Recent content by Puffin

True. There was a great line from Hans Bethe in his obituary for Feynman which read "It was said that there were only two ways to solve the most difficult problems in Physics. One was to use Mathematics. The other was to ask Feynman." You forgot to mention his great skills as a bongo player.

Thanks. What Is Mathematics? certainly looks good. I'm looking forward to it.

Hi, I've got a Masters in Physics, but always feel that I'm missing out slightly by not knowing and appreciating the beauty that there is in all the maths I never had cause to study in my physics degree. Is there a book (or set of books) that does for maths what the Feynman Lectures do for...

This has been annoying me since I read this somewhere. Beta decay is only possible if energetically allowed. For electron emission this means: [M(A,Z) - M(A,Z+1)]c^2 >0 For positron emission this is [M(A,Z) - M(A,Z-1) - 2m_e]c^2 >0 Why the asymmetry? I would naively think that...

Something I've been wondering for a while, but haven't been convinced by the answers I've received. If an astronaut falls into a black hole, from the perspective of us outside he never actually reaches the horizon. From his perspective, he falls straight through and doesn't notice any...