Boulder School 2000: Public Lecture

Boulder 2000 Summer School for Condensed Matter and Materials Physics: Introduction to Superconductivity: Fundamentals and Applications

 PUBLIC LECTURE

Supported by the National Science Foundation. Additional funding provided by the University of Colorado, NIST, Lucent Technologies and IBM.

Steven M. Girvin

Distinguished Professor of Physics, Indiana University

“Mr. Feynman’s Quantum Mechanics”

A Field Guide for Curious Characters

(view slides)

(view photos of the lecture)

This  talk   is    aimed at lay persons curious to know how quantum mechanics works. The great American  physicist Richard Feynman invented a formulation of quantum mechanics which can be readily understood through a set of simple pictures. In this talk, Feynman’s somewhat crazy sounding (but correct!) ideas will be illustrated  without equations via some simple examples and demonstrations (which you can perform yourself at home). By the end of this talk you will understand how mirages work, what a lens does, and be able to drop the phrase `quantum interference’ in casual conversation.

Richard Feynman was no ordinary genius. He was a magician who frequently pulled radically original solutions to physics puzzles `out of the hat.’ He was also an expert safe cracker, bongo player, technology visionary, and a generally curious character. His best-selling autobiography

Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!

is fun reading for people of all ages.

Additional background material for this talk can be found in Feynman’s wonderful little book based on his public lectures:

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Princeton Univ. Press; ISBN: 0691083886)

and on the following web page:

http://girvin.sites.yale.edu/