Walden - Reading Journal 3

Thoreau ends his book describing the surroundings of Walden, especially during the Winter time. He discusses his neighbors and their lives along with the changes that come with Winter. He claims his Irish neighbor as lacking the intelligence to understand Thoreau's wisdom. The Irishman is also described as inheriting Irish poverty, which is surprising after Thoreau's earlier comment about helping runaway slaves. As Winter approaches, he has to adapt a daily schedule along with less visitors despite that he cleared a path for them to reach his home. Also, his farming has given him many goods to live off of in the Winter. Winter also comes with the freezing of the Walden Pond. He spends most of his days exploring the phenomenon of ice. Finally Spring arrives and he has reached his goal at Walden, he can leave. To finish off the book, Thoreau summarizes all of his experiences. He challenges the idea that a change of scenery can make us healthy by suggesting that it is more of the change in soul than the scenery. He explains at this holds the same reason that he is leaving Walden, that he wants to experience other parts of his life. He holds to his transcendentalist views by telling us to let go of civilization and realize our true selves. Walden actually holds very little evidence that these transcendentalist views are true. Thoreau, although claiming to enjoy his stay, never found his true self. Nearly all of his stories tell of his visitors, neighbors, and observed phenomenon (farming, bubbles in ice, etc.), very few actually address nature and how it affects him. It feels that he just declares things true with only theoretical evidence.

Walden - Reading Journal 2

In this section of Walden, Thoreau is describing his daily life. He starts his discussion by talking about the visitors he gets. He claims that his visitors are much higher quality because they actually have to want to come see him since he's out of the way. Also, he welcomes all visitors, especially run-away slaves, as long as they are not beggars. Following his excerpt about visitors, Thoreau discusses his bean-field. Apparently, he has found much evidence that there were natives living on his land before him. Although Thoreau, also, gives many tips about farming, the most important thing to take from this part is that he farms not for the food, but simply because he enjoys it. The way he describes it make it seem as if the bean-field purifies him. Despite Thoreau moving on to talking about places to visit and not his own life, he manages to brag quite a bit about his abilities. He first talks about visiting villages. He tells us that he hikes to Concord, but somehow manages to talk very little about actually being in Concord. Instead, Thoreau discusses being lost. He claims it allows you to understand yourself. Thoreau also talks about visiting the Walden Pond. He explains that it isn't the greatest pond, but its variation in colors calms him and makes him a better person, as it seems all of nature does for him. Thoreau seems to have made this book with a theme and or purpose. He's always advocating for everyone getting closer to nature. Even though he is a transcendentalist, he seems a little extreme. Like every sentence is trying to get me to go out camping. I guess I never really realized how powerful this movement was and judging by its popularity in this time period, its what the people wanted.

Reading Journal 1 - Walden

Thoreau begins his book telling the reader of his experiment. His experiment is to reconnect to nature by moving into the woods alone. Although he admits to not going far from town, he explains how people seem worried for him. He also confirms that this is not intended to be permanent. He later goes on to describe his cabin and why he picked that cabin. He claims that the less there is in the cabin the more open he is to nature. He also comes to realize the faults in society. He says we need to turn to nature and instinct to answer our questions and to stop the businesses from taking over. He finishes this part of the book with a reassuring discussion about animal sounds and how they comfort him. Although there are some truths to his assertions, Thoreau's idea of nature purifying humanity is incorrect. Although our society destroys nature to create cities, they don't stop us from realizing our full potential. Plenty of people have come to realize the truths of society through living in cities. There is no need for there to be a sudden rush to the woods because we can already accomplish everything we need to in cities. No one is directly benefitted by their own movement to the woods.

