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Because then all the ads would have Jessica Rabbit and the problem would be worse.
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Yes, but what does this change?
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Anyone know of a good primer or beginners book? Not looking for something totally basic but just a good place to start.
Been curious for a while about the field and would like to learn more in spare time.
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Google for Richard Feynman.
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Awesome thanx, looks like exactly what I need.
It's so hard these days to tell the good books from the bad with the ease of the net.
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ryannick2001 wrote: He was an unusual character even outside his physics career.
You can say that again:
At Caltech, he used a nude/topless bar as an office away from his usual office, making sketches or writing physics equations on paper placemats. When the county officials tried to close the place, all visitors except Feynman refused to testify in favor of the bar, fearing that their families or patrons would learn about their visits. Only Feynman accepted, and in court, he affirmed that the bar was a public need, stating that craftsmen, technicians, engineers, common workers "and a physics professor" frequented the establishment. While the bar lost the court case, it was allowed to remain open as a similar case was pending appeal.
(taken from the wikipedia entry about him[^]).
Φευ! Εδόμεθα υπό ρηννοσχήμων λύκων!
(Alas! We're devoured by lamb-guised wolves!)
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I haven't read the wikipedia entry yet, but if memory serves me correctly, he also had a big thing for picking the locks of other people's filing cabinets when he worked at Los Alamos! (I think it was Los Alamos anyways). He'd definitely be on my fantasy dinner party guest list 
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Another good read is "Genius". Feynman discovered most people, including scientist, don't bother changing the combination to the locks or would write the combination in some obvious place.
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He also took pleasure in sneaking out of the compound and then walking back in through the front gate. He would immediately repeat the process just to see how long it took the guards to figure it out.
Sometimes the guards either never figured it out or were on to him and ignored him until he got tired of the game.
Melting Away
www.deals-house.com
www.innovative--concepts.com
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Enrico Fermi was another physicist with a Nobel Prize in physics. He doubter the sentries at Los Alamos really inspected the ID cards they all had to sho every morning to enter the research lab.
He decided co create a fake ID card with a portrait of Adolf Hitler, with that name, Adolf Hitler. The next morning the sentry saluted him as usual saying "Good morning, Professor Fermi." He asked "Can't you read? Can't you see my name on my card?"
The sentry l;ooked carefully at the card, saluted again and said "I's sorry, Professor Hitler."
Juan Antonio Rodriguez-Sero; juan_ars@hotmail.com
Seattle, WA 98133-9110 U. S. A.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
People who design systems never use their designs to do anything.
4th Cooper's law
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While I do agree that the Feynman Lectures series is indeed a very enjoyable read, I don't really think this is the way to go about learning quantum mechanics today. Being a physicist myself, I remember I had quite some trouble following Feynman's flow, when I first tried to read through the third volume, partly because QM was still a very new thing to me then, and partly because he followed a completely different path to the one I was used to until then.
If you have a grasp of the math involved (linear differential equations, boundary condition problems, eigenvectors and eigenvalues), I would suggest Greiner's Introduction to Quantum Mechanics[^] or Schaum's outline series[^] as a starter.
On the other hand, if you just want to read more text and less equations, Feynman's Lectures on Physics vol 3 is just the book for you.
Φευ! Εδόμεθα υπό ρηννοσχήμων λύκων!
(Alas! We're devoured by lamb-guised wolves!)
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That's exactly why I pointed to Feynman. He has a knack of explaining this without requiring knowledge of partial differential integration, which to be honest, is usually tucked somewhere in the back of the mind with us IT people. If the audience was maths or physics majors, I agree there are indeed better introductory books. Feynman has the advantage of not being too vulgarising, while still being accessible to a (somewhat) large audience.
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Of course I'm exposing my age but ... The Feynman Lectures on Physics were the assigned books when I was thinking about majoring in Physics in college. I loved the first two but just did not get Quantum Mechanics at the time and gave up on that idea when I discovered computers so I majored in Math. (There was no CS major and all the CS classes were given by the College of Electrical Engineering and I didn't want to get an EE degree. It seemed like a good idea at the time as weird as it sounds to me now.)
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Earl Truss wrote: but just did not get Quantum Mechanics at the time
But didn't Feynman also say that no-one gets quantum mechanics? 
Kevin
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This is actually one of the things that draws ME to him. He is willing to admit that much of what is taken as science is done so with the faith that it's what we 'get' now because it is pretty repeatable to a decent level, but that does not mean it is always understood.
I am actually reading through 'QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter' right now and am finding his alternate ways of viewing the theories very enlightening. I think if they used his stuff in lower level classes it may help keep younger people interested in the subject longer.
Going through all his material is one personal goal I have set for myself. So far so good...
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Start with Quantum Chromodynamics. Much more colorful, and after it, quantum mechanics will be easy as eating pancakes.
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peterchen wrote: Start with Quantum Chromodynamics. Much more colorful
That's the top: it is difficult, I admit, but its incomparable beauty is really what you need when feeling down.
Bottom line: it may appear strange, at first, but after a while you'll surely appreciate its charm.
If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler.
-- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong.
-- Iain Clarke
[My articles]
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Gave the wiki a read, very interesting although the mathematics went over my head. It's a nice goal to work towards though 
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Well the answer to that is both yes,no and undecided.
At the same time.
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Well, it depends when you are.
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Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
http://research.microsoft.com
Mmmhh ... Quantum Mechanics and Microsoft ? Not sure I want to know what this link points at. 
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