BY DAVID L, GoopsTEIN ‘The Mechanical Universe and Beyond {PBS eleven sie) States of Mater By JUDITH R, GoonsTERS Mitts Schoo! David L. Goodstein and Judith R. Goodstein FEYNMAN’S LOST LECTURE The Motion of Planets Around the Sun VINTAGE BOOKSPabned by Vintage 1997 Copyright © Caer not of Tehnoogy 1996 “Ta co of DandL,Goodtin and Jude. Coon Tr be ene nie nag of dh work her ban ‘Saray them’ accrsence wt he Cops ‘Deng and aves A 1988 ‘This boo ei eto the condom tat al no, {rey ted oye ee ou {any form of binding or cover oe tour thet fe whch = I publi na whoa sr condo nc a ncion bing inpore on the ssberquntParchser we Picetire Coe 36 Random Hoa 20 ual ds Rod, srmwntage oka Adee or omnis within Toe Random Howse Group Linked “hob fou at worrundoabonneanbeoe tir ‘he Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954008 [AGI aap eo fo ei book {eSvuisle om the But bey Chin SC ang ers aa estate, “PoC te oy boa cotton shone ended iy teloeng ‘ruvoametal ogists peidng Grergmata Our Piper precursor Pina anton in Gros Stn by Cys i Sten PLC Wea ted. by beet Mday ih To the memory of R-P.F.. : wh wonld be apple that we fund i neces explain what he had ‘aids leary. we Mt of Po) 2,Contents Preface 1" Introduction 7 1 From Copernicus to Newton 21 2 Feyaman: A Reminiscence 3 Feynman's Proof of the Law of Ellipses 63 4 “The Motion of Planets Around the Sun" (Mancit 13, 1964)Epilogue Wt Feynman's Lecture Notes Bibliography 183 Preface “This i the story of how Feynman’ lost lecture came to be lost, and how it came to be found again. In April 1992, as Caltch’s archivist, Twas asked by Genty Nevgsbaver, the chairman of the Physics Depart: tment, ogo trough the les in Robert Leighton’ office. Leighton was Il and ad not used his office for several year. Marge Leighton, his ‘wife, had told Neugebauer that it was all ight to cleanout the ofico— She'd already collected her husband's books and personal effect, 1 ‘ould take what I wanted forthe archives, andthe Physics Department ‘would dispose ofthe ret. ‘Besides heading the Physies Department from 1970 to 1975, Leigh- ton, together with Matthew Sands, bad overseen the editing and pablica- tion cf Richard Feynman's two-year course of lectures in introductory physi, delivered to Caltech freshmen and sophomores. The lcres, published inthe early 1960s in tree volumes by Addison-Wesley, dealt ‘ih vireally every subject in physics, with a point of view that remains ‘shan orginal thie day. 1 war bopingto find some tangible evidence ofthe Leighton-Feynman collaboration. took me a couple of wocks 10 sift through the stacks of paper, which were stished everywhere, but Leighton didn't disappoint me Tuncated two folders, one mirked “Feynman Freshman Lectures,‘unfinished, another labeled “Addison-Wesley. et sheets and purchase orders from earlier decades snd reams of yel- lowing computer paper covered with endless colrans of numbers, all thrown together in 2 storage closet just outside his office. Leigh's comespondence with the publisher contained detils about the forma, the color ofthe cove, comments by ouside readers, adoptions at oer schools, and fo how well the volumes would sel. Tet folder putin the "Save" pile. The other folder, the one containing the unedited Feynman physic atures, Teared back othe archives myself "Ini June 1963 preface to The Feynman Lecrures on Physics, Foy ‘man commented on some ofthe lecuves not included there. He"d piven thre optional lectres inthe ist year on how to solve problems. And, Indeed, thee of the tems in Leighton's folder tured out to be thera {tanscrips for Reviews A, B, and C, offered by Feynman in December 1961. A lecture on inertial guidance, which Feynman gave the following month, did't make the eu either—an unfortunate decison, according to Feyaman—and founda paral transcript of this lecture in Leighton’ folder. The folder also contained the unedited partial tanerit of ater lecture, dated March 13, 1964, along witha sheaf of nots in Feynman's handwriting. Etiled""The Motion of Planets Around the Sun," i was an unorthodox approach Isaac Newton's geometric demonstration of the lw of elise, in the Principia Mathematice, In September 1993, Thad occsion to draw up list of the orginal audiotpes of the Feyhman lectures, which had ako been contributed {e the archives. They included five lectres that were not to be found inthe Addison-Wesley books. Then Tremembered the five unpublished lectures in Leighton’s file sure enough, the unedited transits matched the tapes. The archives also had photographs ofthe blackboard diagrams and equations fo four ofthete lectures the four mentioned by Fey ‘man in his preface—but I could find none forthe March 1964 leetre fn planetary motion. (In the course of selecting illstrations for ths book, T did stumble upon one photograph of Feynman taken during this special lecture. tis reproduced here asthe frontispiece.) Although ‘Feynman had given Leighion his nos on the 1964 lecture, which included sketches of his blackboard drawings, Leighton spprently de- ide not to inludeitin the lat (1965) volume of The Feynman Lectures ‘on Physics, which dealt primarily with quantum mechanics. n time, ‘his lecture was forpoten. For all practical purposes, i was lost "The idea of reacting all ive Unpublished Feynman lectures fom ‘oblivion appealed to David and me. So the following December, when tre went. as we often do 10 the Talan hill town of race, we tok long coplee of the tapes the ranserps, the blackboard photographs, fd Feynman's note. Inthe course ofthe next wo weeks, we listened fo the tapes, took notes, laughed at the Jokes, stained to hear the ‘dents questions and Feynman's answer after each lecture was ove, took more notes. But in te end, we decided thatthe ooly lecture that fll had the vitality, originality, and verve we associated with Feynman's [presence inthe clseroom wa the 1964 lecture on planetary meion— the one lecture that demanded fll complement of blackboard photo- [ropis. And we didn't have them. Reluctantly, we abandoned the proj ‘Orso thought. Ast tamed out, bits and pieces of he lecture haunted David, especially when he came 1 teach the same material in freshman physics the following year. He had the tape. But could he reconstruct {he Blackboard demonstrations fom the few tantalizing sketches in Feya- ‘man's notes and the few words Feyaman had joted down more for himself than forthe stents? “Let's ty again he announced, early in December 1994, as we were packing fora tip rough the Panama ‘Canal, This time, we would ake along only the transept of the 1964 Tecturo, the lecture notes, and selected pages from Kepler's The New ‘Astronomy ad Newton's Principia for good measure took the 8.8. Roterdan eleven days to sal from Acapulco to Fort Lauderdale, Fortwo to thee hours each day, David would hole up in ‘ur abin and work on deciphering Feynman's lost lecture. He began, {Feynman had, with Newton's peometiea! proofs. The inital break ‘ame when he wa able to match up Feynman's frst sketch with one ‘of Newton's diagrams, on page 40 of the Cajort edition ofthe Principia ‘We'd eon at fea for thee, maybe four ays, Cost Rica's shoreline plainly visible, when David announced tat he, too, ould follow New {on’s line of reasoning up ts point. By the time we'd exchanged the Pacific Ocean forthe Atlante, he was completely absorbed in Feynman's Sparse, neatly labeled pencil drawings of curves and angles and Inter14 Praace seating lines. He stayed in the cabin, ignoring the sconery in for of seometric figures—Newton's, Feynman's, and his own—longer and longer each moraing and inthe evening as well. When we atived in Fort Landerdle, on December 21, be kaew and understood Feynman's ene argument! On the plane home, the book took shape, ts final form owes much to the contbutions of family and tions. ‘Marcia Goodstein ingeniously ouwitted simple-minded software to pro- doce the nearly 130 figures needed to tell Feynman's geometric tale ‘Sere Lippincod, shilled editor and diplomat, gently massage the rose land the presentation. Ed Barber, vice-chairman at W. W. Norton, i ‘vested years of filendly persuasion, which paid off when the lost lecture thowed up. Robbie Vout suppliod the story of how it originated. Jim ‘Blinn read the manuscript and made helpful suggestions. Valentine ‘elegd called our atention to the prof by James Clerk Maxwell. Finally, we wish to thank Carl and Michelle Feynman for deir Kind ‘cooperation and Mike Keller, Caltech’ intellectual property lawyer, for bis cheerful elp. Proceeds from this book will be used to support, scientific end scholaly research at Caltech ‘All the photographs inthe book are ffom the Caltech archives. LRG. Pasadena, May 1995 FEYNMAN'SIntroduction woul ther acne singe fat, eem sal ne han debate the iret ise length wtontdscovering antiga Gauieeo Gaciner “This is book about singe fact, although certainly nota small one. ‘When a planet, or a comet, or any other body ares though space Under the inflocnce of gravity traces out one of avery special set oF ‘mathematical curves--eilher a cicle of an elipse or & parabola or 8 hyperbola, These curves ae known collectively as the conic sections. ‘Why inthe word docs nature choose to ace out in the sky those, and ‘nly those, elegant geometrical constructions? The problem tans out {o be not only of profound sclntiic and philosophical signfiance but (of immense historical importance as wel. Im August of 1684, Edmund Halley (fier whom the comet would be named) journeyed to Cambridge to speak othe celebrated but somewhat range mathematician Isaac Newton about celestial mechanics. The a wes abroad in scientific icles that the motion of the planets might be consequence of force from the Sun tha diminished the inverse yuare ofthe distance between the Sun and te planets, but no one had She tcon able to produce satisfactory demonstration. Yes, Newton let ‘e, he ad been able to demonsteate tat such w force would give rise {o eliptical ovbits--exactly what Johannes Kepler had deduced some ‘Sventy years earlier from observations of the heavens. Haley urged Nowon to fet him see the demonstation. Newion apparently beggedoff, saying he had misplaced it, but promised to work tout again and fend it to Halley. Infact, « few months later, in November 1684, ‘Newton did sed Halley nine-page treatise in which he demonstrated ‘that an invere-square law of gravity, together with some basic principles ‘of dynanics, would sccount for aot oaly elliptical obits but Kepler's ‘othe laws of planetary motion aswell, and more besides. Halley knew ‘that be hel in his hands nothing less than the Key to understanding the Universe ai was then conceived. "He urged Newion let him arange for its publication. But Newton wat not entirely stisfied with ie work and delayed, wating to make revisions. The delay lasted almost thee years, during which Newton, ‘ow thoroughly hooked on the problem, seems to have done nothing lsc but work a it What emerged atthe en, in 1687, was Philosophioe Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Newton's masterpiece and the book ‘hat created moder scence "Nearly three hundred years later, the physicist Richard Feyaman, appatealy Tor hs own amusement, Undertok to prove Kepler's law of ‘lipses himseif, using no mathematic more advanced than elementary plane geomeuy. When he was atked to give a guest lecture 10 the ‘Caltech freshman clas in March 1964, he decided to base It on that ‘Beometic proof. The lecture was duly recorded on audiotape ad tran- ‘Seribed. Usually, photograph were made ofthe blackboard daring Fey ‘man’s lectures; however, if they were made in his case, they have ot Survived. Without any indication of what geometric diagrams he was refering 10, the lecture was incomprehensible. But when Feynman's ‘own notes fr that lecture were rediscovered among the papers of his colleague Robert Leighton, it became posible io econsiuct his ete argument "The discovery of Feynman's lost lecture notes affords us an entraor ‘nary opportunity. For most people, Feyaman's fame rests on his pice- ‘esque exploits, recounted in two anecdotal books ("Surely You're Joking, br. Feynman” a" What Do You Care What Other People “Think?” which be produced late in life in cllaboration with Leighton’ son, Ralph. The stories in these books are amusing enough, but they {ake on special resonance Because the protagonist was also theoretical physicist of histori proportions. Yet for the noascienist reader there is no way to peer into Feynman's mind and see that other sie of hirm— the powerful itll tht lft an indelible imprint on scientific though In this lecture, however, Feynman use all his ingemity, insight, and Innit, and hie arguments ot obscured by the Layers of mathematical Sophisicaton that made most of his accomplishment In pysisimpene- trableto the uninitiated. This lecture is an opportnity for anyone who ts mustered plane geometry to soe the great Feyaman at work! "Wir did Feynman underake to prove Kepler’ law of elipses using only lane geomet? The Job ie more easly done using the powerful techniques of more advanced mathematics. Feynman was evidently in- tried by the fac that Isaac Newton, who had avented some of those ‘ore sdvanced techniques himself, nevertheless preseated his o¥m proof ‘of Kepler's lw in the Principia ding oay plane geometry. Feynman {ted tn follow Newton's proof, but he couldn't get past a certain point, [beeaue Newton made use of arcane properties of conic sections (a hot topic in Nevton’s time) that Feyaman did't know. So, as he says in Ins lecture, Feyaman cooked up a proof of his own. ‘Moreover, this snot ust a attesting intelectual puree that Feya> ‘man fas doodled with, Newton's demonststion ofthe law of ellipses isa watershed that separates the ancien word from the modern world— the culmination of the Scientific Revolution. Tis one of the crowning ‘chicvements ofthe human mind, comparable to Bethoven'ssymphon- ies, or Shakespeare's plays, or Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. Aside from iis immense importance inthe history af physics, its a conclusive ‘demoasrtion of the astonishing fact that has mystied and intigued all deep thinkers since Newton's me: nature obeys mathematics. oral these reasons, it seems workhil to open Feynman's lect forthe world to ree. The price, forthe reader, is not cheap. This parcar lecture must have been daunting even forthe mathematical ‘whizss in Caltech freshman clas, Even dough each individual step {s elementary, the proof taken ab a whole isnot simple, And at one ‘eoove frum Feynman's bsckboard pi viv preseuce in the las ‘oom, the lecture becomes a