CIP asked "from what books did you learn QM, QFT, and GR?"
I guess it depends on your definition of "learning" ...
I read several pop.sci. books as a kid, including Misner, Thorne & Wheeler 8-)
So I had some idea what physics was about before I went to university.
But I would say I learned relativity from the books of two Austrian physicists, Sexl & Urbantke.
I learned quantum theory from the Berkeley lectures and Landau & Lifshitz.
And I learned QFT from xeroxed lecture notes and Ryder.
Of course there are many good books available now and some really good online lectures, e.g. Lenny Susskind.
Wald, Zee and Zwiebach are good books imho.
But I should also mention that I learned a lot about quantum theory in a seminar with Anton Zeilinger, which included eye opening interference experiments with slow neutrons at a research reactor in Vienna.
I think I really learned relativity during my master thesis, writing a program to numerically integrate the equations to simulate the gravitational collapse of a scalar field into a black hole.
And I really learned something about QFT by writing programs to simulate lattice field theories; including attempts to simulate quantum gravity.
We did not really succeed, but I learned quite a lot along the way ... in some sense moving from Itzykson & Zuber to Itzykson & Drouffe.
Last but not least, I should mention that our best theories contain several unsolved mysteries: naked singularities, closed timelike loops, the 'interpretation problem' of quantum theory (*), Landau poles, the 'direction of time' etc.
They are ultimately incomplete and even inconsistent and therefore one might say that nobody really understands them ...
(*) Physicists cannot agree if quantum theory describes one or many worlds, while I prefer a zero worlds interpretation.
5 comments:
Thanks!
Do you think Descartes had solipsism in mind when he said, "I think therefore I am?"
>> including Misner, Thorne & Wheeler 8-)
I imagine that there were parts of Misner, Thorne, & Wheeler that you understood in high school. When I was in high school I read Gamow's pop. sci. book on gravity which is a very long way from Misner, Thorne, & Wheeler. :-)
Oh, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if you posted a little more often. :-)
Lee,
Descartes starts out like a solipsist, recognizing that I can only be certain that I am.
In a 2nd step he proved the existence of God, using an ontological argument. I posted my own version here.
He concluded that God would not deceive us and therefore reality is not an illusion.
This 3rd step was flawed imho, since we know from quantum theory that (classical) reality does not exist.
However, I should also mention Vaihinger's insight that all our ideas and theories are fiction and ultimately flawed, but we can still use them "as if" they are correct. Therefore, in everyday life I will act as if there is a reality outside my conscious experience ...
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Ok, I will try to do one post per month ...
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