Reading Journal 2 - Basic Physics

This chapter of Six Easy Pieces discusses basic or simple physics, generally through the eyes of the 1920’s. Not only does Feynman discuss breakthroughs in physics, he also discusses the effects of our understanding of the world these breakthroughs have. In the subject of physics, he talks about forces and their origins. These forces include the repulsion/attraction of protons and electrons. Apparently this force is what makes the electromagnetic field which at different frequencies gives us light, radio waves, etc... Later into the chapter, Feynman discusses quantum physics and how it shows that sub-atomic particles act as both waves and particles, making them particle-waves. Not only does quantum physics say that there are particle-waves, but it also states that you cannot tell the momentum and position of anything at the same time. Because of this, you can never fully know what the outcome of an experiment will be. For instance, if your experiment is to test if you can walk through walls, you cannot know that you are going to bump back from the wall until is has already happened because the positions of these particles is unknown making each experiment completely different. Because each experiment is different it is presumed that the outcome could also be different. Feynman also explains what his brilliant work in quantum electrodynamics has done for our understanding to the world. It is apparent that “out of quantum electrodynamics come all known electrical, mechanical, and chemical laws.” This makes the study of quantum physics important to the world because of the knowledge it can give us is all sciences. Although it is presumed that sub-atomic particles refer to only electrons, protons, neutrons, and photons, there are actually a lot more than just those four. Each particle has an anti-particle. For example, electron’s anti-particle is a positron. There are three classifications of these particles, baryons, mesons, and leptons. These categories fit similarly to the way a periodic table is organized. There are many similarities based on which column, row, and ground they are in (referring to Table 2-2 on page 41).