The quantum labyrinth : how Richard Feynman and John Wheeler revolutionized time and reality / Paul Halpern, PhD.
2017
QC174.12 .H347 2017 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
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Details
Title
The quantum labyrinth : how Richard Feynman and John Wheeler revolutionized time and reality / Paul Halpern, PhD.
Author
Edition
First edition.
ISBN
9780465097586 (hardcover)
0465097588 (hardcover)
0465097588 (hardcover)
Published
New York : Basic Books, [2017]
Language
English
Description
ix, 311 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Call Number
QC174.12 .H347 2017
Dewey Decimal Classification
530.12
Summary
"In Fall 1939, Richard Feynman, a brash and brilliant recent graduate of MIT, arrived in John Wheeler's Princeton office to report for duty as his teaching assistant. The prim and proper Wheeler timed their interaction with a watch placed on the table. Feynman caught on, and for the next meeting brought his own cheap watch, set it on the table next to Wheeler's, and also began timing the chat. The two had a hearty laugh and a lifelong friendship was born. At first glance, they would seem an unlikely pair. Feynman was rough on the exterior, spoke in a working class Queens accent, and loved playing bongo drums, picking up hitchhikers, and exploring out-of-the way places. Wheeler was a family man, spoke softly and politely, dressed in suits, and had the manners of a minister. Yet intellectually, their roles were reversed. Wheeler was a raging nonconformist, full of wild ideas about space, time, and the universe. Feynman was very cautious in his research, wanting to prove and confirm everything himself. Yet when Feynman saw merit in one of Wheeler's crazy ideas and found that it matched experimental data, their joint efforts paid off phenomenally"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Record Appears in
Table of Contents
Introduction: A revolution in time
Wheeler's watch
The only particle in the universe
All the roads not to paradise
The hidden paths of ghosts
The island and the mountains: mapping the particle landscape
Life as an amoeba in the foamy sea of possibilities
Time's arrow and the mysterious Mr. X
Minds, machines, and the cosmos
Conclusion: The way of the labyrinth
Epilogue: Encounters with Wheeler.
Wheeler's watch
The only particle in the universe
All the roads not to paradise
The hidden paths of ghosts
The island and the mountains: mapping the particle landscape
Life as an amoeba in the foamy sea of possibilities
Time's arrow and the mysterious Mr. X
Minds, machines, and the cosmos
Conclusion: The way of the labyrinth
Epilogue: Encounters with Wheeler.