good deal more dificult to follow. Never- theles itis the purpose ofthis book to draw the reader in by describing the hbtoricalsignieance of Newton's demonstration of the law of Clipse, and of Feynman's own life and work; and then 1 do no lessthan connote poof that yuan to is cre, and ii ey ta ne me he ‘Sight in hgh sho! roms wil desand Peja ia formulation. an 1 From Copernicus to Newton {In 1543, a8 he lay on hie deathbed, the Polish cleric Nicolaus Copernicus twas shown the Ast copies of his book, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, He had parpesly delayed is publication wnt he 90 ‘would have to face the consequences. The book proposed the ‘unthinkable: tat the Sun, not the Earth, was th center ofthe univers. ‘The book wat shout revolutions, real ones in the sky, and it kicked off ‘what came tobe called, metaphorically, the Selenite Revolution. To- (ay, when we refer to political and other upheavals as revolutions, we ‘a paying homage to Copemicus, whose book abou revolutions started the frat revolution. ‘Before Copernicus, out view of the workd was derived from the ‘ancient Greek philosophers and mathematicians, frozen in time inthe Teachings of Plato and Aristo, who lived and taught in the fourth ‘ceniry bc. In the Aristolian word, all matter was made of four ‘ements: earth, water, ar, nd fe. Each clement hd its natural place fath, rarrounded by water, atthe center ofthe universe, then aie and fre ia ascending spheres. Natural motion consisted of clement secking their nara places, Thos, heavy, predominantly earthy bodies tended to fall, while bubbles would rise tough water and smoke would rise through ar. Allotber motions were violent, quiring a proximate cause,22 FRYNMAN'S Lost LECTURE For example, an oxcart would not move unless an ox was palling i ‘Outside the spheres of earth, water, sr, and fire, the heavenly bodies ‘evolved on crystal spheres oftheir own, The heavenly sphere, where only the perfection of circular motion was permited, were serene, bat ‘monious, and eternal. Only down here on Earth was there change, death, and decay. It was acoheren system ofthe Werld, unmistakably designed to pot usin our place, but that place was the center ofthe universe, and: we could, forall our faults, easily imagine ourselves 10 be the purpose of creation, "We were quite happy with Aristotle's cosmos,” ‘emurks a character in Tom Stoppard’ Arcadia a play that pokes fun at historians and selene alike. “Personally I prefered it Fifty-five rial spheres geared 10 God's crankshaft is my iden of a satisfying But there were a few problems even in the serene heavens of the Aristotelian cosmos. The Sun, the Mooa, and the stars executed their ‘motions faithfully enough (Cor the mow part), but a sll number of prominent bodies called planets from the Gres for "wanderer failed to behave themselves properly. Predicting the postions of these bod ies—where they would appeat inthe sky on any even night—was the ‘professional esponsibility of stenomers. The information was of ome Importance for agriculture, for navigation, and, above all, or casting horoscopes in a world deeply steeped in astology- The idea that the planets Wweat around the Earth in perfect cices didn't accord with ‘bservation, but Plato had sid that lathe heavens only elcular mation ‘was possible. So astanomers concocted the scheme of having the planets ‘move in circles, called epieyeles, that were themselves centeod on other ‘ices, called deferens. IPan observation ofa planet inthe sky dit ‘git fi the existing system of deferens and epicycles, another epcycle could be added to refine the calculations and Improve the accuracy of the preditions—a practice known as “saving the appearances," This ancient system of astonomy was codified in the second century A.D. by the Alexandrian Greet asyooomer Plolemy, in a book called the ‘Almagest. The Almagest remained the principal textbook of astronomy for fourteen hundred years, until the time of Copernicus. "In his book, Copernicus pointed out thatthe whole bulky system of ‘picycles and deferents could be timplied somewhat if, sel as a rom Copernicus te Newton 23 ‘mathematica convenience, one placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of things. That was the fst chaper. The resto the book is ‘led with astronomical ables, calculated using epiccles and deferens ‘enterd onthe Sua, The rise of mathematical convenience fooled no ‘one—but, onthe other hand, vey fev paid any attention to Copericas stall the decades following his death, and even fewer actually both- ‘red ered the book, It tre tht during this period Jesuit missionaries ‘were teaching the Copemican sytem in China, but at its headquarters in Rome the Church war moch more concerned with Martin Luter than ‘ih Nicolaus Copernic, Neverteles, there were afew who noticed, {nd who cared. Three men in particular were destined to play eracia ‘oes i overthrowing the eocenic universe. They were Tycho Brabe, Johanaes Kepler, nd Galileo Cali CCopenica's view of the solar rye, frm De revoltonbus ‘rb coelst, 1548,‘Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was « Danish nobleman, who as « boy leamed to his amazement that it was posible 1 predict events inthe sky, such ab the solar eclipse of August 21, 1560, and then learned to Fis even greater amazement, while observing a conjunetion of Jupiter snd Satur in August 1563, tht the ssironomical ables Ginlading the Copernican tables) were off by several days—presumably for lack of sccurte astronomical data ‘Aficr studying law, traveling in Europe, losing his nose in 9 dl, and replacing it with one of gol, silver, and wax, Tycho scandaized Danish society by manying ¢ commoner and becoming an sstronomer. He set up 8 small obserstory on some family lands, and there, on [November 11,1572, he discovered a brillant new star where nove had buen before, in the constellation Catsopeia. New stars were not Sup= posed to appear in the immutable Aristotelian heavens. His book De hoa sella (On the New Siar offended the Church, established his ‘epitation, sod eared hrs the patronage of Denmark's king, Frederick t Frederick gave Tycho the island of Hveen, near Copenhagen, and the nancial supporto build thre the preatststronomial observatory the workd had ever seen. Giant measuring instruments were. con structod—Tycho's great equatorial aria was some nine fet actos, the diameter of his “great mural quadrant measured thirteen feet— to make stings of unprecedented precision, together with magnificent buildings in which to ive and werk, printing presses to publish new findings, and much more. Tycho called the place Uraniborg, after Ure ala, the muse of astronomy. Begun in 1576, operated until 1597, Jus 8 few years later, in 1610, the invention of the telescope would end foreverthiskind of maked-ee asuoaonny. Nevertheless te observations ‘made at Uraiborg during its brie period of existence would decense the uncertainty of astronomical tables fom ten minutes of ae to 10 mminates of are. (OF you bold your index fnger up a arm's Teng it overs an angle of about ane degree. Ten minutes of are ie one-sixth ‘ofthat; two minutes ofa is another five times smnaler) In 1588, Frederick I ded, 19 be succeeded by bis son, Christian IV. (Chistian was tated by Tycho's incessant demands fr lavish support and by 1397 the situation had deteriorated tothe point where Tyeh {elt obliged to closeup Uranibog, leave Denmark, and establish himself Jn Prague, where he became imperial mathomatician o Rudolph Tl, kingBy the time Tycho departed for Prague, he had made an indelible contribution to astronomy. ‘That did ot sais him. The job that sill, lay before him was to pt his precios (and stil largely secret observa- tions tothe sevice ofthe new cosmology. Not, however othe cosmol- ay of Copemicus, and cerainly not to tha! of Ptolemy: Tycho had vented a cosmos of his very own. In the Tyehonic universe, all the Planets rovolved around the Sua, and the Sun with the other planets revolved around the Earth, which wat restored to the center of the Universe. To the modem eye, the Tychonie universe seems t0 be a ‘compromise between Aristotle and Copernicus, but in his own ime “Tycho's cosmos was in tome ways an even more macions departure fom Aristode than Copericus’s had been, because it smashed the crystal spheres that were supposed to fll the heavens regardless of whether the Earth or the Sun was atthe center. The question was ‘Would the Tychonic data suppor the Tychoni unverse? To answer the _quston required a mathematical talent far greater than that possessod by the imperial mathematician. tn all of Europe, there may not have been ‘more than one mathematician withthe nocessay ables. Buta last ‘ere was ope. His name was Johannes Kepler. ‘Kepler was bor in 1571, the son of « mefcenary soldier who quickly ‘evaporated from the scene and a shrewishlnnkeeper's daughter who ‘Would later be Wied for witcheraft- Small in stature, fragile in health, and poor, Kepler's obvious keen imelligence nevertheless won him Scholarship that permitted him to atend the University of Tubingen. ‘Therebe studied Under one of Europe's earliest advocates ofthe Cope can system, Michael Mastin. After be had obtained his bachelors nd master’s depres, the TUbingen faculty rescued him from a carer as & Lateran minister by recommending him for «pos teaching high school ‘mathemties inthe Austrian town of Graz, “According to legend, one day inthe summer of 1595, Kepler's body rat lecturing about geometry to a class of bored adolescents while his mind went rummaging though the tabulated data of Copernican astronomy, his lifelong passion. Tnsrbing circles inside and ouside an ‘equilateral triangle, he soddenly realized thatthe rao of the diameters ‘ofthe two circles (lhe outer one is just tice as big atthe inner) was ‘essentially the same asthe ratio ofthe dameters ofthe orbits of pier rom Copernic o Newton 27 and Stor, The discovery sent Kepler himself into orbit. He quickly ‘Gevised «model in which the six invisible spores that reglated the ‘orbits of the nx planets then known were fited on ether side of each ‘of the five “perfoct solids" of antiquity (solids having all sides the fame: te tetahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and cosshe= ‘ron) nested one inside the other. Sure enough, by aranging te solids {nthe ight onder, the diameters of the spheres came out tobe in almost the stne ratios ab those of the orbits ofthe plants. “The need solids (the outros spre x Saturn's), from Foes opiate conmographicum, 1596.28 PEYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE Kepler's model explained why there were sx, and only sx, planets— because thre were five, and ony five, peroctslids—and Why thelr ‘ofbits ha the ratios they Ui The whole rangement ited miacalosly together. Kepler thought, not for the last time im his life, that he had ‘een into the mind ofthe Creator. In 1596, he published hs inepraion in the book Afysterium commographicum, which brought im tthe attention of Tycho Brahe. “Tycho was not enchanted by Kepler's Copeman views, but he was Jmpresed with his mathematica alent. He invited Kepler o join him in Prague. Kepler had by now built up a considerable reputation as @ ‘shlfl astrologer (his predictions of plague, famine, and Turkish inva- ‘Son often timed out tbe corect, but is finances were stil precarious, land as a Lutheran he fl persecuted in Catholic Graz. On the fst day ‘of January inthe year 1600, Johannes Kepler set out ojo the Danish fsronomer in Prague! "The timid Johannes Kepler did not got om well withthe boisterous, smetal-nosed Tycho Brahe, but they needed cach other. Kepler needed ‘Tycho's data to do his life's work, and Tycho needed Kepler's genus ‘o organize his observations and provide confirmation ofthe Tychonie universe, The mismatch lated eighicen moaths, ual in 1601, Tycho Brahe died suddenly of an acute urinary infection. Its reported that his last words to Kepler were “Let me not seem to ave lived in vai.” But Kepler, the dedicated Copernican, had no intention of pursuing ‘Tyehonie cosmology. ‘Afr Tycho's death, Kepler managed, with dificulty (nothing ia ‘Kepler's life came easy), to be named his successor as imperial mathe ‘matician—a tile that turned out to be more honorfe than Temuners- tive—and to wrest the superb Tychonic data from Tycho's belts. He also published a book on astrology. (He regarded all ober astrologers to be charlatans and frauds, but for his own part he couldn't suppress ctl te feting that there might be a certain harmony between human ‘destiny and the heavenly panorama.) And in 1604, while observing & ay, he may ow ays ye ye fit a and Kae by i at ‘Sc amo sms eb woe: We sn cr Gly Sent | | From Copernic Newton 29 raze conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, he saw the appearance fos supernova, anew star that remained visible inthe sky for seventeen ‘months. ‘Kepler's greatest struggle was his “'war on Mars""—his attempt to find sn ogi for the planet that would be consistent with Tycho'sabser- vations, A cirle could be fited to the orbit of Mas if the uncecainty Inthe observations was ten minutes of ae, as it had been before Tycho. But Tycho's magnificent legacy requted something diferent. Kepler alculated prodigiousy, first uring an ingenious method to deduce the ‘orbit ofthe Earth, the uncertain celestial platform from which Tycho's ‘bservations fad boen made, The Earth's obit could be described well ‘enough bya cgle with the Sun slighty displaced from the centr. But fot the obit of Mar. Try ashe might, no circle would ft. In Astronomia, nova (The New Astronomy), published in 1609, Kepler quotes Vigil to ‘escrbe hie quest sates scheme mischievouny, the sty wens She les othe willows, br hopes exh Bt Inthe Copernican system, the Earth is one of the planets. But Earth, being the site of change, death, and decay, is obviously notin a state fof Platonic perfeeion, as planets had boon supposed to beso mae the orbits ofthe planets id aot need tobe Platonic cies at alll ("Oh ridiculous mel” says Kepler, of his failure to grasp this point earlier; ‘We don't wate scientific papers that way anymore) The orbit of Mars Wras not a cielo, I was an ellipse, withthe Sun atone focus (a Word ‘oped for the purpose by Kepler from the Lai for replace"). An llipae wit the Sun tone {cus (he ott of Mass mach ‘more nesly ecu than this slips)30. FEYNMAN'S Los LECTURE ‘rom Copernce to Newton 31 “The ellipse is a closed geometric curve knovn from satguity. Apol- lonius of Perga (¢.262-£. 