(1984) - Reading Journal 3

When part 3 starts, the reader is on his/her toes. The reader is eager to find out what happens to Winston and Julia. They have been taken to the Ministry of Love. In the Ministry of Love, Winston meets O’Brien, who identifies himself as an agent of the Party and of the Ministry of Love. At the Ministry of Love, they are tortured over and over again until they break. Winston is told by O’Brien that the Party controls everything, and you can’t do anything to stop them. O’Brien eventually breaks Winston into turning on Julia when he threatens Winston to have rats eat his face and body. He has now become one of the other sad citizens who blindly follow Big Brother. The story shows how the government will control us. No matter how bright the future is, Winston’s “revolution” for example, if the government is in control, there is no hope. The reader is devastated by the end of the book. His/her perception of government declines as the book ends. Orwell’s depiction of society also shows a shift in belief. In the beginning we believed in strong governments with monarchy. Then as we adopted revolutionary ideas we started this idea that governments needs to be ran by the people or have an extremely weak government. Then we eventually got to a point where our governments were too weak to help us so we had to gradually increase the power of the government. We, of course, were extremely cautious and thus far have kept them completely controlling us. According to Orwell though, there is a point where we won’t be able to stop them. I don’t think Orwell’s title 1984 is supposed to guarantee that this will occur in 1984, but just the general future since he wrote it in 1949.

(1984) - Reading Journal 2

The book enters its second third revealing secrets from the very beginning. The woman who Winston earlier despised comes to show Winston her love for him. Her name is Julia. They revolt against the Party just the two of them by going against the Party's wishes. O’Brien contacts Winston to come visit him. Winston and Julia go to visit him and reveal their wish to join the Brotherhood, an organization wishing to rebel against the Party. O’Brien tells them that he is part of the Brotherhood and initiates them into the organization. He also gives Winston Goldstein’s book which is the book of revolution. Winston and Julia continue to see each other against the Party’s terms until they are betrayed by Mr. Charrington and are arrested by the Thought Police. Orwell’s vision of 1984 shows the governments control over everything. Winston and Julia were not able to trust anyone because anyone can be working for the Party. No matter how close they are to you they can turn on you. In ways this is true today. The government can track everything, from your phone calls to your text messages to your emails they do minor searches over them for plans of terrorism. As long as its digital you need to watch what you’re saying just as the characters in 1984 need to do except theirs is a little more extreme. They even have to watch what they think. Orwell is also turning on the impression that he gave us in the first third of the book. The impression of a hero’s tale, that Winston would end up leading a revolution against the Party and generally succeeding. However, there is still hope in the story for a revolution to occur. Just as in any hero’s tale there is always a hiccup this one just may be a little too large. It engages the reader to continue to read and find out.

(1984) - Reading Journal 1

1984, a book by George Orwell, opens up with an explanation of who Winston Smith is. He works for the totalitarian party in charge except for he's a pretty low rank. His work is to write history to make Big Brother and the Party look good. The Party is in complete control of what people are doing and what they see and hear. The only thing the Party does not have absolute control over is people's thoughts. Winston is the character who begins to interpret what he is seeing and feels a rebellion. He hates the Party. Orwell opens the book like any other hero book. Times are bad and no one likes it except the people in charge. Orwell's times are a little more cynical because the people don't even have the ability to think that the government is bad. But our hero, Winston, has this ability. He realizes the Party's lies and it looks as if he may succeed. We are also introduced to another character, O'Brien. O'Brien is an inner Party member meaning that he is the top of the food chain. For whatever reason Winston thinks he can trust O'Brien because O'Brien has a look like he would hate the Party. This again continues to follow this hero story where theres an inside man helping the protagonist out. On top of O'Brien there is a women he is interested in. He wants her yet can't have her because of the Party's rules and for this reason wants to rebel anymore. The hero's story just continues to sink in as there is lady he has to fight for which makes it all the more intriguing. It'll be interesting seeing how the story plays out.

(Dracula) - Reading Journal 2

After Harker disappears into Count Dracula's Castle, the story fades to a collection of letters and journals written by Harker's fiance, Mina, to her friend, Lucy. The writings tell whats happening in their lives and feelings. Lucy reveals her craze for three different lovers while Mina reveals her wish to help her husband in any way possible. Mina represents a stereotypical woman, being controlled by her man and being happy about it. Lucy represents an atypical woman, being able to pick whichever man she likes and controlling her men. During their stories, they also discuss this suspicious Russian ship. All that was found on the ship was a dead captain with the rest of the crew missing. There were also fifty boxes of earth on the ship, similar to the boxes Harker found in the Count's room earlier in the story. Stoker is hinting at what is going to happen with Dracula. Lucy is scared by the entire event and begins sleepwalking. The sleepwalking leads to Dracula biting her. Dr. Seward begins to try to treat her. Soon after he calls upon his old mentor, Van Helsing. Helsing puts up garlic around Lucy which seems to help. This leads to the idea that vampires can't be near garlic. Although Harker ends his scene with the words "Good-bye," he reappears in Buda-Pest with Brain Fever. Lucy's treatment ends up failing and she dies. Helsing is convinced she is undead and gets Holmwood, Seward, and Quincey Morris to finish her off. The Harkers return to England and help Helsing and gang to defeat Dracula. They collect information to track him down. In the process, Mina gets bitten. Once Dracula is killed by the team, Mina is cured and they all live happily ever after. The entire story is a quintessential vampire story. If it was written today, the story would just be cliche. The book is not cliche because it was the first real book about vampires. The book is what gives us these ideas about a cliche vampire book. Helsing as an evil hunter, vampires hating garlic, and the physical appearance of vampires all came from Dracula. That's what makes the book so interesting and makes it a classic.

