QED: A Play - Inspired by the Writings of Richard Feynman and "Tuva or Bust!" by Ralph Leighton

by PeterParnell (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2002

  $11.63

  (Applause Books). QED is a seductive mix of science, human affections, moral courage and comic eccentricity... not to be missed. John Simon, New York Magazine The play itself is a kind of proof, dramatically illustrating how a man who happens to be a genius elegantly and movingly works through the human problem of how to face the end of his life. Nancy Franklin, The New Yorker With a moving and powerful introduction from Alan Alda. Who knew that quantum electrodynamics could make for a dramatic read? In the hands of the late, great physicist Richard Feynman, it does. Feynman's theory of QED is just one of the many topics the playwright Peter Parnell explores in this nearly-one-man show, a recent Broadway triumph for star Alan Alda as Feynman. Set in Feynman's office on the weekend of his realization that he has terminal cancer, this play is an intellectual tour-de-force that captures the unique, hilarious, and puckish genius that Feynman was. From his work on the Manhattan Project to the death of his beloved first wife, from his mission to reconstruct the Challenger space shuttle tragedy to his Nobel-prize winning physics ideas, the resume of Feynman's life is fascinating. But Parnell gives us more, letting fill in the details of his life. When he reads a letter he wrote to his wife after her death, or flirts with a student, or chillingly recalls walking around Manhattan calculating the damage an atomic bomb could do, we grow to love the man behind the scientist. And we read in fascination as he puzzles out the problem of his own death. Combining the current interest in science and math in the entertainment world with one of the most entertaining scientists in U.S. history, QED is a tour-de-force.

• Used

  Paperback
  1990

  $3.41

  In QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter Richard P. Feynman explains, in his lucid and witty style, the revolutionary scientific theory that won him the Nobel Prize. Quantum electrodynamics - or QED for short - is the theory that explains how light and electrons interact, and in doing so illuminates the deepest and most complex mysteries of the world around us. Thanks to Richard Feynman and his colleagues, who won the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work in this area, it is also one of the rare parts of physics that is known for sure - a theory that has stood the test of time. In these entertaining lectures Feynman uses clear everyday examples to provide the definitive introduction to QED. The perfect example of scientific genius . ( Independent ). If you don't believe Nature is absurd, let chatty Professor Feynman convince you in his series of exceedingly reader-friendly lectures...Full of witty one-liners, with its learning lightly worn, it's a book to enlighten . ( Mail on Sunday ). Does a marvelous job of explaining one of twentieth-century physics' few unqualified triumphs . ( The New York Times ). Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) was one of this century's most brilliant theoretical physicists and original thinkers. Feynman's other books, also available in Penguin, include QED , Six Easy Pieces , Six Not-so-Easy Pieces , Don't You Have Time to Think , The Pleasure of Finding Things Out , What Do You Care What Other People Think? and The Meaning of it All .

• New

  Paperback
  1990

  $12.24

  In QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter Richard P. Feynman explains, in his lucid and witty style, the revolutionary scientific theory that won him the Nobel Prize. Quantum electrodynamics - or QED for short - is the theory that explains how light and electrons interact, and in doing so illuminates the deepest and most complex mysteries of the world around us. Thanks to Richard Feynman and his colleagues, who won the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work in this area, it is also one of the rare parts of physics that is known for sure - a theory that has stood the test of time. In these entertaining lectures Feynman uses clear everyday examples to provide the definitive introduction to QED. The perfect example of scientific genius . ( Independent ). If you don't believe Nature is absurd, let chatty Professor Feynman convince you in his series of exceedingly reader-friendly lectures...Full of witty one-liners, with its learning lightly worn, it's a book to enlighten . ( Mail on Sunday ). Does a marvelous job of explaining one of twentieth-century physics' few unqualified triumphs . ( The New York Times ). Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) was one of this century's most brilliant theoretical physicists and original thinkers. Feynman's other books, also available in Penguin, include QED , Six Easy Pieces , Six Not-so-Easy Pieces , Don't You Have Time to Think , The Pleasure of Finding Things Out , What Do You Care What Other People Think? and The Meaning of it All .