190 bc.) showed that intersecting 8 cone and a plane produced two elosed curves, a circle and an elise, and to open curves, the parabola and the hyperbo Ler. plane intsets cone, producing. cle when een head-on bel). ‘ici plane ltrect cone, producing amelie when tea head on (tel. Ler line internets cone pall he opposite she of tbe cone. Seen ‘bead te real ipl elon). RSH plane itersocs Both branches ‘Stan ended cone. Sear bend, he sul a ypebola below). Unie hose cone sctins he hyperbola ways hs two beaches,Collectively, these figures are known athe cle sections. The elise, in particular, may be drawn by a suing-and-thumblacks constuction, ‘wih the tacks located a he two fork ‘Well got back 1 the special properties ofthe ellipse in Chapter 3 In Astronomia nova, Kepler tls us tha in fact the obits of al the planets ar ellipses with the Sun atone focus a satement that became Known as Kepler's fst iw, the law of ellipses He alto tells us planet moves faster when it isin that part of i orbit lowest fo the Sun and slower when it is farther away. ‘Moreover, this speeding up and slowing down of the planet's motion has a most peculiar Kind of ela ity about it line Rom the Sun to the planet would sweep oot equal seas in equal times. This became known ae Kepler's second law. Ten years late, in 1619, Kepler published snather book, Harmoniees mand (Glarmony of the World, in which he expounded et third law. The frst two laws describe the motion of «single planet in its own oxbic ‘The third law compares the orbits ofthe planes. Isa that the farther 1 plane is from the Sun the slower it moves in ts onbit In particular, 8 Year in the life of a plant (the amount of time i takes to make One ‘compete orbit is proportional tothe thee-halves power ofthe sizeof the omit (echnical, the longer diameter ofthe ellipse). Together, these three statements are Kepler's great contribution Kepler's thes laws of planetary motion. n'1627, Kepler published the Rudolphine Tables, named for his patron. Rudolph MI. These astonorical tables, ‘based on Tycho's meticulous servations combined with Kepler's thes laws, made astronomy a hundred times more accurate than it had ever been Before, From Coperias to Newion =e eer as eee Frontispiece, Tabac Rudphinge, 1627, Designed by Kepler. is abr cgrving depts gins of wsroony eared inthe {Src of Urn Kepler pot isl ad th ies fur fis Tobin te en pnt on bef he eneAtabout the same time, in Haly, Galleo Galilei wrote in 1 Sagela- tore, “The book of nature ies continuously open Before out eyes speak ofthe univers) bu it can’t be understood without fat leaming. to understand the Tanguage and characters In which i is writen. It 6 ‘written in matbemtical language, and its characters are geometrical Figures." Galileo was not writing to celebrate Kepler's laws, which, ironically, be never even acknowledged, much less embraced. He was, however, writing in defense of the Copernican system. In i616, the Catholic Church's chief theologian, Cardinal Robe Bellarmine had declared Copernicanism to be "fale and erroneous” and had placed Copernicus book onthe index of forbidden books. Now, however, ‘new pope, Urban Vil, long s frend and supporter of Galileo's, bad been installed, and Galle hoped to divert the Church from ts deasrous colision course with science. He would not succeed Galileo was bon in Psa, in 1564, the som ofa muscln, Vincenzio Galle (was fashionable a the time among Tuscan families to give the firstborn child the fuly surname ss first name.) Gallo studied redicine af the University of Pisa, but withdrew witbout graduating, for lack of funds. He tavght bimscif mathematics, published few essays, and secured a positon lecturing on mathematics at Psa, While st Pisa, he discovered the law of the pendulum (a pendum takes the Same amount of me fora complete yele, no matter how big or sll its arc) and the law of falling bodies (ll bodies, regardless of mas, ‘Bll withthe same constant acceleration in a vacuum); and he did ‘ies of kinematical experiment, using balls and inclined planes, that ‘amounted (0 nothing less than the invention of experimental science as ‘we know ittoday. (The ttle of his book I Saggiatore is wsualy rendered in English as The Assayer, but the modera term “"The Experimental” ‘more accuratoly describes what he had in mind.) He apparently embraced CCopernicanismealy i fe, bat kept his bli hidden for fear of ridicule, none of his rare leters to Keplar—eally a thank-you aoe for copy of Kepler's Mpeterum coumographicim—he wrote in 1297, teed ‘congratulate myself on having an associate inthe study of Truth who i ‘fiend of Truth," Truth wih seaptal Tis disguised but unmistakable reference to Copernicus. ‘The Copernican system, however, was not only sn affront to Aistete- tian and Church dogma; it seemed also to be an affont to common Fram Copernic Newton 33 sense. Any fool could plainly sce thatthe Earth wa solidly a rst Ifthe Earth vas spinning o ts exe andhurlingthoogh space, ax Copereicans claimed, why couldn't we sense all that motion? To puta sharper pont fon the question, conser the folowing thought experiment. suppose Someone wete 10 drop some heavy objet from the top ofthe Tower of Pisa, Regardless of our cosmological areatation, we can all agree on {his much atleast: the object wil fll straight down wo the foot ofthe tower (ignoring for the moment the tower's Famous tit). But according tothe Copemicans the Earth is spinning on is axis asthe objet fll Ifthe foro of eravityexuses the object o fll directly toward the centet ‘ofthe Earth, the object should fall straight down. while the tower rotates fsvay, How far away? It akes an object about two seconds to reach the [roundif dropped from the top of the tower. Given the size of the Earth land the fact hat it makes complete rotation nee each day the distance ‘snot ard to compute. The tower should move about hal «mile while the object is falling! In other word, if Copernicus Was ight and the Earth made a complete rotation on its axis ach day, then an objec, topped from the top ofthe Leaning Tower of Pisa should ht the ground hall ile away. The fet that it does no such thing scems a Pretty eciiv refutation of Copericanism. “The problem for Copericans in the sxtsenth century was not oaly that sush objections were difficult to answer bul--even worse—that there semed tobe no stating point for formulating an ansver. When ‘Copernicus tore the Earth from the center of the univers, he aso te the bent out of Aristotelian mechanic, the intellectual glue that hold ‘eventing together. For example, why should x heavy object fall a fll i was nt cecking its natural place? To answer that i fll because fof gravity, at was done and stil is, merely gives the mystery a name For beievers in Copernicus, the Adstoteian world ly in ruins, and there was nothing take it place, This was the dilemma hat confronted Galilee "To nd out how the world actully works, Galle conctved the idea of doing experiments whose results could be analyzed using mathemat ies, Itwas an idea that would change forever the course of human History. He could not study falling bodies directly. because they fell too fet and there were no good elocks: the fst aceurate timepieces, bhsed on his own discovery ofthe fsochrony of the pendulum, wouldcome much later. To slow down the mation of falling bois, he mes sured the time taken by balls rolling down gently inclined planes planes tha were made as smooth as possible to minimize icuon. (Repl {as of these instruments, made by skilled eraftmen, may be found in {the Museum of the History of Science in Florence.) He tied many schemes to measure accurately the elapsed time while the balls were rolling. The best ofthese was kind of water chronometer. Water was allowed torn throug tube whic he could open and close by means Oot his finger—itoa second container while the ball was rolling. Then he would weigh the water tht had run out. The weight of the water would be proportional to the elapsed time. Moder reproductions of his {experiments have shown that with practice he could achiev in this Way 4 precision of about twortenths of a second. Better measurements of ‘lapsed time were seldom made unt the twentieth century. Using this technique, Galileo discovered his law of falling bods. Fe found that given twice the time, a ball would roll four times as far. “This result did not change when he made the slope gentler or sleeper, 0 with a glant leap of imagination he sssimed that it mould stil be ‘woe ifthe slope were verticals tre falling body. To that he added ‘mathematical alysis: ifthe distance was proportional to the square of. the time, that meant, a5 he showed by geometric arguments, that the ‘motion was uniformly acelrated. Final, he imagined the boy fling lina vacuum. In Aristotelian mechanies, x place i where something is ‘To imagine a place where there is nothing-—a vacuum\—is a contadie- tion in tems, an wthinksbe logical absurdity. But Galileo broke free of atleast some of the tethers of Aristotelian thought. He imagined a ‘vacuum and realized that in vacuum the acceleration ofa faling boy ‘would not depend on how heavy the body was only air resistance makes lighter bodies fall slower than heavy ones. That completed his law of faling bodies didnot, however, explain why « body Would fall to the foot of {he Tower of Pisa instead of landing hal a mite away. Nevertheless the answer to that dilemma, too, came out ofthe experitents with al ‘and inclined planes. Gallco found that if a ball was allowed to roll, ‘down one plane and back up anther. € would tend to keep rolling up the second plane unt it had reached the same eight i started at. HE ees or the stope ofthe second plane was steeper tan theft, the bal would folla chose distance, and te slope was gate, the ball would roll Tarr, achieving in oth cases the some alte began with. Today ‘ne understand tis behavior o bea manifestation of what we cll he owervton of ents. But Geo sev in itsometing ee. Making98 FEYNMAN Lost LECTURE nother leap ofthe imagivaton, he reasoned that if the second plane Were horizomal, the ball would never stop rolling, because t would never reach is crginal height. Ths, he concluded, the nataral state oF ‘an abject in horizontal motion wat to keep on moving horizontally, at onstant speed, forever. “This idea vas a radical departe from Aristotelian philosophy, in which any horizontal mation required a proximate cause. t would even tually be transformed into Newton's fist law of motion, the law of Ines. It was also exactly what was nceded to resolve the dilemma of the abject dropped from the Tower of Pisa—and, indeed, the more general question of why we don't sense the motion of the Earth, The Surface of the Ean and everything upon it ar alli horizontal motion together, due tothe Earth's rotation, Their natral sate into coinoe that way. 50 10 an observer on Earth's surface, everything, moving together, seems to be at rest Ifthe experiment tthe Tower of Pit ‘were viewed by an observer truly t rest, it would be seen that both the tower and the falling object naturally move together inthe horzot iretion, even a the object falls. Thus the objec lands at the foot the ower ‘The same reasoning applied, suld Galileo, to any projectle—for example, a cannonball. Ia the horizontal direction, a cannonball igor. Ing at resistance) would retain the inital peed given bythe exploding [Eunpower. Meanwhile, in the vertical diecion, his law of falling bodies would apply, even while the cannonball was on the upward pat ofits trajectory. Combining these two types of motion, and unleashing ‘is mathematics, Galle showed thatthe path of any projectile nea he Surface of the Earth was a prabola. “It has been observed," he wrote in 1638 in Two New Sciences, “that... projectiles fellow some Kind ‘of curved path, but that i i «parabola no one as shown. Twill show that iti, together with other things, neither few in number nor less ‘worth knowing, and, what I hold even more important. they open the oor to a vast and crucial sclance." Once again, Galles wes roe it was indeed tobe vas and crucial Science. His discovery that inetia (the tendency of a body to keep moving st constant speed inthe ori, zontal diecton) combined with gravity (as represented by his law of falling bodies) produced trajectories near the Earths surface in the form | DIALOGO » RY GALILEO GALILEI LINCEO ATEMATICO SOMRAORDINARIO Fair Snne ott GR.DVCA DITOSCANA. Poenionegarartnnet tae woe i ear enlaces ae Tie pgs, Diloe ‘nai stent det ‘mondo, Tomato, CCopernicano, Toad, For dling the Coperican theory in ts book, Gallo was boat totaal before the Romaa Inguson st sntenced ‘petal use rt The book remained on tie Index of obi ‘ook 1825. "ago fo po Fedo cof one of the cone sections, the parabola, was the very idea that Tstac ‘Newton would later use 1 show how the universe works Galico's eventual troubles with the Church—an epic tale but not the mbject of tis book—had the effect of expelling the Scientific Revolution fom Tlly. It would come to rest in England, in the person of Isat Newton. On the way no, however, i stopped briefly in France, where if found René Deseares. Descartes understood straight lines. Infact, he familiar y-2 system of Cartesian coordinates named for ir, Galileo's version of inertia worked only inthe horizontal diree~ thon, bot when iti extended ploily, borat aut st constant ‘peed becomes circular motion about the center ofthe Earth. For all his nimble mit, Gallo could not quite escape this one remaining Pla {onic ileal, Descartes succeeded in straightening it all out. He put the law of ertia inthe form used by Newaon: in the absence of any externalRené Descare, force acting on it, a body at rest wil remain at rest, and a body in ‘motion will remain in motion, at constant speed, ina straight line Isaac Newton is generally sappored to ave been born tn 1643, the year of Galileo's death, as if were required that one such gens be present on Earth at all times. In reality, he was born on January 4, 143, according to our modern calendar and the one then used in leo's aly. In England, boauseof King Henry VII's marital (or pethaps ‘conceptai)diffelties, the Intest papal ealendr reform bad ot Yet bem adopted, andthe dato was rendered December 25, 1642, In any ‘ise, Newton was bom both posthumously and prematurely, an unas Combination, His father (alo Ite Newion) died three months earlier, tnd the new fsise was a fall creature, who didnot seem destined (0 ive on for eighty-four years, Tsane's mother hoped he would grow upto manage the considerable ropertics left her by ber second husband, who died wien Isaac was bout eleven years old. In fact, if Isaac's father had