(Dracula) Reading Journal 1

Bram Stoker's Dracula is a composition of letters, journal entries, and articles. Each chapter is one of the previous that describes the character's about events taking place. The actual story starts out with Jonathon Harker being invited to Count Dracula's Castle. From London to Eastern Europe he travels and talks to people of his travels. All of the people he talks to warn him of the evils that he is going to encounter. A female inn keeper even gives him her crucifix to aid him against evils. They also remind him it is St. George's Day Eve. which means that evils are stronger at his time. Also, while on the train the over passengers were pointing at him and wishing him luck against the "evil eye." When he gets off the train, his chariot is late. Once on the chariot riding to the Count, he realizes that there is no real driver of the chariot. Harker's first journal entry ends with him terrified standing at the entrance to Dracula's castle. Despite this fear, Dracula quickly cures his fear with a very warm welcome. Later on in the night Harker realizes Dracula has sharp teeth, is extremely pale, and has pointed ears. Harker continues to stay with Dracula growing more and more cautious of Dracula. Harker never sees Dracula in the day and Dracula always has an excuse. Harker also encounters three mistresses in what could be a dream or reality. They are going to harass Harker until Dracula steps in and stops the girls reassuring them that Harker is all theirs once he is done with him. Harker quickly realizes that he is not actually a guest but a prisoner of Dracula. Dracula continues to act wierd. He asks Harker to write letters with future dates. Finally, Harker decides to investigate. He scales up he castle in the middle of he day and finds Dracula eiher dead or asleep in a box. He decides to try and kill the Count with a weapon however the weapon was simply deflected by Dracula's head. Harker's journal entries end with the words, "Good-bye, all! Mina!" The interesting thing about reading this book in 2011 is thinking about how people reading Dracula in the early 1900s would think. Because Dracula is directly linked to vampires. Without Dracula there just simply are not vampires. But reading this book before that link would make the book a good bit less predictable. For instance, when Dracula tells the mistresses "after I'm done with him." We immediately know he means to suck his blood while if you were reading this book in the 1900s you wouldn't make that connection instantly. Even knowing what he means the entire thing is still creepy, so without knowing what he means and there could beinfinite possibilities the book must have been terrifying.

(The Crucible) Reading Journal 4 - All of Act 4

Act four starts out in the jail. Tituba is talking about the land of the Devil, Barbados. She says it is a great land and the Devil is going to take her there soon. Sarah Good tells Tituba to get the Devil to take her to Barbados as well after hearing about how the Devil is kind to her there. Tituba also offers Marshall Herrick if he wishes to come with them and he claims its the proper morning to go to Hell. This sets the mood for the scene; it preludes all the havoc in Salem that day. Afterward Parris, Hale, Hawthorne, and Danforth discuss the hangings scheduled for that morning. Reverend Parris reveals that his niece, Abigail Williams, has ran off with his fortune, and Reverend Hale reveals his true feelings about the court's ruling. He shows that he believes the accusations wrong and that he is trying to tell people to lie about their witchcraft to keep their lives. He believes that their deaths is as if he murdered them because he signed off on multiple rulings. They specifically address John Proctor who refuses to talk to them. They decide that they should have his wife, Elizabeth, talk to him and attempt to convince him to live. After their conversation Proctor begins to confess his dealings with the Devil, but refuses to give his name and we are led to believe he hangs along with Rebecca Nurse. The entire situation defeats the purpose of religion and God. By confessing the people of Salem are allowed to see the light of God. However, most of these people did not actually do what they are confessing to and therefore are lying which is against the word of God. So, if the people of Salem truly believed in God then there would be no confessions. The people in the "light of God" were actually disobeying God while the people who "dealt with Satin" are the people with God. It is a huge confusion that ends up with many dead. The most odd thing of it all is that Danforth refused to withdraw charges after all evidence pointed towards their innocence. The accusers have left Salem which leads us to believe it was all a lie, while the people who are accused are best Christians of them all for not confessing. It makes you wonder if this really was a Puritanical society with its corruption. In the end Proctor talks about how God's vision of his confession is enough and they shouldn't have to nail his signature to a wall, and Danforth refuses to accept this. This is especially odd since Puritans believed that God should be the only one to judge which means by not accepting his confession to God is disobeying their beliefs. Everything in this situation completely disobeys both logic and religion. Throughout the book there is a continuous build up for a need for righteousness, but it never comes. The ending is unpredictable to the unlikely events that took place in Salem. These people were crazy and from the first page to the last word Miller does an excellent job displaying their insanity.

