Quantum electrodynamics
a lecture note and reprint volume
by Richard Phillips Feynman · first published 1961
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6HN commenters
2010–2023first – last mentioned
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Feynman's plain-language tour of how light and matter interact, written for a general reader. It is short, accessible, and offers a clear summary of how quantum electrodynamics works.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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on “Let’s draw Feynman diagrams!” ↗…and the person answered bringing up paper and arrows. This is the stuff that made Feynmann mad when they asked him about magnets. Have you ever read the book QED? It's Feynman's best effort to explain Quantum Electrodynamics to a layman. In the book, he takes a genuine question about the nature of things (how does light work?) and answers it by "bringing up paper and arrows!" (I encourage you to read the book to see what…
on “Why nothing can go faster than the speed of light” ↗…The comment I am replying to, your comment in the tree, and the one next to you, does not seem to match that request in any sense. Now, simplified definitions are an art, but Feynman managed it with Quantum Electrodynamics -- so it is not impossible to do it for complex subjects. And it seems to me the less you understand a subject, the less simple and more confusing your explanation will be, such as the explanations given…
on “The brain ‘rotates’ memories to save them from new sensations” ↗I think it would depend on what you’re into, but these are my picks: Quantum Electrodynamics (Feynman): A summary of how almost EVERYTHING works (albeit explained simplistically). Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger (great insights / worldly wisdom from one of the…
on “Patrick Collison's Bookshelf” ↗Quantum Electrodynamics by Richard Feynman, shockingly a page turner, quite accessible and short!
on “Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?” ↗…ubiquitous phenomenon in Nature. Light rays find their trajectory by tryin out all possible paths and only the one with the highest constructive interference survives (this is what Feynman discovered in Quantum Electrodynamics, which is referenced in the article). The real trick in quantum computing is manipulating qubits through quantum gates such that the outcome that gets assigned the highest probability is the correct…
on “What makes quantum computing so hard to explain?” ↗