lived, or if his ‘SIepiather had beens more sympathetic person, Isaac might have grown ‘upto bea reasonably well-susted, extremely bright farmer. But such {ate was not t be. Insead he grow up to be a an whose towering {age sometimes edged over into outright insanity, and who atthe end ‘of his fe proclaimed himself to have emained a virgin. But be was {ho a man who would change himan history ss few others have done. Tn 1651, the young Isaac matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, whete Aviso sil commanded the curiculum but where the Seientie Revolution was in the ai. Newton received his bachelor's degree in 1665, then led tothe fail lands in Lincolnshire to escape the bubonic ‘plague. tis thought that he made many of his most important discoveries ‘orng the two years he spent there, but dhe world Would not hear of therm until much Inter. "Among Newton's abundant accomplishments, the most important was to formulate a set of dynamical principles that would replace the [Arstotelion workview. By 1687, when he published his masterwork, the Principia. he bod reduced i all to tree Is, augmented BY & number of definitions and corollaries. The fist law was the principle Of intia, ioberted from Gallo and Descartes: Law 1 very body continues in is sate of rest, oF of uniform motion n a turaight line, unless & compelled t0 change that state by forces Im- rested upon It42 PEYNWANS LosT LECTURE Newton's second law, the eal centerpiece of his dynamic, tells what happens to a body when forces are indeed impressed upon fe Law 2 The change in motion ts proportional to the motive force impressed; ‘and is made in the direction of the straight line In which that force impressed Eater in the Principia, Newton defined quantity of motion to be the product of velocity (that is, speed plus direction) and quantity of mat fer—or precisely what today’s physicists would call momenten, Long ‘after Newton's deat, his second law would come to be summarized Is the equation F = ma (force equals mass times sceslertion); however, Newton never expressed it quite that way. "Newion's third law is called the law of action aad reaction: Law 3 To every action there is abways opposed an equal reaction: or, the ‘mutual actions of evo bodies upon each other are always equal, and Airected 10 contrary parts: ‘The third law helps to eliminate a potatlly messy complication in the problem of planetary motion. The planets nclaing the Eat ne feat big complcaed bodies, whote itera parts aply forces one stoter According to Newton's third law, thse force ll cancel one nother out regards oftheir mitre. Every force duct obe bi ofa lane sting on second bits exactly balanced hy wn equal and opposite force duet the second bit acting om the fst. The ne result Bt he bk nature ofthe planet can be ignored completly in ealelaing ts cours around the Sun. The planet behaves cnacly tft mane woe concentrated aa geometrical pont located sits contr “Ie tia faw aso mpi fat the plants impress faces upon the Sun equa and oppste othe Sen's fortes onthe panes Tope sound any dificatis this might cause, Newton In his formal proofs eer nt to the Sun but to "an inumovable cen of force." Im eect, he assuming (comet) tht the Suns to massive that i nok mach insenced by thet of gravitational forse om the planets. The id | | lay wosld later prove vitally important in other areas of physics it the souce of the Iaws of conservation of momentum, angular momen fun, and energy. For the problem of planetary motion, however, is Principal vie fs that Iraae Newton, cngevig by. Reading, 179, er port by sir Pte tay. Newon's thee laws are the dynamical principles tht replete “atl melons” and “Wolk edons” of Arslan mechanic “To these fy which poy to al forces and all bodes, Newton added the spre ature of parla kindof force ating between the San tu he planet, or between a plat andi moons —or,inded, between any two bis of marin te universe This waste Toce of gravity,‘and ss we shall se, e used Keper’s second and third laws to deduce the properties of the fore of gravity. Then he demonstrated tht his three laws, combined wit the force of gravity, gave rise to elliptical ott forthe planets Isaac Newion invented differential and integral calcul. There is line doubt chat he used these powerful analytic tool o make his ereat discoveries. When he wrote the Principia, however, be had mot yet Dublished his caleulus. (There would later be atypically nasty dispte ‘ver priority with the German philosopher and mathematician Gated [Leibiz, who made the same mathematical discoveries independently) "The Principia presented in he casi! languages of Latin snd Elhé- can geometry. The reason is obvious enough: Newton had to speak to his contemporaries in a language they would understand. There may hve been another advantage to this method of presentation. Many year later, Richard Feynman (aman a dflerent from Newton as history has yet produced, except for malter scientific) was intrigued enough fo invent his own purely geometric poof of the law of elliptic orbits. "T 's not easy toute the geometical method to discover things,” he sald inhi lectareon the subject (Chapter 4 ofthis book), "but the elegance (ofthe demonstration after the discoveries are made realy very Ereat." Isaac Newton is famously quoted a saying, If Uhave seen farther it is by standing onthe shoulders of Giants" The giants were Copernic, Brahe, Kepler, Galle, and Descartes. Before Newton, the collapse of the Aristotelian worldview ha left in its wake only bucring confusion, without the remotest hint of how it mht be replaced. Each of Newton's ‘ions putin place a bit ofthe building material or some piece of the Scaffolding, but the shape and design of the final structore could not be Seen. (Descartes thovght he saw ity but he was wrong.) Then along fame Newion, and suddenly the world was ordely, predictable, and ‘ompretensible once more. Newton had igured out how ial worked, and the proot that be was right was hs demonstation of Kepler's law Of ellipses. Soom we will do our own demonstration ofthe law of elipses—not quite as Newion proved it but as Ricard Feynman did ‘almost tee hundred years ltr. Fist, a Took at Richard Feynman, 2 Feynman: A Reminiscence a eee eerie In 1965, when Richard Feynman shared the Nobel Pize with Julian ‘Schwinger and Shinichiro Tomonaga fr the invention of quantum elec ‘nodynamics, he was woknown to the general pubic, but he was already {hero of legendary proportions among physicists. At the tine, the futhors ofthis book Were both graduate studems atthe University of ‘Washington in Seat, 2 lovely campus that seemed very far from the cztter of the inlectual universe. Nevertheless, early in 1966, when 1 (DLG) started seriously looking for my first jb, Caltech had an ‘opening in experimental low-temperature pysics. Iwas invited to come 1 Pasadena and give a seminar. ‘Theve were heady times in low-temperature physics. Low-tempers- tare physis, the study of the Behavior of mater a lemperatures just lbove the unatsnable absolute zero, was a coherent diseplne rater than a mere eet of technigues, because it had been organized ound to central unsolved problems of many’ yeas” standing: supeudiy land supereonductivity” Superfiidity i the mysterious ability of liquid ‘alam ow with no eines a tempera wii we ees fof abwolite 210. Superconducivity i the analogous many Ietals to conduct elect current with no resistance at similar low temperatures, These phenomena had been unexplained for decades‘Then, in he 19508, bth problems were broken wide open, dein 90 small measure to Feynman's efforts An intense pened of reat in bth elds followed. For example, th ne undettanding of supercon, istiviy made t posable to agin ordinary sect iu designed torte quantum mechanical devices. The mos romikng of these would te based on experiment by James Merereau,Cakech Ph.D. who had developed the Superconducting Quantum inererence Device, Known Sniveraly in phi asthe SQUID. "eyamnan followed Mercereau's experiments ily, and in fact could conten be found in those days in Cates low tempest phys abo ‘atry, pay ecsue of his intense intrest i he experiments being Pfoned there and party Because the low semperature group hod an remelyalactveseretary (who Inter became Mis. Mercere). ‘Unde the ccumstances, to be asked to yout ofthe Seale izle {nto the Pasadena sunshine o give a somina to the low emportre ya pws a fer ond enti, And Calc dw ew trove tricks up it shove. Mercerea, who was scking to stengihen Catech’s experimental low-terperatie physics effort, met me hse the stp, and asked me whether I'mnded Boing to lanch before ‘heching nal Callech, mentioning that he had aranged for Dick eyo ‘man fin ts. The inch wit Feynman and Merereat Took places 2 topless restaurant in Passden Feynman's favre hangout the Se Te ny hing cn errs tt ou fears ek ‘stinking to mystf over and over agin, "No nein Seales go totahove hit Thad recovered well enagh byte tie T wes eet ve the seminar, ands happened, in ew months we Would come to Caltech to ay [Richard Feyoman was born on May 11, 1918, to Lacie and Melville Feynman. The powerful streetwise accent that e tetsined, and even honed, throughout is life suggested to most listeners that Re Was "ative of Brooklyn, but in fact he was bor and rssed in Far Rockaway, the sedate borough of Queens. Feynman's father, whom Feynman revered in later days, was not very well off, but young Richard was recognized early as 4 prodigy, and soit was artanged for im o goto MIT, where he got his bachelor Feynman: A Reminomnee 47 fof sclace degree in 1939, and then to Princeton for is Ph.D. At Princebn, where his thesis adviser was John Archibald Wheeler, he ‘worked on applying the principe of lest action to quantum mechanics. His tei Tad the groundwork for some of the most important accom plishmens of his tster lite. ‘Daring his fraduate school days at Princeton, Feyman bad his one snd only encounter with Alber Binsein. Einstein was ia Princeton at the Insite for Advanced Stody, an establishment quite separate from the unversty, Nevertheless, members of the institute aod members of the univenity’s Physce Department often atended One another's ‘One day it was announced thatthe graduate student Richard Feynman would be presenting his Gist seminar. Not only was it o be is first, Sehninar but he ws to present and defend the staring iea tat he and ‘Wheeler had boon working on: that an electron could move both forward tnd backward in time. Word got around tht Binsein snd a number of ‘ther famous pysiiis who happened tobe visiting would atlend. ‘Understandably nervous, the young Feynman decided to skip the ‘usual ye-semina tea and cookies, and instead prepared for his talk by {ing othe seminar room and filing the Backboard with equations. ‘Ata catain moment during this exereis, he sensed tht someone was ‘watching him. He ted around to see Albert Einsein in the doorway. “The to grea physicists looked at each other biel, and then bad the ‘only pvate vorbal exchange that ever occurred between them: "Young, than," Einstein said, "where ae they serving tea” Years ater, Fey man didnot remember exactly what be sid in reply. "While still st Princeton, Feyoman married the gil of his dreams, ‘Avene Greenbaum. By the time he eceved his Ph.D. in 1942, the ‘ton was at war, The young couple set out for Los Alamos, New ‘Mexico, where a superscere project o build an atomic bomb was being ‘Organised, Feynman joined the ‘Theorticl Divison at Los Alamos ‘inlet be leadership of Hans Bethe, the sreatteonst who haa gured ‘ot how the Sun apd the stars barn their nucesr fel. Arlen, who was Slteady dying of tuberculosis, entered the hospital in Albuquerqe. ‘During his days at Los Alamos, i became cler that Feynman could compte on equal terms with the intellects giants of his ay, includingBethe, Envco Fermi nd John von Neumena Atte same ime, charac teristics that would eventually Become pat of his legend srfced Be showed his taste fr ischi, cracking sfes with simple teks and Planting teasing nots inside, and exchanging eters with hs wife at ‘were cut up lke» jigs pusle so thatthe censors would have Spend tof time rconeucing ther ‘One ay rather lt nthe pume, Feynman ba anch wih the patent cofice fr the Las Alamos project. Even tough every aspect ofthe Droit, ncoing He very existence, nan sry secteyths offers 4 was to patent any new iavenons tat came sp probably in oder to resene the governments right to use them, Much to te plent ‘cer’ dismay, however, he sls seemed to have lt tine and Jess incinaton to sek patents Come on, the ocr complained to Feynman, ou gs are ceting a whole new world Suly tote must ‘be sme new tings that can be Jone with i! Feynman house Boel sd sd that be guessed there were—you could ave an toric sar Fine, for example, or an sonic airplane. "Toe moraing ster thi feclesTunch, Feynman found on his desk compte patent applications, waiting for his signature, forthe "Atomic Submarine” and the “Atomic Airplane" Ths is how Feyaman came to hold the patent on the miler submarine, «device of considerable rly sgiance bt Ute commercial vale. I has bcm sald Gat Yeas later when Hughes Aircraft considered developing nuclear: powered stomic airplane, thy offered Feynman a viceresidonsy {shich he prompay tune down) Because e held te pate In any ase, acoring othe patent agreement tat Los Alamos workers signed, Feyoman was ented one dolar for each patent, Wien he demanded his two dolar, it turned out tht 90 fond had been setup for bis eras ste pater a a py mm hiv yan wed the money atthe aatecn, to buy oranges ‘hocolats for eveyone in the There Divison, ne St in 1945, Arlene died inthe opt in Albuguerqe, an episode Feynman wrote about movingly many years Iter in "What Do You Care What Other People Thin?” Feynman, who had boron Bt reommae's ca o be st her bedside, tetra to Los Alamos so Je ‘Sponden that he cold ot fac he immediate peonpect of tang about his wife's death, Instat bis roommate aranged for the two of em to gend qt evening wih some enn who were no ld wat te append tat dy. Years ltr, Feynman would reall marveling tohhimea hat evening that ors cold remain oblvous of he cao. Ino tert ini his end, He sormste wos nos Fh, wo ha ew eet of his own and ws lr vice a py forthe Sov, Unc. ‘Aer the war, Feyoman accepted fom Hans Bethe postion at corel Universtiy, what he tre hs ateation othe quantum me ‘Suneal deception ofthe incacton betwen ight and mater. Al though Schein and Tonnage, wo developed equivalent oltons to be problem indpendcndy. would share he Nobel Pri with him forts work, Feyonan'sepioach wat by far he tos ginal. His ‘Chniqe acre the leromegactc fc of Jes Clerk Maxwell Sd replaced veal with fotretion mong partes, following all fossil pts with probate governed by the principe of eat a ema etaed In le doco fen n Cope 3 We wil Se echo ofthis appach fo pyscs, when Feynman ees ain of east ‘Sion prnile os pr of his geome poo ofthe aw of lps) Fea ined aie of wig ctrl epsentation tke ck te complies alulions his approach rue. These representations fave coms to be Known sively ar Feynman grams, Feyaman's ‘tork amount ong es hans stormstaono gut ech I'tett His dagrammatie metod Is widely aod in many seas of theoretical pyscs, 190, Feynman It Colt jin he fcuy ofthe Calorie Insts of Technology, where, except fra year fn Bra 1951-52), te would end tees of scar At Cath, be roe is ateation tote problem af spertidiy lig Relum. The sian bees Tey Landau had show tht the ably of supertuid belo to ow ‘thou renistanee wa du othe fc tha the Hg could ke Up cry om ts surroundings only fn crain very reed ways. Feynman ‘Stel in ing Lan arin 0 gn mesa ‘oot. Feyman dagrare woud ner become at important esac TR's hla, tat Feynman dh not we them to solve ths problem, Tied, be svered tothe lt food, Schedinger oration of‘quanta mechanics and vse his remarkable ntition to guess the nature ‘of giant quantum system. ‘Daring this period, Feynman's private notes show that he also tied very har to solve the companion problem of superconductvity. The problem seemed ideally sulted for Feynman's talons. As inthe case of uperidity, the solution would iavolve «gap inthe energies that an ‘lect eutent could absorb from its surroundings. Furthermore, that {ip would arise as consequence ofthe interactions between elecuons In the metal and sound waves, or phonons. That pat ofthe problem it closely analogous tothe intracons Between electrons and light waves, ‘or photons, which had been the bass of Feynman's theory of quantum ‘leetrodymamics. Therefore (and unlike the matter of superuidy) the Feynman diagram tchoigues, of which Feynman was, of cours, the supreme master, seemed perfectly suited tothe work. Feynman's chief ‘omptitors, John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and J. Robert Sebreter, ‘wore eenly and gloomily aware ofall this. However, asi tumed out, Feynman's powerful techniques led hin inevitably in dretion that could not shoceed, and i was Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer who, ‘arly in 1957, founda dramatic solution tothe problem, For telefon, they won the Nobel Prize, Bardeen forthe second time. (His Birt was Jn 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Bratain, forthe uansistor.) ‘Saperconductvity was nt the only problem Feynman ted but filed to conquer. In the course of his Ii, he also made forays into such arenas as experimental biology, statistical mechanics, Mayan hieo tlyphis, and the physics of computing machines, with varying degrees fof success. He was exremely reluctant to advertise or publish results In which he didnot have complete confidence, or that might have stolen ‘reat from deserving rivals; his list of publications is thos not long, ‘nd they are almost never wrong. orl after arving at Caltech, Feynman was joined thereby Murray Gell-Mann, wha was Iter o win hs own Nobel Prize (1969) for revel- Ing symmetries Inthe properties ofthe elementary particles of mate. ‘With Feynman and Gell Mann in residence, Caltech became the center (of the universe of theoretical physics. In 1988, they published jointly ® paper entiled “Theory of the Fermi Ineraction’™—an explanation of ‘what has come to be Known asthe weak iteration, a fundamental Feynmin and Gell Mana, 1980 force that governs the decay of certain nuclear particles. Feynman and Gell Mann were aware atthe ime that thelr theory was contradicted by aperinent, but they ha uficien self confidence to publish it anyway. Th experimcats ltr tured out to be mistaken: the theory Was correct. "Als during this period, Feynman contbuted to the work by Gel- ‘Mann and by George Zweig, another Caltech professor of theeetcal Dysit, that produced the theory of quais, which Is central to Our present ideas ofthe nature of mater in 1952, Feynman marred Mary Lovise Bell a university instructor inthe sistry of decorative at. They were divorced in 1986. He was ‘married forthe tid and final time on September 24, 1960, to GwenethLost LECTURE Howarth. Thee soa, Car, was born in 1962, end in 1968 they adopted a “Oaugher, Micelle. Feynman cltvaed a public persona —well Enon lmnong his colleagues—that featured sketching nade women and spend ing time in topless bars, but his private life was solidly conventional land middle cas, played out in a comforable home in Aliadena a the ‘ase of the San Gabre! Mountains, not far from the Caltech campus. 1961, Feynman undertook a project that would have far-reaching {impact on the entre scientific community. He spree to teach the two year sequence of introductory physics courses that were required ofall, Incoming Caltech stadents, His lectures were recorded and transcribed, dal the Blackboards he filed with equations and sketches were Photo” fraphed. From this materi, his colleagues Robert Leighton and Mat thew Sands, with help from Rochor Vost, Gerry Neugebauer, and ‘thers, produced a series of books called The Feynman Lectures on ‘Physies, which have become genuine, enduring classic ofthe scene erature ‘Feynman was a truly great teacher. He prided himself on being ale to devise ways to explain even the most profound ies to beginning studeats. Once, I said 10 him, "Dick, explain to me, s0 that I ean “understand it, why spin one-alf partes cbey FermiDirac saistics ‘Sizing up his audience perfec, Feynman said,“ lecture on it" But be came back a few days later to say, ot T couldn't reduce i tothe freshman level. That means we dont really understand i" ‘Feynman delivered the Feynman Lectres to the Caltech freshman ‘lass inthe academic year 1961~62 and tothe sume siden a topo ‘mores in 1962-63. Hs taste in physics toples was perfectly elec; he devoted just as much creative energy to deseribing the ow of water 235 to dscusing curved spacetime. Of ll the subjects he covered in that Inroduciory course, perhaps his mast impressive accomplishment ithe presentation of quantum mechanics (Volume Il ofthe serie) in only Highly disguised form, itis the new view of quantum mechanics that he hime hd developed ‘While Feynman was ivetig, dramatic performer in the classroom, ‘the period 1961-63 was to be the only ime he ever taught formal ‘undergraduate courses. For the rest of his professional fe, before and after, be aught only courses designed for graduate students, The lecture {ht isthe subject of this book was not part of the orignal course but, ‘thera "guest lecture™ to the freshman class atthe end of the winter ‘guartrin 1956, Rochus Vogt hod taken over the teaching of introductory ‘hysies by then and he invited Feynman to give the lk as a Wea forthe dents. The Feyrman Lectures were never succesful as introductory textbooks—not even at Caltech, whee they originated, They would Instead make ther lasting conrbusion asa source a insight and inspira tion for accomplished scleatsts who had learned thee physics by more ‘conventional means. in the immediate aftermath of his Nobel Prize in 1965, Feynman suffered a ef period of dejetion, during which he doubted hs big to continse to make useful, orginal comtbations atthe forefront of theoretical physics. It was during this time that I joined the Caltech facully. The Feynman physics course was now being taught by Gry ‘Neugebauer. When Feynman himseif had been giving the lectures, Gerry, asa young asitant professor, had ha the dificult job of making ‘up homework assignments from them forthe two hundred of 0 st ‘ents —18 FEYNMAN’ Lost LECTURE So we've discovered a strange and marvelous new way t0 constuct an ellipse. Here's how it works. Take two points in a plane, F and F. ‘Then take a string of constant length largct than the distance FF) and ‘Tonnectone end the point Suotch the sting straight in any direction, ‘mark the endpoint, and cll t [Next, connect F" and G’, and draw the perpendicular bisector of FG" ‘The parpendicularbisetor crosses the line FG" at a point P: Feynman's Pron of Law of ipses 79 ‘Now let he point G’ atthe end ofthe string move in a circle of constant rads catered a F: “ps we yo [As it dors 50, the point P, formed by the intersection of FG aad the perpendicular bisector of FG", traces out exactly the sie ellipse that frould have boen formed using the same string with is ends tacked t0 Prand #1 We know that, because we've proved that when Ps con- ftrvctedin this way the distance FPG" (which goes fom Fo the circle) is always eal tothe distance FPF" (which construct the ellipse)so revRMANS LOST Lacrume So, within every cirle there lank every offen stor clips. However while this Seomout be very valuable), isnot he propery We se 1 PONE. “Wat we id et otto prove thatthe stng-and-acks constvton cot the ees equiva oi propery of retin hah ay rom Feynman's Proof ofthe Law o ipes 51 ‘The proof is made by showing that while the point P is (by construc tion) on both the line and the ellipse, every other point onthe line les ‘outside te ellipse. That isthe unique property of the tangent to any urve ata point: i touches the curve widhout crossing ft Hf the Line crossed the ellipse at P, part ofthe line would necessarily be ise it Pio Fe, What we have isan elise that obeys the string-and-acks ‘Controction (iat is, P'P + PF isthe same all the way aroand the ‘hipsc) and the ine dat reflect High that arrives from F at point P, get vy pit at Pit ‘Sih cual angles of incidence and reflection, back io. That reflecting (Sous = Tine bappens fo be the perpendicular bisector of FG stg ne apt (Go back wo the construction and pick ay point on the line other than siete oe Label that point Q, and connect ito FY and G" { [All that's left prove is that the reflecting line at point Pi lo tangent {o the elipse at point P. We know that each point on the clipe has the same miorrefection properties as a tangent line at that point. ‘Thus, the reflecting line at P is also tangent to the ellipse at P, then {Be ellipse reflect light from F to Fat any pont P, and we have proved thar the two properties (sring-and-acks and reflecting light from one focus tothe other) are equivalent42 FEYNMAN LOST LECTURE 1 should be easy to see now that the distances F°Q and G’Q are equal [Po isthe perpendicular Discetor of F°G', the tangles F'1Q and sO srecomgracat, and £0 09, QED). Now draw the lie OF: “The distance from F 10 Q to F is equal tothe distsnce from G10 @ Toa we Know this because we know tat the st steps are equal F°Q {ind GQ) and the second stops are the same (QF). Now compare the | nats PO + 0 li nes) and FP + PG (ocoken line): Feynman's Proof ofthe Lew of Epes 83, CObviowly, FPG is shorter, since i's a straight line and straight line {s the shores distance Between two poinis. But we've just shown that the solic lines G°OF inthe drawing above cover the same distance as the soli ines F'QP inthe drawing below, and likewise forthe broken Hines (fer the broken lines, we saw that cae, isthe length ofthe string: We tave proved thst the solid lines cover a bigger distance than the tron lies, In other words, If we waned To reach pont Q with & Sing sretced from tacks at "and F, the sing woud have to be “tan the one needed to reach the unigue point P- We showed truch earth his means ll uch points are ouside the elise. Thos, the line i tangent othe eps at pint P. QED. ‘Speating of QED, there's something paiculari intresting in Feyn- man's ase ofthis method of proof. We have shown in effet that he Shortest pth fom to he tangent ite and thence fo Fis the path that {eflects ight at point P. This is special case of Fermats principle Gig ays takes tbe quickest pth between two pins) andi lsely ‘lated io Feynmaa’s approach fo quantum elecrodynamicg, which is liso brown as QED nd won hi his Nobel Price. Fermat's peasiple {S' spcal case of the principle of least action. Tnny cso, Feynman as ow told us all we'll need to know about ‘he line. He tums.naw to dynamice—that i, fees andthe modons that rst Goo than. Tegra tht Peyooian fas shtched in is fosture nots is copied dretly out of Newton's Principia. That much {s obvins from comparing them:Feynman's Poo fhe Law o pes 85 In Newton's diagram, $ represent the poston of te Sun he “im | movable cane offer), whe A, By CD Ba Fae mcsenve ovon, sega eral of ie, plant nb aout the Su. Je min of he pln she Tomo» compton Between the Planet's tendcncytomove consti ped ins sight nim forces ‘Sapo la of ict) tnd he moon do the fre hate Sting on th planeta the praitatonal force dete toward he Sin inreaiy, thse Combiners produces sonthiy core rt ‘at for pyres of serentcenth-cntty peomctiea aay, Newton Sycsns thm by # ses of sagen reemens de ine, Inurrpted by sodden hangs dston cue ingle (een ~)-iisantanen) apieons oe Son's fre Tote Hs it of te “Gaga sare way16 FEYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE Feynman's Proof ofthe Law of Blips 87 Ina ceraia interval of time, the planet would move from A to B, if no “The motion the planet would have without the fore, Bc, and the motion {oece were acting on it. Ia the neXt equal interval of time, if there were due tothe force, BV, are compounded int a parallelogram; its diagonal fo fore acting, the planet would continue the straight line for an equal is the “etal” motion: sisance, Be: ‘Thus the planet “actualy” follows the path ABC. Notice that Ce is not direced toward the Sun, Tis stetly parallel o VB, which directed toward he Sn, Incidentally all ofthese points eins plane: any thre> points, A, B, define a plane. The lines connecting S, A, and B are Instead, however, the Sun's force (which really acts continuously) is In the pline. The segment BV lies inthe same plane, because ‘eplecited by an impulse applied st pot B, which esl ina compo- the line BS. The segment Be isin the plane, Because it extends the feat of motion directed toward the Sun, BV: Tine AB. The lin BC is in the plane, because i's the diagonal of the \ parallelogram formed by BV and Bc. Now te same procedure is repeated teach point, 0 thatthe next step looks Ike this nee Bait‘And so on. In the end, Newton applies the same’anaysis to shorter (RU sheer equl time intervals, and the resuling path, ABCD « « ‘evomes arity close fo smooth orbit, on which both inertia and the Sun's force act continuously. The obit aways lies ina sing ‘Bofore shrinking the time ‘nterval, Newion (and. proves that the plane's obit sweeps oUt etal areas i Piper mos, the