(The Crucible) Reading Journal 3 - All of Act 3

Act three starts out in court where Francis, Giles, and Proctor have unexpectedly shown up. They claim to have evidence. The court is not happy about their appearance and takes them aside to talk to them. Reverend Parris claims they are there to uphold the court while Reverend Hale wants to hear them out. The men have brought Mary Warren with them who claims that she never saw any spirits and that the other girls are lying about them as well. It is clear she does not want to tell them but Proctor is forcing her to because good people, such as his wife, are going to be hung. They bring Abigail to check Mary Warren’s statement and she claims it false. Mary Warren calls Abigail a liar and Proctor calls Abigail a “whore.” Abigail and the other girls start repeating everything Mary says, claiming that Mary is trying to possess them. Mary finally breaks and says Proctor made her sign with the devil. The act ends with Proctor being taken to jail. There is definitely prejudice in Miller’s writing. I strongly believe that Miller does not find these events that took place in Salem sane. Although no one will ever know one hundred percent whether the girls were lying or not, Miller tries to make them look like the bad guys. Proctor was an honest man in Miller’s eyes and the “spirits” never existed. Miller uncovers these strange events as fact. It fascinates the reader that any human would take part in these events and makes the reader continue and stay engaged. There also seem to be a lot of grammar mistakes in the dialogue that make the reader stay awake or else you will soon be confused why they are using were when referring to themselves. Miller wrote The Crucible for older audiences. Due to strange plot and sequence of events, it would be rare for younger audiences to completely understand the content. Also younger audiences would not understand the references to their Puritanical society due to the lack of knowledge about American life before the revolution.

(The Crucible) Reading Journal 2 - Act 1 Appearance of Reverend Hale to the End of Act 2

Reverend Hale finally arrives in Salem. Immediately the population has questions about witchcraft, from their wives reading strange books to their children dancing in the woods. In further investigation of the children, Hale questions Abigail Williams who releases the information that Tituba forced her to drink chicken’s blood. Tituba admits to having encountered the Devil, but says that she fought his control. After the incident where Abigail tells everyone that Tituba trifled with the Devil, the girls who were dancing in the forest begin to accuse many others. They claim to have seen the Devil and his helpers. If the accused do not admit to witchcraft they are hung. The townspeople are all buzzing about the events in the court. Marry Warren, a servant of the Proctor household, went against John Proctor’s permission. When she returns from court, she informs John and Elizabeth Proctor of the horrible news. Later they find out from her arrester that Elizabeth Proctor was also accused of witchcraft. The process they use to determine whether a person is hanged or not is illogical. If the person is innocent then they did not commit an act of witchcraft. However in order to keep one’s life that person must plead guilty to their acts of witchcraft. If the population of Salem was Puritans, which they were, then they believe that no one should lie however by setting someone free they are encouraging lying. The Constitution claims that someone is innocent until proven guilty however this is not the case in Salem. It seems that in Salem, the accused is already guilty and has to prove their innocence by saying that the Devil controlled them. Despite the craziness of the events that take place in this book, it is strangely appealing. The interest is in the confusion of Miller’s writing. He writes like this on purpose to help show how confusing the actual events are and why people would actually do these things.

