In these Messenger Lectures, originally delivered at Cornell University and recorded for television by the BBC, Richard Feynman offers an overview of selected physical laws and gathers their common f
Like any set of oral reflections, The Character of Physical Law has special value as a demonstration of the mind in action. The reader is particularly lucky in Richard Feynman - one of the most eminen
Gives the author's own unique take on the puzzles and problems that lie at the heart of physics, from Newton's Law of Gravitation to mathematics as the supreme language of nature, from the mind-boggli
Richard Feynman was one of the most famous and important physicists of the second half of the twentieth century. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, celebrated for his spirited and engaging lectures, and briefly a star on the evening news for his presence on the commission investigating the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, Feynman is best known for his contributions to the field of quantum electrodynamics. The Character of Physical Law, drawn from Feynman's famous 1964 series of Messenger Lectures at Cornell, offers an introduction to modern physics -- and to Feynman at his witty and enthusiastic best. Feynman offers an overview of selected physical laws and gathers their common features into one broad principle of invariance -- arguing that the importance of a physical law is not "how clever we are to have found it out" but "how clever nature is to pay attention to it." He discusses such topics as the interaction of mathematics and physics, the principle of conserva
The Physics of Information Technology explores the familiar devices that we use to collect, transform, transmit, and interact with electronic information. Many such devices operate surprisingly close to very many fundamental physical limits. Understanding how such devices work, and how they can (and cannot) be improved, requires deep insight into the character of physical law as well as engineering practice. The book starts with an introduction to units, forces, and the probabilistic foundations of noise and signalling, then progresses through the electromagnetics of wired and wireless communications, and the quantum mechanics of electronic, optical, and magnetic materials, to discussions of mechanisms for computation, storage, sensing, and display. This self-contained volume will help both physical scientists and computer scientists see beyond the conventional division between hardware and software to understand the implications of physical theory for information manipulation.
The Physics of Information Technology explores the familiar devices that we use to collect, transform, transmit, and interact with electronic information. Many such devices operate surprisingly close to very many fundamental physical limits. Understanding how such devices work, and how they can (and cannot) be improved, requires deep insight into the character of physical law as well as engineering practice. The book starts with an introduction to units, forces, and the probabilistic foundations of noise and signalling, then progresses through the electromagnetics of wired and wireless communications, and the quantum mechanics of electronic, optical, and magnetic materials, to discussions of mechanisms for computation, storage, sensing, and display. This self-contained volume will help both physical scientists and computer scientists see beyond the conventional division between hardware and software to understand the implications of physical theory for information manipulation.
The post-Mao urban reforms of the last decade have physically and psychologically transformed China's cities. These essays explore how the character of city life shifted after the political-economic restructuring intensified in 1984, and how this shift affected the creation of new physical, economic and cultural space in urban China. The authors draw on a wide range of backgrounds, including anthropology, comparative literature, economics, art history, law, political science and sociology, as well as their own experiences of living and working in Chinese cities to provide insight into lesser known dimensions of urban Chinese life: China's large 'floating populations', avant-garde art, labor movements, and leisure.
The post-Mao urban reforms of the last decade have physically and psychologically transformed China's cities. These essays explore how the character of city life shifted after the political-economic restructuring intensified in 1984, and how this shift affected the creation of new physical, economic and cultural space in urban China. The authors draw on a wide range of backgrounds, including anthropology, comparative literature, economics, art history, law, political science and sociology, as well as their own experiences of living and working in Chinese cities to provide insight into lesser known dimensions of urban Chinese life: China's large 'floating populations', avant-garde art, labor movements, and leisure.
The advent of sensitive high-resolution observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation and their successful interpretation in terms of the standard cosmological model has led to great confidence in this model's reality. The prevailing attitude is that we now understand the Universe and need only work out the details. In this book, Sanders traces the development and successes of Lambda-CDM, and argues that this triumphalism may be premature. The model's two major components, dark energy and dark matter, have the character of the pre-twentieth-century luminiferous aether. While there is astronomical evidence for these hypothetical fluids, their enigmatic properties call into question our assumptions of the universality of locally determined physical law. Sanders explains how modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is a significant challenge for cold dark matter. Overall, the message is hopeful: the field of cosmology has not become frozen, and there is much fundamental work ahead f