wiangle SAB, swept out by the planet in the Rest time interval, has the same area asthe tangle SBC, swept out in the second ‘Riel tine interval, and s0.0n, The Hrs sep, however, is show that Cunt Sad has the same aes as SBe—s tangle that would have been ‘See out in te second time interval if thee were no Force from the ‘Son, Here's wha the thee triangles Took ike: i eomman's Proof of te Law of pes 49 “Te ws of tangle equal Wo one-half is base dines sade For example, on way to caleune te aren ofthe angle SAB would toto choose Sa as the base, in which ease the aude would be he ‘Perpendiolr dance rom he coninition of SA to he Mghest point ‘on the triangle: ies eis aa ee (dd = (V2 ae aie We ets same rt ie ce 5B he Ds dco ‘altitude like this: irate “aa aa) = (te [Now we want fo compare tht area tothe area of Se,90 FBYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE were we've chosen SB to be the base and constructed the altde as Bee ook atthe diagram formed by the contraction of the alides ofthe wo bianges: . Ls, For the moment, the comers where right angles were constructed are IRoeled sandy, Tho wiangles ABx and By ace congroent, because thy qHive one equal sie and two equal angles. The equal sides are AB and Be esa! Because they ae Ue distances the planet would go in equal toa Btervateifthere wore no force fom the Sun), and tbe equa angles ieite ight angles (Ax and Bye) and the opposite angles made by the eoring ef the two straight Hines =By and ABc. Since the tingles are Dasa, the two alitades, rand cy, are equ; and since the angles ‘SAB and SBe have the same base (SB) and eqil altitudes, their areas ‘ae equal. QED! ‘tera npg 1, heh nt tte ae A nd a, UPEESE Tuga ine a a ae a ee yee ne A LTS IRE Speen oT dS le Sonia Feynman's Poo of he Law of pnt 91 [Next (following Newion and Feynman), we show thatthe aea of SBe (oli ins) is also equ tothe szea of SBC (broken lines) ‘The two triangles have the same base, SB. The altitude of SBC is the perpendicular distance from the extension of SB to: ak ‘Tele of Sethe een dane rom fer xeon92, PRYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE Feynman's Pro of he Law of Hes 93 ‘Pot the two diagrams back together, and remember that Ce is strictly parallel © SB ! emote é ; a | Serene i “The two alts are the perpendicular distances Between the same 10 itis obvious that we could apply the same arguments to successive ‘ale ines, ane are therefore equal, Ths tangles SBC and SBc have tangles SCD. SDE, and soon. These are the wiangles sweptout Parare bave and equal aides. Thcy therefore have the same ares. (opiate Wve ts ses “aH ‘Once again, QED. second fw of planetary motion plant sweeps oot equal Rae rom being very prety gzomety, this lst prof i vey im areas in equal ines. portato phyice The pth Be would have been taken there were "Now that we ca se where we have avd, iis worthwhile wo ook egestas, tere i foce, cic ow. That fore back and ee how we pot here, What exactly did we have to know about ‘chaiiges the uajectory from path Bc to path BC, bat it cannot change a at drag a fed terval o ie. 1 lace yar ter the ae Sr cy before Feynman), ts rea woul be andestood 10. \y Newton Pai a guaity cle te onglar momentum. Inthe | a ae dy yc, we ve pov that a foce on 2a ane ard comot change he angular moment of the stl ccd ove apm to Ss Altwugh Nowlon never wed the tx! eee mena: lc tat ander te neo on it rit cul be change. oly by fre a argent, te nsamtee STD) TT ada I) . renter of SAB al te) St me of SB een 10 the re of SHC. I> a cana Locks bck me Ly thats, aboot fores and the motions they produce —in order eee thn Kepler's observation that planets | fteep out eqal resin equal tines eats ta he ravitaonal force | gn the planets directed soar V wht davled toward94 FEYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE ‘You may wonder exactly where we used Newion's fist and second ave, We teed the fist law when we said the planet would move from Wo Bio.eif tere were no force oa it, and the second when we said ‘har the change in the motion, BV, duc to the force from the Sun, is duced toward the Sun, Incidentally, we have also used Newion's fist ‘ovollary to his ws thatthe net motion produced by both tendencies {Bribe toe imerval is given by the dagonal ofthe parallelogram of the ‘Sparate motions thst would have occured: wane cy Meio NZ [At his point in his lecture, Feyoman says, ‘“The demonstration that ‘you have ost soon isan exact copy of one in the Principia Mathematica {5 Nos, bt goe on oy ht be cad anc ole Nem ‘tguments any fre, a tat he Pi ret of te horereiw a: Sey Ema Se eee re me wr ue tat yon tas dloosed of carr i is let: he inven sguae of (edsbuce tee of mauty cme TEE T) is tart fess planel ‘year in the Life of the plane) is Planets distance from the Sun (fe ellipses with the Sun at one jnal to the 3/2 power of the since the obits gives planet “The disance {rom the ener of he lips (no rom the Sun, whic cf-centr) tothe farthest point‘ the elise I aed the Seimaor {nk, labled (ie shorter aks bed br ealled the semiinr sx). ‘The somimajo ani i ale ha boca it i one hal the longest as ‘ofthe lip. Kepler's third nw says that he Gime takes plant to ‘reeute oe compet orbit fs proportional to the 32 power of, the ib esr the meaning of at semen. : "be sre the meaning ofthat statement is clear, imagine sun with wo plans in vt rua (ora plane with two mee nor {ound ithe sume lw would be obeyed)96 EYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE “The two arows show the distances from the centers ofthe two ellipses ri faano point of each, Those distances are the semimajr aes, 1D maar Now suppose that a) i tvice as big as a), Then Kepler ‘la To says that the time planet 2 takes to make a complete orbit is Hager than te rial period of planet 1 by factor 2 othe 32 power: thats take 2, cube it fo got 8 ad take the square root of to get 2.83. ‘The Soar or planet 2 is 2-83 times longer than the yea of planet 1 “iw would il be trey dal te Behevor ofthe planes would Pag amnper Tou wie less teeing, if oly Plato ad been rome ‘Were perfect circles. A ciel can be psc Stating from an clipe, ght and the orbs of the plane ‘ought of as an expecially simple el aw means thatthe force of the Sun's gravity diminishes as the squar€’(_ eye's Pri he Law of ies 97 ‘Then the semisor ais wl be the same length a the seriminor bv and we wl el oth of thorn te radi, Ry Nice at since ice lam slipee (a specil cage of en elie, to be ee), Kepler's [eqeation andy st oe cles bt Son aie ES, ‘Ge ea te pln ou slr tye are al very wel Ou ot iach) eile “ano oer objets obeying Renters i (sh ‘nl’ soma, CaM ave owe tt we very "Gating back to ou point, we wis to demonstrate that Kepler's id, ofthe distance from the Sun. Following Feynman,we'l simplify the (? Acguent hy. pretending that th peta obi really ae ees, Sym- bolcally, well eal the ime w complete an Scere | law says 7 ~ (read, “T goes as, os proportional to, RS"), where ance (0 the Sun, Hows that related tothe R-? a “Tike Feynman, we are unable 10 follow Newioi's aruitent bere.) | and even Feynman's argument is abit cryptic, 50 we've formulated out) | (opm argtinent tony to-make the point about” | ‘Kepler's third law and Newton's R= law, but also wo introduce some ‘geometrical techniques we'll eed for the grand finale. “tenga ha we Gad Foyunan tae copd fon Newton shows | successive positions of ppanet in Ih98 PEYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE. tn egal inter of tine he linet moves fom A wo om tC lind noon, We ean also represent on this diagram the velocity of th ‘lant during eet Seyi (Ge inet he planet moves from ATO Bit consant velocity, from Bf C at constam veloiy, ai 36 ). ‘The velocity can be fepresenid by an artow pointing in the direction ‘Tmudion (temember thatthe word "velocity," a8 its used in physics, means not jst speed but also direction): \s a \; — sles toa Bene bones, Bh iasgek| : cy fom Ce D=ven JO-7 “There is no reason for the velocity arows to be drawn next t0 the Comespoading line segment of the orbit, we can collet them together fon the she ata common origin: eynman’s Pron he Law of ises 99 ‘The new diagram is a velocity diagram rather than a poston dagram. ‘The dimction of the arow show the direction ofthe planet's maton, 50 Vqy aust be parallel 0 AB, and the ength ofthe arrow is proportional to the spesd. In other words, {he faser the planet is moving in that segment, the longer the arow Ifthe planet moves more slowly on the segment from Bt C than i 4d from A to B, we might get a diagram ike this: f Hower the chan Tey (Za eee" a ae That reille iriuapose vy eee tro a pea Pe leh Atloo FEYRMAN'S LOST LECTURE, and vy the velocity after the change, — satety arctan > | then the change ia velocity is also an arrow, ey angle poe Eanes hh “and that arrow must be in the direction ofthe line from # 10 S: >) yo ‘egnman’s Prot othe Law of Epes 101 “The change in velocity at point B, Av, ie thus inthe direction of dhe {force from the Sun, and is also proportional to the strength ofthe fore. If the Sun's force wore ice a big at point B, Avy would be twice as big. That's the meaning of Newton's second lw. The change in velocity teach ofthe ( points 4, 8, Cy fair ig To gt lowe te aca ‘laspma Wallthe't be Giant ie omerierae eta ar eg, Tha each ChURGE ka WEIGH Be Ral ig Ba Were be (hice a many oem (ovo agra) the same’ af the force in the previous as we have seen, an actual comespondencebatwoen dretion ‘onthe position diagram and on the velocity diagram. However, the ‘ster of the dagrams bear no relation to one anther at all. We could102 FEYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE, chose to make the etre velocky diagram twice as big (which wouldn't Shang any ofthe dietons) and would atl be comec: he cy grams eat \}, , Let's look at the simplest posible specific example. Suppose the | aint sts Stes of ee Te he Newtonian digrem would |) Sot ke a Feynman's Poo of he Law of Bipes 103 Each ef the distances —SA, SB, SC, and so on—would be equal 1 Ry {he rallus of the circle. Also, cach change of veloiy, de to the lmpulve force at A, B,C; D, and so, would be the same no matter how the force from the Sun’ depends on distance. because all these points are atthe same distance fom the Sua. I follows thatthe speeds Slong AB, BC, and so on must ll be the same, andthe lengths of the Segments AB, BC, and so om are all he same, T's the only ay the nit can follow the same path, time ater ine. Ia other words, tbe figure drawn BY NOWon iss regular poli igure of equal des and anges, inscribed in the el, which is the real orbit, ‘Regula polygons include the equilateral rangle, the square, the penta- ‘gon, the hexagon, ado on. The more sides a regular polygon ha, the mre it resembles a crete. Newton imagined asing shorter time Interval for hie figure, giving 8 regular polygon with more sides,log FRYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE and thas mote closely approximating the rea circle, ad infinitum, tit the real orbit is achieved. "Si ihe velocity diagram fora ciecular eit, all the velocities are of gual length and equal angle part, so that all the changes Aare the same: “Thus the velocity diagram ie also a regular polygon, which also becomes ile when the obit becomes a circle (after going through the a innit): SIO (et oy (erodes aga) Feynman's Poo of he Law of pes 105 ‘The radius ofthe cece inthe velocity diagram is v, the uniform speed (of the planet all the way around is orbit. That speed is given by the Gistance the planet travels divided by the time it kes, The distance the plant travel isthe eizcumference ofthe orbit—tha is, 2nR-—and the {ime that the plant takes to go around is just what we have ealled 7, the period ofthe exbit. Thorefore, v is equal to 27.106 FEYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE. och time the planet makes one complete obit the velocity arow also goes around one whole cycle: (cy gt te meat) (ot gana) ‘Feynman's Prot ofthe Law of Eiger 107 ‘When the velocity arow makes a complete circle, the tp of the arrow moves « distance Dev LL Remember thatthe change in velocity i gven by the mation of the tip ofthe velocity arow: ene =] ‘then the hana, tin La ay ow ei hn en de epi 30 pat ck eng a nas o'er of eo ane ear k ae . — et dng) oct a)tos FEYNMAN’ Lost LECTURE “The force, as we've seen, is proportional to AwAs, where Ay isthe change in velocity, equal 10 1300 ofthe perimeter of the velocity (Sree, and Aris the time jaterval, 130th of T. Obviously, 1/30 of the perimeter divided by 130th of the time isthe same as the whole perimeter divided by the whole time. So Aw is equal tothe perim 2a divided by the te 7: BA bie ait SPER Matyi the two factions gives a ron “This statement means, for example, that if there were a plant twice as far from the Sun (at 2R rater than R) and if ie made its orbit in the Berle pL lowLe. “¥ a “eonmans root the ins [een (cease nie nee reece ne Shoei eet ee reas Saher a (he period of a planet is proportional to the 372 power ‘ofits distance from the Sun) | Te foc, Fi optional othe iste, divided by 7, Bat 72 | means tenga of, and 2") = RS the forces propor |i dee, ced ye cae of dtc id > yee min ar Loe Te foc propria See | square oF the distance tothe Sun! This isthe conection we've been Inking forte Roce aw are) efor punting abet, thi i god place to sop fr & moment, to ee wiRERENE been and where ea gong $2 keer has given tes lava, ar Newion has given ws the 4.7 is Repe'laws, however, ar of aay ferent character fom (30 Newon'a Kepler gnealizatons of cacryaiong ofthe tes Tey penn ny ar i Repl ak» \ few points space=the observed poston fe lane Marat own times—and said, “Ahal All these poins fall on a curve called ellipse” That description wivilies the le's work of one of history's © J pew penis, baie vele eoea BANS. JAD hess nar fal tres of Keplers aver yrs pe ence ‘Newan's wr a of sadly dite int 19 Sealy sumptions abou tists of phil sly: the reltons Between ale forces. and motion, I ine befavier deduced fom those ‘Somos is Sberved inmate, ten he scumpUons may be corer tdci the cae hen we hve sen nantes bear o eed [f God, epeding on or tein mcr nte riya ‘Sem of paniay mio, the et of whether the Newnan stp fos are ont s whe thy ve sete Keli at wich ‘marion with great preion a9 sy ot og Pre PT EL Lee Fishy 7 ‘laws is more!eRe EPO WP) : ved ee 19096 SP io revans rose uscrone NT kiN me Peete ps 111 ‘2 aeernie the planetary tii that his laws would dite, Newiod "| mn the inertial weight lnes they would otherwise follow and nt ¥ st the nature of a particular kind “the force of ‘their acual orbits. ? : ds of Kepler secondo ‘ee mopery