(The Crucible) Reading Journal 1 - Act 1 to the Appearance of Reverend Hale

Aurthur Miller, The Crucible, Published 1952,1953,1954

Reverend Parris found a group of girls dancing around a fire with his servant, Tituba, uttering foreign words. Among these girls are his daughter Betty and his niece Abigail. Betty is in a state they believe to be caused by sickness. Parris is paranoid that his enemies will remove him from the ministry with this evidence of witchcraft. It is also mentioned that Abigail was removed from service of the Proctor family because she was having an affair with the man of the house, John Proctor. Reverend Parris has called on a witch expert, Reverend Hale, to examine the town for witchcraft. The town also has many on-going territory disputes that cause people to go to extremes. Citizens have even gone to the point of naming each other witches to own the disputed land. Miller approaches the story with an interesting standpoint. He attempts to enter the confusing fight between the two factions without bias, which is difficult and only furthers the confusion of the reader. It makes it difficult to tell who is doing what and when. This fits the story of the Salem Witch Trials because the entire event is confusing as to why humans would treat each other this way and their inability to follow the religion they pretend to follow. The real question is rather if this event encourages religion or denies it. The story can either be interpreted to encourage belief in religion or to discourage belief in religion. If you see these accusations by the town’s people as a correct interpretation of the word of God then God must exist because he protected the town from the devilish beings, while if you see these accusations as false then their belief in God caused many innocent people to die and therefore religion is responsible. This is what makes the book so interesting. When you read the book you further your belief in religion whether it is negative or a positive outlook on religion. Did Miller write The Crucible for this purpose?

Reading Journal 6 - Behavior

In this section of Six Easy Pieces, Feynman proves the uncertainty principle and the reason sub-atomic particles act as both waves and particles. Feynman first uses a theoretical experiment of bullets (particles) being shot randomly at a wall with two wholes in it. Behind the wall there is a detector that recognizes when bullets make it through. In the experiment there is a chance that the bullet will go through the top hole, P1, and a probability that the bullet will go through the bottom hole, P2. These two probabilities are graphed. Now when a bullet is allowed to go through either hole 1 or hole 2, there is a P12, which is graphed. It is determined that P12 = P1 + P2 due to interference both through probability and the graph. The experiment is then done exactly the same except for with waves. For waves P12 ≠ P1 + P2 because when waves interfere they cancel each other out. Now when this same apparatus is used with an electron gun, it is found that the electrons with the ability to move through both holes independently have an average probability that acts like the particle experiment, but the rate of electrons found is inconsistent. However, when an apparatus is designed that allows us to know which hole an electron goes through there is interference and P12 ≠ P1 + P2, like waves. There is no apparatus that allows us to know which hole and electron goes through without interference because of this electrons, a sub-atomic particle, are considered to act as both waves and particles. When the experiment is done with other sub-atomic particles, results are similar. Because electrons and all sub-atomic particles are unpredictable in both speed and location, we are always uncertain of where these sub-atomic particles will be.

Reading Journal 5 - The Theory of Gravitation

In this section of Six Easy Pieces, Feynman discusses the theory of gravitation. Despite gravities simplicity and the obvious presence of this seemingly strong force, it is a rather weak force when compared to nuclear forces (force binding the nucleus of atoms together), and electrical forces (positive and negative repulsion and attraction). By far the strongest of the three being nuclear forces and electrical forces are far still stronger than gravity. Gravity is only “inversely proportional to the mass of each and varies inversely as the square of the distance between them” (Feynman 89), (F=G(mm^1/r^2). In other words the bigger the two objects and the smaller the distance between them, the stronger the force will be. Feynman also discusses that the reason the Earth and other planets are circular is that gravity is pulling them as close together as they can be. The planets are not circles, however, they are ellipsis. They are ellipsis because the planet’s rotations causes a centrifugal effects which tend to oppose gravity around the equator spreading the middle of the planets farther out than the rest of it. Other than the brief background on gravitation and the explanation of the planets’ ellipsis shape, Feynman discusses the effects of gravity on moving objects. He states that because something is moving while be pulled it results in a curved motion. As if the object is strafing around the pull. This motion describes the revolutions of the planets around the sun, and the moons around the planets. Gravity most helps us predict the motion and position of stars. This is the reason gravity is used so often in astronomy. It is likely that the reason gravity was discovered so early was human natures fractionation with space and the stars. Without gravity we would know very little because without gravity we would not notice very much scientific.

