Wow! This must have been a lot of work to write this all down. We are creating tools for PhD students so they can work more efficiently. bohr.launchrock.com
Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics
31–40 of 55 posts
Re: Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Pshaw, even the most dimwitted individual should understand this, provided they have a BS in physics, were accepted to grad school, and are in their first or second year."
Nah, this is undergrad physics these days. 3rd or 4th year undergrad physics admittedly :)
Re: Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics
#33There's nothing like looking at that Table of Contents to put your own PhD in perspective!
Indeed, although some of this is the luck of timing. E.g. Richard Feynman would likely have been one of the great names in quantum mechanics ... if it weren't for the fact he was 8 years old right then. Linus Pauling, born 17 years earlier, became the 20th century's most preeminent chemist in part because he was a fricking genius and writer (many of his books are still useful today), but key was that also in 1926 he…
Re: Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, he went to Bristol and Cambridge, whence he developed his relativistic quantum theory. He relocated to Florida towards the end of his life. *edited the part where I assert OP was wrong.
We are splitting hairs here. What is wrong? That his career dawned in Florida?
Re: Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics
#35There's nothing like looking at that Table of Contents to put your own PhD in perspective!
Indeed, although some of this is the luck of timing. E.g. Richard Feynman would likely have been one of the great names in quantum mechanics ... if it weren't for the fact he was 8 years old right then. Linus Pauling, born 17 years earlier, became the 20th century's most preeminent chemist in part because he was a fricking genius and writer (many of his books are still useful today), but key was that also in 1926 he…
http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/it-takes-guts-to-do... also comes to mind as Dirac and quantum mechanics related.
Re: Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, although some of this is the luck of timing. E.g. Richard Feynman would likely have been one of the great names in quantum mechanics ... if it weren't for the fact he was 8 years old right then. Linus Pauling, born 17 years earlier, became the 20th century's most preeminent chemist in part because he was a fricking genius and writer (many of his books are still useful today), but key was that also in 1926 he…
Wait, Feynman wasn't one of the "great names in quantum mechanics"??
Re: Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nah, this is undergrad physics these days. 3rd or 4th year undergrad physics admittedly :)
Relativistic quantum mechanics typically isn't covered during undergrad. Maybe touched on briefly.
Re: Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nah, this is undergrad physics these days. 3rd or 4th year undergrad physics admittedly :)
Relativistic quantum mechanics typically isn't covered during undergrad. Maybe touched on briefly.
The Cambridge Physics course is fairly hard core of course, but I would expect such a course to be part of any serious Physics undergraduate degree in the UK.
Re: Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, although some of this is the luck of timing. E.g. Richard Feynman would likely have been one of the great names in quantum mechanics ... if it weren't for the fact he was 8 years old right then. Linus Pauling, born 17 years earlier, became the 20th century's most preeminent chemist in part because he was a fricking genius and writer (many of his books are still useful today), but key was that also in 1926 he…
Wait, Feynman wasn't one of the "great names in quantum mechanics"??
Re: Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, Feynman wasn't one of the "great names in quantum mechanics"??
Feyman was too young for the really fundamental work on quantum mechanics. He won his Nobel prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics. However, he created the path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics, which can be thought of as another way of describing quantum mechanics.
making a fundamental discovery is not necessary to be a 'great mind', I think. As the man himself said, 'what I cannot create, I do not understand'.