of howe acl ois, described by Kepes sod g ‘Surcoremv, hearse tan bas Myo in comeing he Sua = ac veep aaa late ting under the direction of bis Newton shows, and we have now shown, that the meaning of Kepe "would produce Kepler's remaining observation, the Taw of eli That i he lopical sequence of events as presenied by Nevwion fn ‘buen that the force of gravity at fn te retion Of MS, Ae fia Wetnow sind athe point in his argumen where wa” | commetng the pane 0 fhe Sun. 7 ©) /orty 1, iyh ep eee ating ose of News law and vA scond property of planetary motion is ta be fate wld” fs Let's ovo ow we sc Keplers stl hela of ha, before planet's orbits fom the Sun, the more slowly the planet moves in that it iy, thetme the planet aes fo make one complet ciecait increases as the 5/2 power of the distance of is orbit fom the Sun 1 to proce this result, jus orbits must weaken a rom the Sun. In oer words, Toros tact fpecd ft bepin tm ton, Why Neston someties fr the eta as {neria, Tn particular, ia frce is applied fora given time interval, At, it grodces change in veloity—that i, a departure from the inertial path, dv. proportional o the foree aad inthe same direction a8 the Fee. That means that if ice the force 2F) is applied, then twice the ‘change in velocity 2A) is produced. It also means that 28 ean be td ig te ame prose he ont fe 0, Symbotcally, we would wiite/Av~ FOF) T further means that if the : the 4 : ions sco iw sy tf sre is ind ace Facting ot of a sige plant in fret pers ofits ob while-is thd Taw apne, tee i to divert the planet fom the Staight Kos that 3S coumpares th obits of ferent pants, 185 Bese! 2 AE one acowentseed wer he nose of | RWS Re inne vr ey all ow (REEF poy s ee ai. Aye Gee ogee ot it) -of the planet Ext . ant Fupltr only by the ratio of thi 3 cof \ thet didances om the Sub. ough Jupie mass is pore han 200 ot of the. Teel 2h LT sbeed fale Deen (Tirany case, we now ‘that the force of the Sun's gravity on a, ve wae Kepler's ‘The nal, tumphant ny 1 i i & : f de® 7, é are of i ‘and third laws to tind out al much fore is towad the Sun, the change fn. loty myst toyard the San ‘meet Te i aw nage at frces whch epee eern deems |S \ecompltnem wil be wow th such a fre of grav. ais |) pane pam yrs notre ome whol punt so a, |. Qeeeby Newton's uv, wi eee ical is for he planes) S/> pated sraayng sey male oe atig is ee Times rennet ay Mr ape cmphened bobs wad beaten writ ey were Lay (Wak |g rasan surat oi ei etre. NS tn Keen's cr, his esi wich ted wate] 5 ‘Te E ine of enumant an face pad ee oerTo™ eon ots own THE fi depuy op Rare eck Te Meg RE RO ey ricer, Lee ; a Licwns BoE Bibi poy HIER E= Aeeynd tetra ary, ab bbe hee hes ilealws mse ney ate may nen ee ee a a Re ee ee ‘lagrame to soe What ie wears ‘Recall the eiagram in the Principia that Feynman copied into his Iectre notes | tna cain tie interval,» pant would move from A to B if tee | arn fore fom the Sun, The in interval mig be, fr example, Woon ort mints, or I ond Tn the next equ tine interval, i oil Seatnac'aneqal distance fom foe Instead, the force om the Son produces an inpulee mB that ditaics a change in motion, ‘Bred award he Sun, ea o BY. Dong the sooo tine interval, | BEGtRPadealy executes a combination of he pat Be, dictate by ) iin andthe uh BY dy he S's rey flow te 2) Saget tte paraelogam formed by the two modons and aves Ste We proved caer athe wane {eh tna 58 ve eal ‘Nevin appro Be oi as ‘2 SE of pot cull spaced intine Uy B,C.) cach of Wich «th lan etd om ie sagt ne by an istntancons )phite te Son The shore he ine terete more equent he Rom he Su nd the more ary he eco comes to resemble eee, i Sth cme San gy ng SNE Econo pl he planet avay from the inet sah He ould eherwae have flowed, Tre final, snout og Teas the ot inequal Umer, SAB a bib bth I ae fengen he ied eM aE property we (and Newton and Feyaman) have demonstrated for the | Schematic one t sweeps out equal aeas in equal times, which means) “The two segments of orbit shown above have eal central angles, but they sweep out different areas and therefore tke different amounts of VL I114 FEYNMAN'S Lost LECTURE, time, The lw says thatthe planet sweeps out equal areas in ual times, "That means tha iit sweeps ou hal as much afea, i takes half a much ~ (area swept out Let us forthe moment represent these equal-angle segments on a [Newton-type diagram, on which the planet undergoes inertial straight line ay lst hres fe of iy or changes, Av, directly ond Cn the side ofthe orbit closer to the Sw, the planet glides from A to 1B, gets diverted by Av due tothe Sun, and continues from B to C. On the other end ofthe obit, the planet goes from D to, suffers pall producing 2 Av, and contioues from E vo F. slong BC dhan slong EF. To gg Now uh sr We a ihe ares of thet nd SEP, Because Ine hne® ae proportional Wo the ass swept Reorientng SEF and laying it on top of SBC, we have: Fegaman's Proof the Law of ips 115 sant ch a if ao Is twce as big a the bat ofthe small? one en ths 4 {Sige ay big a tat cher the wed ofthe ig wi tbs proporional to the area ‘wep. cut, which s proportional tothe square ofthe distance from the Sun. Here's a comparison of Newton's way and Feynman's Way of diving the orbit ito segments: __ span atop die) ) Bsr Dae, cael Aaone Tere week be b Kevan “Cece? ine Pay116 FEYNMAN'S LOST LECTURE 1s sens tn wr gh Wp HO a he ne ages (eae sp one Emer < 7 etm Ka. ‘hig Son ee oe SHE Fp yc te ne agi ga ‘cy ae eae ear Sa) Now pin oS we F renee Se te Ns Cc Feynman's Pra fhe Law of Eps 117 sistance. from ihe fom the Sun decreases with distance, according tothe inverso-equare lw—thatis, F ~ 1°, Let's go back io the kind of diagram tha shows the change in velocity, Av, at each discrete point ofthe orbit aes Vaan r ‘At each point around the obit—A, B, C « + and al) DEF the points in between —there is @ Av toward the Sun. The i ores F thei ‘rater the change in velocity Av/ Hp Vt vosr tecture" et gots farther away from the Sun, th ‘nt gets weaker (asthe square of the distance) but the time the Force has fo ct on the planet gets longer (also s the square of the distance). "The result is thal all the v's, all the way around the orbit, are the is.“the catal.core trom anges in velocity occur When fo ace exactly what this meats, Jet us look back for a moment at thetype of diagram sketched by Newton and copied by Feynman. Rather ‘than representing positions ofthe plants, we wil represent velocities 1a Newton's way of doing things, te tine intervals were al she sume, dnd the v's were al pointed toward the Sun, De some Av's were ‘ager tan ctor he biggest Avs cane when the planet was closest {oie Son). In Feynman's sche, he cenal angles we all the sume, {2 thatthe vine iterate ae diffeent. The v's ll point toward the So ey ma, corte Ne mn) hd ol now excly Eu el the wy oround the ob. This has conse hat are now to bewerked-oue fe kt Tis wil AT this point, Feynman fas sketched in bi lecure ot, Wih mein, tou ar, te orbit diagram nd the coresponding velit gram for ‘sunk angle opments Her Is he rs vy \ ‘The abit starts from position J, goes to K making some angle atthe ‘Sun, suffers a Av changin it diction, then continues through an equal tangle from K to L, and then again fom Lo M: ion, Tn me el net iia ‘ouients. The changes in veloity suffered st points J. anpuey Berean OS)120. FEYNMAN’ LosT LecTURE Feynman's Pra the Law of Eps 121 words, at J there i Ay in the diction J; at, the same Av occurs ‘We now find the point 1 onthe velocity diagram by adding 8 Av equal Inthe dircion KS; and so on. Using these facts, eyaman constructs smagaitds tf bat pani wo LS the velit diagram 7 Gris amy “Te same procodre canbe reps all the way around the rb. The oeld Guagedg Contam text sep ges the lagram a8 Fey sketched iin his notes: 6 hes ih bakielk lee vert 117 nsec lage, the pact moves om J 0X with vl th a |) -Onime vey eagran, + bos he seme drt, but mot the sane || Neat a6. At pot, ere Av inthe destin KS. moving ||| weteloky eingra a aitance By from porto pork, where the ||| ssociy becomes. Tis process comines thn step the second 7 1] tement on the och capri dawn fom K; parallel oy, oa pont | TSothac KSC i the same ange as JSK: sy pasa psa ‘As Feynman wrote in is ot, el KS, kis parle 0, I pri 6 MS, a "pach ofthe sides of tho clock dngram Gj, Am, ) paral (ott dorm) (ty rm) {one ofthe nes radiating from the Sun inthe exit dagram. Becausestn ‘When the velocity dlagram is complete, it willbe a figure with ual Notice thatthe vloces themselves, which ae the distances from the ‘rigin to jh and soon, ae unequal but tat tho sides (de Av) are ‘wal. Tho resulting figueis.e regular polygon! The exigin of the ; las Hen be ioe 2 Feynman's Proof fhe Law of Epes 123 velocities isnot athe center, but the extemal igure itself i «regular polygon if we now proceed ss usual to divide the orbit diagram into larger umber of segments with equal bat smaller angles the orbit more nearly ‘pproaches aemooth curve—and ro does the velocity diagram. Because {the velocity diagram ia regular polygon, the smooth curve it approaches. le circle But the origin ofthe velocities nt necestrly a the center ‘OT The cle. A this point, Feyamar in his Iectute notes the orbit velocity diagrams as smooth curves. Fist the orbit t starts at point J, {abd Feynman hat drawn itn the conventional way, sith the line from the Sun extending horizontally in contas othe Segmented obit dia- |Eam, the velocity at point Jia vertical line, perpendicular wo the ine ‘rom the Sun: sunny J ‘Aftr some time, the plant arrives at pot, having made an angle © atthe Sur124 PEYWMAN'S LosT LECTURE [Now constract he corresponding velocity diagram. It wil be ice, ‘withthe origin off-center. The length of the ine we will daw to represent + will depend oo the planets speed at point J of the orbit Remember that on a velocity diagram, the longer the ine, the faster the sped. Point J on Feynman's orbit diagram is also the closest pint to the Sun (Feynman has decided this in his bead witout mentioning it inthe lecture), where the orbital spood is greatest. Therefore the lie v, rust pass ough the center ofthe circle, because it has to be the longest fine onthe velocity diagram: [Reema Prt ofthe Law of Eiger 125 Drawn this way, vs vertical (parallel to v om the orbit diagram), and itis the longest distance from the origin to any point on the cic. The velocity at point pon the velocity diagram, comesponding to P on the ‘orbit diagram, is line fom the origin parallel to vy: (oe dag) ‘ly arm) “The shape of the orbit depends on where O, the origin ofthe velocity diagram, is. IFO coincides with C, the center ofthe dagram, then the two focl of the ellipse coincide andthe planet has the same speed in all parts ofits orbit In this cas, the orbit is simply a cisco. ‘Feynman's Prt ofthe Law of Epes 139 If e point © is anywhere between C and the circumference of the iagran, then the ovis an ellipse. The closer 0 iso C, the mare ‘early sircular isthe ellipse. The farther Oi rom C, the mors elongated | O@ sexi er it wen‘What happens if 0 is outside the circle? Let's go back wo the velocity diagram before we tured it by 90°. We still have the largest velocity in the orbit atthe point of closest approach ps — @ 4 : A cave sos Regn’ Pro of te La of Epa 161 At some valve of circle: the tine from 0 is the tangent wo the velocity < NX Remember, his line is alzo parallel to he instantaneous velocity ofthe ‘orbit and the tangent tothe velocity diagram is inthe direction of the [Sys in the orbit diagram, which represent the changes in the velocity. In other word, a this angle 8, the change in velocity is inthe same irection a the velocity itelf, That means the velocity is nor changing around. But Kepler tell us at he dime to go around squared [gj Seer oe te emi — proporicea the eibe ofthe rads, and teefre the session toword the centre inven ste square of the stance. So Nexon ins, (Rober Hooke detuce err } ows i a ee wool Be versely athe Sauare QF (SS su ie covctsions. No ae ca yey anybig hota SSS Je of ho particular interés; Because The Sumer oF ApH “Eo ual the munber of acts checked the umber of 58d |? © On the other hand, what Newton discovered—and which was the: [8 most dramatic of his discoveries—was that the third law [Feynman ‘ean he Pit Law] of Koper wat ow a comsqoence of te bet {ho Often tt the fre is tovard the Sun. and given thatthe force | & [varies inversely as the square of the distance, to calculate that subtle | Sbinton of vriatins and veloc fo detcrmie he shape of the ‘Zbl anc scover tat an elect Newtn's cotton, and “D iherefore he felt that the science was moving forward, because he could, Py $° undersaad re ings in terme of vo “As you well know: Re undcroodlmaiely mai’ ake tee, [yx wide eer tt ae not cscs at iy por esc AV her ware moto ofthe Japs sales aso anderson. the 9° fot of the Moon sound th art an 0, TI jst oncen- t | Simi ambient hotommaaa eer eee148 FeyNMAN'S Losr LECTURE teate-on-this one item, in which w diregard the interalions of one planet with another. ~ Tean summarize what Newton said and inthis way about a plant: thatthe changes inthe velocity in equal times are directed toward the ‘Sun, and in size they are inversely a the square ofthe distance. [is ‘ow our problem to demonstato—and isthe purpose ofthis lecture ‘mainly to demonstrste—that therefor the orbit san elie, "I 1 not difficult, when one knows the calculus, and to write the itfercal equations and to solve them, wo show that san ellipse. T believe inthe lectures here—or atleast inthe book [you ealctlted the orbit by numerical methods and saw that it looked like an elipe ‘That's not exacly the sare thing as proving that itis exacdly an ellipse ‘The Mathematics Department ordinarily i left the job of proving that W's an ellipse, so that they bave something to do over there with their Aifereatal equations. [Laughter] prefer to give you a demoastation that's an elipee in a completely strange, unigue, (and) diferent way than you are ued to. Tam going to give what I will ell an elementary demonsztion, (But 'lemen= tary" does not mean easy to understand. “Elementary” means that very id eid hashed of ine ret wd, css to ave an if smouito inelignee" I i pot mecesary to Tare ‘swear bt to have lmtliges, 1 rer underand st Cy dtmonstation. Thee maybe sane ube fps tha ae vey ad to follow, bu each up does not rogue aleady knowing calc, heady knowing Four wansforms, and 0 on. 80 by an element ‘demonsvation can one that gos back a far one can with egrd to how much has wo be learned ‘Ot coume, an elementary demonsaon in his sense could be fest totaal dh oma te denote This, bow veri fonger than a demoasiaion which I