Reading Journal 4 - Conservation of Energy

In this section of Six Easy Pieces, Feynman discusses the law of conservation of energy and its applications. The law of conservation of energy says that no matter is lost or gained by processes. Without the law of conservation of energy we wouldn’t know very much. If the law of conservation of energy didn’t exist then we could not know the energy of a photon, the specific heat of any element, the amount of energy required to do anything. This is because without knowing where all of this energy went, you cannot know what the energy was used on. So if we didn’t know the law of conservation of energy, then every energy value would consist of kinetic energy, potential energy, heat energy, and all the different kinds of energy, however, the law of conservation of energy allows us to know that if we add up all of these energies before and after a use of energy, we will find the same value for energy. This allows us to figure out each component of the total energy and specifically identify one of the values. The law of conservation of energy does not have to be applied on a small scale we can apply the law to the amount of energy in existence now and in the past. If all of our energy is in chemical bonds, nuclear energy between protons and electrons, and gravity, and all the sources of these are constant (gravity’s being mass) then the amount of energy that exists today must be the same as the amount of energy when whatever happened to create everything happened. Feynman also strays from the topic of conservation and more about energy and the amounts of energy we have access to today. Feynman claims that “(w)ith 150 gallons of running water a minute, you have enough fuel to supply all the energy which is used in the United States today!” (86). This just shows how much energy there is still left in the world. All we need to do is find a way to harness this energy and then this energy crisis that the world is in now will not exist.

Reading Journal 3 - The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences

This chapter of Six Easy Pieces shows how physics affects all the other sciences. Despite Feynman’s earlier tone towards chemistry and its inferiority to physics, he does realize the importance in all the other sciences. He discusses how each one gives knowledge of the world and furthers understanding of physics. For chemistry, he talks of how theoretical chemists are actually physicists and that the deepest levels of chemistry end up in quantum mechanics. For biology, he discusses how biologists helped discover conservation of energy. For astrology, he discusses how physics came to be from people noticing the simplicity of the movement of stars and planets. For meteorology, he gives a cynical view in which he says that the reason the measurements are for meteorology are possible is physics and how they have everything wrong. Water and air is unstable, making it impossible to know the condition of the air. For geology, his tone lightens as he discusses the unknowns of geology and how there is much more to be known. For psychology, he discusses two parts. One for psychoanalysis, which is not a science, and the other for the way our brains interpret sensation. He also explains how when we learn, cells have to change, therefore meaning atoms have to change, which brings us back to physics in the interest of the atom. Finally, the explanation of how physics relates to all the other sciences. In his explanation, Feynman analyzes that every other science wants to know what created what they study, and that each science is constantly changing. However, physicists do not interpret what physics is now as anything different of what it was at the beginning of time. Once and for all, he ends his conversation of other sciences to tell the importance of bringing it all together so they can truly understand the world.

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).

Reading Journal 1 - Atoms in Motion

This chapter of Six Easy Pieces discusses everything is made from atoms. It emphasizes this theories importance as well. What makes the atomic theory so important? Why would it be the “only one sentence passed on to the next generations of creature?” Why not start at more elementary particles like electrons, photons, protons, neutrons, etc…? Feynman talks about the structures that atoms form in solids and the errors in illustrating atoms. Illustrations of atoms fail to show how atoms never stop moving. Even at absolute zero, the atom still has to jiggle and vibrate. If moving uses energy, then wouldn’t the idea that all atoms are constantly moving mean that everything needs a constant supply of energy? If so, what is the source of energy? Would it be the repulsion and attraction of protons and electrons? Feynman does say that these illustrations are beneficial in their ability to show angles. Wouldn’t you be in able to see the 3rd dimension of angles; making the illustration a failure at demonstrating angles? He also discusses how water evaporates and the equilibrium that is established between the air and the liquid. If by blowing these air away alters the equilibrium to push more liquid into water vapor, couldn’t you cool mass amounts of liquid with a fan blowing the top of it? There is also a brief discussion on the task assigned to chemists in naming compounds. Feynman clearly believes that physics is the superior science, however I believe that chemistry is just a different, equal form of science. It does not require less brainpower to do chemistry; it is simply a different skill. If that is the case then what about the other forms of science (biology, engineering, astrology, psychology, etc…), are they also inferior to physics because they require different skills?