Turns out that 100 years ago today, Richard Feynman was born. His contributions to physics – science in general – are huge, and if you dig a little you’ll find lots of discussion about him. His beautiful “Lectures on Physics…” books are deservedly legendary, and I wish that my old Imperial College lecturers had spent more time impressing upon us young impressionable undergraduate minds (c1986) to read those instead of urging us at every opportunity to read the famous “Surely You’re Joking…” book, which even back then in my naivety, I began to recognise as partly a physicist’s user manual for how to be a jerk to those around you. (I know I’m in the minority on this point…)
But anyway, in honour of the occasion, I give you a full page from my book containing a chat about the Feynman diagram. It’s an example of how something that’s essentially a cartoon can play a central role in understanding our world (something that’s of course, not unknown in cartoons…) Click the image above for an enlarged view.
-cvj