wish topes. Secondly th dona ining ates ens compl {gsomtial methods, Pebaps some of You were dclighed in peomety In school veth the fam of tying or having the ingenuity to dearer the right constuction ines. The legance and beauty of geometcal is equal Zein his ‘fourth power, and itis avery famous formula170 FEYAMAN'S Lost LECTURE {is so famous that, a6 usual, it was ot writen in this form when it was frst deduced, and 501, just forthe famousness of it will wr it in a form—wel, TH leave you to write it nw form, T'l write jst {he answer, and Tl et you see if you ean show it. Instead of asking for the cross section fora deletion greater than s certain angle, we ‘ean ask forthe piece of cross section, do, that corresponds tthe ‘eflection in the range di thatthe angle shouldbe between, here, and there. You just have to differentiate this thing, andthe final result for ‘hat thing is piven a5 the famous formula of Rutherford, which i 4 ct times 2 sin dp divided by dV." times the sine ofthe fourth power ‘of 2. This I write only because i's a famous ane that comes Up very ‘much in physics. The combination Py sing dis realy the solid ange {hat you have in range db. So ina unit of solid angle, the cross section goes inversely asthe fourth power of the sine of v3, And i was this law which was discovered to be te for seatering of « particles frm stoms, which showed thatthe atoms had s hard centri he idl ‘8 cleus. And it was by ths formula thatthe nucleus was discovered "Thank you very much, ! Epilogue Ricard Feyananconjued up hs owe bilan poo of he Iw of Elipc, bs he was ot the st Dik of fe Te sane prot at wm coc pt rn ie ety ago | [opps na ite bok led Marer and oon, write by Janes Cle || Marana ist polished in 1877, Maxwell stribts the met. of Wile Haron, ite fala to al vere sedis smytoue Mr Fano wth he en fhe cela ‘ehocy Gap. Hes rfeing toa book by U. Fano and L- Fano, Tate Pats of heme nd fotecies (99), wre wesley flag i ued to deve the Rube seaering lw presented by Feynmmat he a fi str I ano sd Fano knew sot Haman {nd ht dogs te doo 4 3. : THartlon was prof conte omg ttn fring Newton's smehancs in fouaton of ve geste sophie an lence. Formor than vo he ean arte poco of te Pipa, {bv une of Noon rege spree. Then, ery in th wenta 172 pgs century, second scieatitc revaluation tok place in physics, almost as ESrething othe ft oe When was dcr, Newt's wy coud 10 longer be rpaded as reveling he innomost pare of =o ling ‘ppt of pies “The second revolution took plice on two separate fronts that have ol yet even fay, been fll reconciled. One ed othe tery of ‘eltivity, The other Ted vo quantum mechanics ‘The seeds ofthe theory of reatvty can be traced a far back Galleo's discovery that all bodies fll atthe same rate regardless of mass. Newion's explanation was that the mass of a body plays two | separate roles in physics: one role isto reste changes inthe motion of | the body the otter isto aply gravittonal force tothe body. Thus, the greater the mass ofa bod), the stronger the force of gravity on it, but also the more dificult to get it moving. Heavier bodies—flling toward the Earth, for example—-have grester force on them but more stongly resin being asserted Ligher bodes hve smaller forces but °) \ ‘are more easly accelerated. The net effet is that all bodies fall sro nee ae ieee ae eas ee Sah a ee i ee em oe dace rack eg re te pega pete ones [ee ee Pa note a eer | Site tt wi eee mae mec ee une rere 4 siya ce wi ey 2 te ag feet cee pe poet Be foe ee oe eee ioe es oat ees oe ee nee secreted tt hen ne ar ren ne seas hae eo erred sual ag ae one et pede Sor SA Soke sip seca oe mages / | ly 2 “Bey tends Snag aged, by Ate eit ti ft) ra Ae noes Nj Won es ech ga eof St motion, at constant speed In a straight line, If = bey sums 10 be at fs, that ie only tans the observer is moving topethcr wit Newio's ft ly the law of ior, makes sense [cause there i no such thing as a sate of test. In a universe in which there is no state of rest—where one state of motion is a8 good as ny other—the simplest assumption posible is that a ody wil retain whatever sat of toon it hs, whichis preci wha the a of Ine sys: However, if here no sbole et, tee ould absolute spect. The_ apparent speed sd depend on ‘Shae observer ie toving long wih oc ot That's where te ah comes th leo se snr ave he 2 ee boc hoped of ving should depend onthe pee Sina er chat Mater tad en tut = (Gefntespeed—a speed that canbe found inthe fundamental forces ‘between magnets and between electiecharges.— 7 "To resolve ths anomaly, Albert Einstein crated a whole new uni- 7), ‘which sl els is deduced, aretha there eile ofthe speed ol the observer, ‘and that all bodies, regardless oftheir mass, fal atthe same rate because ‘dowtiward on a body hing batt ‘paced by curved spcetine in hich oes move ‘bgt ie (oo sch tng exists pr) Br slong eres called rouse whch ave shore distance between fo points i he Exived syuctine. Alf thei Known clectvely as the thor of ‘sng fb apes and pew). Zplicanda ueplogwe 175 174 Epoque ‘Thether front of advancing knowledge that undermined the suprem- | ight, energy out of the stom until it collapsed, the electrons acy of Newion was the nature of the stom. The existence of stom had taping by talling it the nucleus, ike ted comets falling ito the Sen suspect a east sine the ine of Lares inthe frst cntry_|—_-San Stnoecommen experience fel ws at mos som fe be and '.c, believed in by mos scientists, including Newton, and finally given some cial porto th a of the itch eoty fy he | English chemist John Dalion. Dalton did experiments in which be claimed to show that chemical species, such at nitrogen and oxygen, tend to combine i ratios of simple whole mmbers (one-to-oa, one” tortwo,two-to-threc, and soon; the quantities were measured by volume | in the gaseous stat). These experimental results clerly implied that the constituents ofthe gases were atoms, combining into what we would today al simple molecules (NO, NO;,N,0y and 0 on). Dalton, who as ost eprint bt rm Eien tr, enone | Aiscovery on the basis of very poor evidence (a story not uncommon | in the history of science), but more skilful chemists went on to make | his law of stple and multiple proportions one ofthe central doctrines of experimental chemistry. Throughout the nnezenth century, Knowle ‘edge of the properties of sioms was gradually refined. The 1873 edition ‘ofthe Eneyelopaedia Britannica has, under the heading “Atoms,” Superb review ofthe sate of knowledge at the time, signed “JCM"— | | | | for James Clerk Maxwell. The next real breakthrough, however, came in 1856, when the English physicist J.J. Thomson was able to show ‘hat all som share a common internal content that came to be called the electron. i lees in obit around which were held npace not by gravity Eo ‘byte clr rc baween their own noqaive Charge and eepeiily barged mceus. However, is comforting view of tiny Newtonian elapse every atom had somber of fndamental dws chit “sping ns nite potion de, once nin to ames Clee faxwell aad his theory of electromagnetism. If electrons were indeed in obit around the cleus, they would consallydsur the eect ‘magnetic field. That disturbance woud propagate away a the spec of aan, culy, 26)175 Eptowe itn | tonsivd i ewtnan solar sem wil ot oa eon of ins toning of ie som. | rrescun os dena sth inenton f gost mechan Now's ot sce ie bahar ef he ery sal: Ar Be nce! Kero Fan ie pyc ted sy) ss Toe Sopp lay Mepacod || etn sch hing tn leon wih ee pono nd dette ‘moment you eon. Jou lve he or, nis al dane iat {Bake Whee tng a ery sa ey get uy cry So mow | tke «tan you et ns ga te cen of oes en is os fig av Se Pt, ad i gpss tb drogen stom Bea | ERATE tuo fining sbet ke armat inthe empty exer, || moti eta tye hr: Evy on ca | Ke'eclatn cent good like spas ea mth wich wa ‘Besa momen sg, paso ss goat of cory alt jumps, Stade mont of quinn jp se wo md ot be fe ‘Se neo sop Sing thea ten he hecho Sine na) yd dee late Tesh ? pill fs * vom —[ 4, “Tha, cryin the tweet century, NewoR was overtown in favor |") | olay and quantum mechan, jn coupe of ceataies eater fe bal dapiced aritone athe comer ofthe inlet! univene, ‘Wy, then do we contin to ach Newtonian pis in school? Mor to te point, why di Richard Feynman dhe same Richard Feynman ‘who vitally eivested quanti mechanics, and whe leur | -estlety on Elon’ thor of lav: “boris f lave hel! {proof of the law oF ellipses “Suimoded Isaac Newton? / Pees tater tat Ge ted rovehtion la payaso profound Aiteret fom he fst oe. The i revolton vere Aoi Govtine and replaced i wid something entirely diferent The eeapd || enon New SEs wing, ea \ (iy it was i Newton's liv ac longer believed to urimasi Jee | fen ie seesee te aes nature of physical reality: moreoxer_-they-arenoteven Crrect, if appli Tat are very small (electrons) or very fast (near the \setorigh ortry dese ck bl} Tae ae een le ene Ernest Rutherfordan be deleted, IT we know exactly where to look. Nevertheless, the 7 ‘Sor the moat part pretty much the Same as the world we inhabited before it. The main difference ls that ‘we now know not ony that Newion’s laws give us an accurate account "That's the reason we sll teach stadents how to solve problems sing Newtonian physics but not Aristotelian physics. Its tno the reason ‘that Richard Feynman Ghought it wort his while to creat his own ‘roof that Newon’s laws prodoce clipes! orbits for the Pl remem Feynman’s Lecture NotesHemost ents laser 6 Fagan. tha i ein Yat Wee 5 “ok Ney 5 Moa of et comes fa Hh se The ge nth par Re hd “com copie fn N= ls peice ale,‘Avot te ee oe fr he tp oe pa ‘slow he ine Reber If ateeg wt gel, tcneutinondmentanesiqamesiniinital Bibliography cae at, by Dot oy at ca 1 ee Pei i, Ne os WW —pEESont ewes "Ce, gn Coo Un vee Diane Ie coo of Wad Per 6D, ai © ‘atic rsh na Laan ney Pr a iC oR Sneha niet of neta Fai roe Eso np Patri at i re” spent fase Pgs of sod een ow SSN San TENET toda, Sa, 78 Fon Lace or Pri coer a ‘Dre Mann: Universi of Wiesonl Pret 1974 ™ "ae Roce sor ty 1 RSE Rt sere cme Pede & Coe Ft re boy Gaeta Cutan an EES aCe Cn Oe toner roan "iar, Cag y Ran. 198 ee ey aed did ty Wh He ae cat Cote Une Pe OE186 Biography oer Art The Slepwaes (1959). Pps ei, New Yok: Goat nd Dene 98 Maxwell. Cle: Mar and Movon (157 Rein wits oe and spuds by ‘Sr lonphLannor Loni: Ss fo rang Chis Resco, 130 Newt, ua Sirfnat New Masel Prices of Neel Pp ond dyn te By Pa ey Uy of scl pe The Cin of at. Ue ies Ps Sergi To, Hogod 98 Ren ites, LF ar Shing wie Senn Eaimering Science 58 199)--19. “Tse, Visor wt Doe, Chita, Phe Lad of ronbore&Bgrapy of ‘Hoke ra: Camdndge Bg: Camber Unc Pre 1290 ested ower Banh Non, Cong En Index Pag amb in eis fro pstogras. Thee a Ble ree othe et of stron: es se of ot nd eer Sec satire, Rte, 3 xn md itn aw of 42-49 Beer Has 47 18 TSC SERS Sop, Hee hae 8-8 ‘Almost ey), 22 aie detection, 168 Soe of ieee, 97,80, 150 ccs, Sioa nd el ‘Sue ot ftom 77,90 150 ‘Can, 0-30 Sie ec, 98 ca nary 3.4.39 ‘sti oP 30 Ste cet ‘Ac ec, 21-22, 38.36 ‘eae 22.28 ‘Somcen. 76 ‘Sven nona Repl 29.32 Gia, King of ea, 24 Sheen of Repl a aw, 95, 57, 28, 1H, 77ee Zou SSee em somgrien thane, oe ingles Sete pee ‘consructon, geometric, 64, 77, 7, ae settee se paar eee swede ate, 6-64, 7, tangent tne, 30-83 Drscaner Ran, 390, 40,46 apa 120-3, 129, 125-2, 10, Seay 1 tk ‘eh 96-106, aloe (te), 59 Donte Het Te (ato a Ck), ses — gen es, 188-30, 152, 161, 162 isin Abo, 47.173 dete Bean 5-40 Secon ory, 2-2, ‘Siniton ot1-80 Ito se foc eter ny eect by 8-8 7,9, 5, 1, toe epee of tH, 7.60, IMS ‘ner a of 954 9 set Fey's fh eo felipe: rie tips a of pers ot an, Tier tae eee ‘bp ie 128 eB ear, yam 2 Soe eo ene rtm af feof pty en al ni ot 28835, cae eg, 103 fang tn, of, 34, 36, 38,172 Fepmnas, Ane Greta, 0,48 Feynman, Mary Lote Bell St Sees jenn, Re 1,5 543, SEaeeke et ‘nm cso an, 5, ‘2 eeton ft isk ar estan 3°51 juan ago, 0,50 oyun tase on pic, Te ‘feyonan ae 3233 roa tS, So oe) ern Fuchs, Klas, 43 atten, 23, 4-39, 57,172 Se anEroeak a 10.18 Fa ey see hws, ply Sin #3 8 97, 88, 98, ioe ioe com eran, ste ‘torioetal motion, 37, 38, 39-40 Sou re Seek a Sagitr ate), 34 {rege O51 tee prt pie oe, 99,100,102 ecg 780,190 Serie of ars 38, Seb ica 90 Th cenit at ‘to ee ty 47 Senegal ey, 1 opie 11 eer, Janes, 17,28, 26-29, 22, 4 ‘epi’ an asa ton 3 in 0 pio, ew a oot, Sve 38-35 emt mon, pci of 47, 49,83 petal 2-1 Sen an ot os Alms pron 47-49 pecan ye, 46, 4950 Ue, a, 23 ‘Marden, rest, 142, 143 Sant eon Marea, Samer = ‘sete rd Sn cc common on, 16-4, ese, 1 sein abt ms, 9-0, sin eovmographcam (Kole 27 sn ne soo sen SP Newmans dg tae maton a Saures cele eee a ied Law, 97-104 eget ea soc eae me ‘Kepler's laws v2., 10910, =," se fray nd 1-3 ‘ne New sor (re) 24 (On Rees ft Cee! “phos Copert 1-23 et gain in-27, 10 toh (Seems. 138-39, 192, 16 02 Sigh Ae, spt, 14, 16 ie 9-55, 1 orm pe 105 ae aSSsnon regen wee of 89,6 ‘mpobive force on, 85-86, 99,102, Tosi polygon, reps, 103-4 Poston agro, 8-102 Pr Mama Seen, inci of leet non, £2 fein tg, 2 nt aagl eget, 12, 13-18 ‘laren oop elie, rma cpr (QED 48, ‘gontum mechanics, 47, $2, ‘Siew of 3139 Gave age) ton, 37 SSS Aw, prey 890,971, 1 es emis see also light _ sl py 0-4 Sirah ty ans a awe Sint, le 840 ‘Shockey, William, 30 se ‘endo 41, 173 Seat et Spm Tom, 22,177 ep rw an, 97,10, 146 ‘Sir cencn, mang eal wher pda bad, Sopercrting Qa tert eve SUID) spec. 518,59 Sean te, 38 Sony Ys Ii Mr. Pant Teeniting ped of i 113, = eee oa. ere ee Tae een ane TeeSng ped of i, 15 Smet oe aaa caer pn Two Ne Sciences (Galen), 38 ras, 26 ‘ibn Pope, 34 i mtr mt eee gn, 3-108 118-2, 158, eceee ee ae ee Ms = Sas Liiva Rae oi, Core. $1 57Also available in Vintage Richard P. Feynman SURELY YOU’RE JOKING, MR FEYNMAN! Adventures of a Curious Character ‘Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, Richard ‘eynman was one ofthe work's greaer sheoreical physi ‘Shs, but he was alo a man who fell offen jumped, nto ‘vcotue. Anat safe-cracker, praca joker and cory- {alee Foyaman's fe war «eerie of combusble combing- lon made potibie by his unique mtare of high Inulligenc, unquenchable csionity and eremal septic. (Over a period of years, Feynman's conversations with his. friend Ralph Leighton were fest taped and then set doven a8 they appess bere like changed from their spoken form. ving # wise fanny, passionate and totally honest sel ponmiz of ont of the greater men of our age “There are two types of genius. Ordinary geniuses do great things, but cy ave you oom to elev Hat you could do the same if only you worked hard enough. Then dete are Iigiclans, snd fou can have’ no idea how they do I Kijomman wana gia” Hane Bethe, theoretical physicist snd Nobel laureate Vi, VINTAGE