Quantum Electrodynamics (Advanced Books Classics) [Paperback]

Richard P. Feynman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201360756 | ISBN-13: 978-0201360752 | Publication Date: March 25, 1998

This classic work presents the main results and calculational procedures of quantum electrodynamics in a simple and straightforward way. Designed for the student of experimental physics who does not intend to take more advanced graduate courses in theoretical physics, the material consists of notes on the third of a three-semester course given at the California Institute of Technology.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard P. Feynman was raised in Far Rockaway, New York, and received his Ph.D. from Princeton. He held professorships at both Cornell and the California Institute of Technology. In 1965 he received the Nobel Prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics. He died in 1988.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (March 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201360756
• ISBN-13: 978-0201360752
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #754,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard P. Feynman was born in 1918 and grew up in Far Rockaway, New York. At the age of seventeen he entered MIT and in 1939 went to Princeton, then to Los Alamos, where he joined in the effort to build the atomic bomb. Following World War II he joined the physics faculty at Cornell, then went on to Caltech in 1951, where he taught until his death in 1988. He shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965, and served with distinction on the Shuttle Commission in 1986. A commemorative stamp in his name was issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2005.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first great Feynman classic, February 12, 2001

By 

henrique fleming - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quantum Electrodynamics (Advanced Books Classics) (Paperback)

This book collects a set of lectures by Feynman on quantum electrodynamics and a few reprints of his papers on the subject.Nowadays it would be a (hard) graduate course. At its time it was written for Feynman's peers. At that time the method developped by him, though he had total control of it, was not complete as far as derivations are concerned. However, each topic was solidly grounded on the basis of specific arguments. This is how things are done. Usually you have a hundred incomplete arguments which, put together, are, so to speak, stronger than a formal demonstration. And, what arguments! What insight this (then) young guy had already!This book is for pleasure! You probably should read it together with some modern text, like Veltman's "Diagrammatica", to get the modern perspective and also to see how little, after all, was changed. A companion book, called "Theory of Fundamental Processes" is also a sterling lecture, for the same reasons. Perhaps even more so.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars feynmans way, April 25, 2001

By 

chicken head cut off "mcscientist" (Gainesville/Orsay France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quantum Electrodynamics (Advanced Books Classics) (Paperback)

I think this is a good supplemental book. it's like his course on physics; you cant learn from it alone; but with a canonical text it adds wonderful insight on a subject. His theory of fundamental processes is out of date (way before tau neutrinos, and there are mistakes in parts); so i would avoid that one. this one I find to be about the level of sophistication of his lectures on gravitation, but explaining field theory. Feynman naturally has a slightly more functional approach than other books of this era. I think it's a good book to keep next to something like peskin and schroeder in ones personal library

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars QED IN NUTSHELL !, January 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Quantum Electrodynamics (Frontiers in Physics) (Paperback)

People reading this book must be safely assumed to be physics oriented guys esp the ones in particle physics. The book is a good introduction for an amateur who is not necessarily a good mathematician cuz this book has surprisingly NO glamorous formulae associated with QED.It doesn't give you in-depth scrutiny of the high-energy world yet it gives you enough to keep you interested all the way. The title can be mis-leading cuz it doesn't really cover extensive knowledge about the field, should've been introductory QED or something on those lines. Anyways should be fun to read iff you want to know the nuances of matter !