Richard Feynman Lecture on Quantum Electrodynamics: QED. 3/8

Part 4:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqTvGLVwnQ4
Richard Feynman gives us a lecture on Quantum electrodynamcis, the theory of photons and electron interactions which incorporates his unique view of the fundamental processes that create it. one of the 3 winners of the 1965 Nobel prize in Physics for his work, Feynman is was an expert on quantum mechanics and developed the Path Integral formulation of Relativistic Quantum mechanics, used in Quantum Field Theory, interpreted the Born series of scattering amplitudes as vertices and Green's function propagators in his famous diagrams, the Feynman Diagrams, and also worked on the fundamental excitations in Liquid Helium leading to a correct model describing superfluidity using phonons, maxons and rotons to describe the various excitation curves.
other fields of work include the Feynman-Hellmann Theorem, which can relate the derivative of the total energy of any system to the expectation value of the derivative of the Hamiltonian under a single parameter, e.g volume.
he also worked on the Rogers Commission report during the investigation of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, where Feynman famously demonstrated how the Booster Rocket O-rings, which are elastic sealing joints, became less resilient and subject to seal failures at ice-cold temperatures by immersing a sample of the material in a glass of ice water- his high intelligence and independant way of looking at the world often made him "a real pain" in the eyes of other, less skilled, Commission members.
Feynman's own investigation reveals a disconnect between NASA's engineers and executives that was far more striking than he expected. His interviews of NASA's high-ranking managers revealed startling misunderstandings of elementary concepts, such as safety proceedures.
Although Feynman got plenty of media coverage due to him being on the Commission, he was often told to stay quiet about NASA's more sinister secrets and tactics in space exploration.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Richard
• Feynman
• Quantum
• electrodynamics
• Field
• Theory
• Mechanics
• photons
• electrons
• electromagnetism
• nuclear
• forces
• fundamental
• physics
• lectures
• QED
• elementary
• particles
• chemistry

[jimmyshitbags]

is the audio F'd up or is it my speakers?

[MuonRay]

@jimmyshitbags Its probably a combination of the two. this was from the late 1970's so the audio would'nt be great anyway, however it is pretty good compared to the others.

[sidiqmk]

richard feynman is dead? no i don't believe you.. in fact isaw him just last week.. he was playing doug's father in-law on the king of queens!

[MuonRay]

@sidiqmk Lay off the decongestants.

[okara83]

I wish I could have met this man...

[Khwartz]

Audio is back! :D

[Khwartz]

I've no audio :/

[thissitesuxxx]

Richard was a fine man :)

[myrtlebox]

Feynman was so great for a variety of reasons:

1. He had a great mind

2. He had an insatiable curiosity

3. He wasn't afraid to try a different approach

4. He had no great ego

The 4th allowed him the desire and ability to relate absurdly abstract and mathy concepts in layman terms. He goes out of his way to talk in terms divorced of sum-over-histories and path integrals to distill into words what is happening.

Many physicists cannot or will not do this.

[drsaberkhan]

@MuonRay the shorter the (wavelength of the) insult the longer the burn, also called the inverse square law of thermodynamics in humiliation :)