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Re: [petsfed] two parallel lines can cross!!!:
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rrrADAM
Jan 20, 2007, 8:59 PM
Views: 937
Registered: Dec 19, 1999
Posts: 17553
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Great points, and agreed.
Feynman is my favorite, by a long shot, and I've read many of his books, and watched a few of his lectures, but QED is easily his best book, and its a transcript of the Dirac Memorial Lectures on QED I believe... You really should read it--its a quick read of just a day... Short and sweet.
As for other sources, I prefer Smolin, Susskind, Penrose, Kip Thorne, Robert Laughlin, and even Neil Tyson... Hawking's was OK, but highly over-rated...
You may be suprised that I do apply much of this in my job, albeit in a non-cosmological way:
In Ultrasonic angle beam inspection, I need to use Snell's Law to calc out my actual refracted angle within the parts I am inspecting, as sound has different velocities in the lucite wedge on my transducer and the part. Quantum and classical mechanics also plays a part in the sound's attenuation.
In Radiography, I need to understand and apply the priniples of difraction, geometry (penumbral shadows, enlargment, etc...), and even higher energy interactions... Co-60 peaks at two energies, both of which are high enough to create Compton Scatter/Pair production, and other photo-electric effetcs. We even use Lin-Acs (Linear Accelerators) to punch through feet of steel. Again, QM and CM describe its attenuation.
Maxwell's equations, among others, are used when I use Magnetic Testing to calc out field strengths, flux leakage, and such.
I've even been an instructor in the above disiplines, so a much deeper understanding of the theories behind the aplications is required to teach it well... Not to mention, I now work inspecting operating nuclear power plants, so while not required, an understanding of what exactly is happening at the nuke is a plus: from the nuclear reactions in the reactor, to the thermodynamics of the energy transfer, to the mechanical principles of the machinery. And I also find it interesting to the point of being enthrawled with it at times.
I've spent WAY too much money on books in the last 2 years, and I list seems grows evertime I refer to the footnotes and citations within the books. I am fortunate to have a friend that has a PhD in Math, and a Masters on Theoretical Physics that I bounce questions and ideas off of on a regular basis.
As for my particular interest, Cosmology and Quantum Gravity... As far as QG goes, there's not even a light at the end of the tunnel. For those that think that String Theory is the light, they're gonna get hit by the train comming at them, as ST is crap, but unfortunately almost 85% of the PhD students in Theoretical Pysics are working on ST, as its career suicide to think 'outside your Research Advisor's box'. 
petsfed wrote: Finally, the cosmic microwave background radiation has its explanations firmly rooted in quantum processes. Its effect on the large scale structure of the universe (a research interest of mine) is obvious, but obscured by complexity all the same.
At the moment of decoupling (~300,000 years after BB), when the hot dense plasma of electrons bound to nuclii and formed atoms (H, He, Li), the universe became transparent, and what we see today as the CMB is the light from that moment... But lessor known is that at that moment, that light was in the UV spectrum, and it is only through the subsequent expansion of the universe that that wavelength of light has lengthened to that of the Microwave spectrum... Meaning that the 'cosmic background' has gone through UV, violet, blue, indigo, green, yellow, orange, red, Infrared, and now to Microwave, and it will keep stretching down to radio.... It may be billions of years from now, but it will make radioastronomy a little harder. 
(This post was edited by rrradam on Jan 20, 2007, 10:23 PM)
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Post edited by rrrADAM
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() on Jan 20, 2007, 9:13 PM
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Post edited by rrrADAM
() on Jan 20, 2007, 9:52 PM
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() on Jan 20, 2007, 9:57 PM
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Post edited by rrrADAM
() on Jan 20, 2007, 10:23 PM
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