方程
外觀
- 方程式對我更重要,因為政治只看眼前,而方程式是永恆的。
- 原文:Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.
- ——愛因斯坦
- 狄拉克的學生約翰·波羅金侯恩曾回憶道:「有次他被問到對於物理的核心信念,他走向黑板並寫下『自然的法則應該用優美的方程式去描述』」[1]。
- 狄拉克經常談到應該優先尋找美麗的方程式,而不要煩惱其物理意義。史蒂文·溫伯格對此曾有評論:
「 | 狄拉克告訴學物理的學生不要煩惱方程式的物理意義,而要關注方程式的美。這個建議只對那些於數學純粹之美非常敏銳的物理學家才有用,他們可以仰賴它尋找前進的方向。這種物理學家並不多——或許只有狄拉克本人。[2] | 」 |
- 費曼很欣賞[3]量子電動力學的先驅狄拉克,費曼有一部分工作也是建立在狄拉克早年成果之上的。[4]費曼一直很想找狄拉克專門討教問題,但是狄拉克是一個沉默寡言出了名的人,很難打開話匣子。為此,費曼不止一次找話題和狄拉克套近乎,但多數情況都吃了閉門羹。[4]平時口若懸河的費曼對惜字如金的狄拉克幾乎無計可施。[4]據說狄拉克有一次見到費曼時,直接用了一句「我有一個方程(指狄拉克方程),你有嗎?」打發了他。[5]
參考文獻
[編輯]- ↑ John Polkinghorne. 'Belief in God in an Age of Science' p. 2.
- ↑ Farmelo 2009,第428頁
- ↑ 見 Feynman&Weinberg 1987,第1頁 (位於第1章第1頁)。摘錄相關文字如下:「到這裏來我感到非常榮幸。我應該接受這個邀請,畢竟他始終都是我心目中的英雄,而且我自己能來這兒作紀念他的報告是一件再好不過的事。」
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Physicist Paul Dirac Is 'The Strangest Man'. The Rakyat Post. 2009年10月4日 [2016年10月2日] (英語).
Dr. FARMELO: 'I mean, as I said, people like, you know, Richard Feynman and - these have gone on the records saying he was their hero. He was the person they looked up to.'","Dr. FARMELO: 'Yeah. Well, I think the picture you're talking about is - was taken in Poland. And that was one of the times where Feynman tried to pin Dirac down, something he often wanted to do, because as I said earlier, Dirac was a hero to Feynman. Feynman was working on a theory in photons, electrons, building on Dirac's great work in the mid-1920s. But he found as he - Feynman often said to friends - extremely difficult to get anything out of Dirac. He was a person of such - he was so inward, so to speak...' FLATOW: 'Yeah.' Dr. FARMELO: '...so unwilling to open up that Feynman found it virtually hopeless.'
- ↑ Koh Aik Khoon. Dirac vs Feynman: Two different physicists. 2014年11月11日 [2016年10月1日] (英語).
Dirac asked Feynman point blank: 「I have an equation, do you have one, too?」