bait. Look in the science section of any good general bookstore and only four scientists will have any prominence: Darwin, Einstein, Feynman, and Hawking. These are the only four who have achieved significant name recognition with a general audience. Anyone who buys this book thinking they're getting something on the level of "Surely You're Joking" or "Six Easy Pieces" or "QED" will be disappointed. No attempt has been made to add any material which will improve the comprehension for the general reader. Not so much as a simple statement that -i times -i equals -1, let alone any definition of amplitudes, or their relationship to probability, or what a light cone is, etc., etc. This is a disservice and smacks of exploitation of the Feynman name.Then the publisher uses the trick of shrinking the size of the pages to try to hide the fact that if the book had regular-sized pages it would be too thin without supplementary material to look worth the price being charged.Plus, despite having gone through at least 8 printings since first published in 1987, there are still typos! Not trivial ones, either. On page 7, Figure 1 has x1 and x2 labelled backwards. On page 14, Figure 3, the sign of the sum on the left hand side should be positive, not negative. On page 18, line 11 should read "those from Fig 7c, d, and f should cancel", not Fig 7c, d, and e.

This was a very well written manuscript of two very important lectures on extremely interesting topics done by two of the greatest experts in the field, very educational and a must read by anyone interested in physics

I haven't yet read the book, it just got delivered. Therefore I'm unable to make a comment on the content.With that being said, my print came with a tear on the back, that is not quality.It's not really bad, but I didn't pay for a book like this.

I loved this book even though the mathematics of Mr Feynman in the first half was way over my head. Mr Weinberg's lecture is more penetrable.

Libro corto e molto carino scritto da due pezzi grossi del novecento!

great book

The book is two lectures about dirac and especially his equation. The first one, from Feynman, is a little bit technical and deals with consequences of Dirac equation. The second part of Weinberg is a more general lecture about theorys from Dirac to Weinberg. Inspiring.