NOTHING CAN GO FASTER THAN LIGHTOf course the idea that there is an ultimate speed of light is very high by earthly standards, the magnitude is not the point; any kind of speed limit in nature doesn't...
Mass is Inertia......In physics, mass means the tendency of an object to resist changes in course or speed. It is what physicists call inertia. Inertia is a kind of I don't like to be pushed feeling....
I hope that, like Schwinger, Weinberg, Wilczek, Hobson (and me), you will choose a reality made of quantum fields - properties of space that are described by the equations of QFT. This is a picture th...
I believe that common sense is choosing, wherever possible, the simplest, most intuitively-satisfying explanation that is consistent with observations.
Field Collapse. The answer to Schrodinger's dilemma is what we now call field collapse. In QFT, when a field quantum interacts, it must interact as a unit. Half of the quantum cannot do one thing whil...
Feynman converts! According to Frank Wilczek, Feynman eventually lost confidence in his particles-only view of nature:Feynman told me that when he realized that his theory of photons and electrons is...
We assert that the atom in reality is merely the...phenomena of an electron wave captured, as it were, by the nucleus of the atom...From the point of view of wave mechanics, the [particle picture] wou...
There is another reason why imaginary color is an appropriate tool for visualizing fields. You may be surprised to hear this, but the colors that we perceive in nature are also imaginary; they exist o...
That the physics community has so ignored the only understandable, paradox-free picture of nature that we have boggles my mind. Maybe physicists like being seen as high priests who are entrusted with...
Mass is not weight.....Weight is the pull of gravity -the downward force exerted by the earth. If there is no gravity there is no weight, but there is still inertia. In ordinary speech the two concept...
Limitation of color. There is, of course, a limit to how far the use of color can take us. A single color can help us visualize a field that is otherwise invisible, but it cannot inform us about the c...
In this chapter we will look at the entire edifice of QFT. We will see that it is based on three simple principles. We will also list some of its achievements, including some new insights and understa...
Apparently it did not occur to Feynman that these discrete clicks could also be produced by field quanta that live and die as a unit.
The move from a particle description to a field description will be especially fruitful if the fields obey simple equations, so that we can calculate the future values of fields from the values they h...
The helium nucleus, for example, contains two protons and two neutrons. If the neutrons were not there, the electrical repulsion between the protons would overcome the strong binding force. However if...
So if you want, you can believe that gravitational effects are due to a curvature of space-time (even if you can't picture it). Or, like Weinberg, Wilczek (and me), you can view gravity as a force fie...
My mission soon turned into a labor of love, with emphasis on labor. I had not anticipated the breadth and depth of the subject, or the drama as our greatest minds waged what I think is our greatest b...
MASS INCREASESThe final paradox of relativity is the increase in mass due to motion. Mass increase has been observed experimentally in particle accelerators, with increases as great as 3000% for parti...
Instead of the ordinary numbers used in conventional mathematics, the quantum nature of the fields requires the use of Hilbert algebra, in which the physical properties are described by vectors in an...
Fields of color. A special feature of this book is the use of color to depict fields that in themselves are unpicturable. Just as the color blue permeates the sky, so you will be asked to picture spac...