Question about conservation laws & Feynman Lectures

[Tac-Tics]

I just got a copy of Feynman's lectures on Physics the other week. They are very interesting.

Near the end of the 4th chapter, he begins discussing conservation laws. One of the laws he gives is the conservation of baryons. I noticed early in the first volume, the lectures were published in 1960, a few years before the theory of quarks came about. Would it be off to say that, had the book been published today, this conservation law would be replaced by the conservation laws of quarks and color?

 

[vanesch]

I just got a copy of Feynman's lectures on Physics the other week. They are very interesting.

Near the end of the 4th chapter, he begins discussing conservation laws. One of the laws he gives is the conservation of baryons. I noticed early in the first volume, the lectures were published in 1960, a few years before the theory of quarks came about. Would it be off to say that, had the book been published today, this conservation law would be replaced by the conservation laws of quarks and color?

It is still conservation of baryon number ! It is amazing, but actually you don't have to change a word in the Lectures, after all this time...

 

[Tac-Tics]

It is still conservation of baryon number ! It is amazing, but actually you don't have to change a word in the Lectures, after all this time...

Heh, good to know.

It's stuff like this that caused me, when I got about 4 chapters into Volume III, to reconsider and start at Volume I, even if have to skim the parts I'm familiar with. (There's nothing like ignorance for overestimating your abilities ;-)

 

[atyy]

The lectures are fantastic, but there are a couple of errors, including one in freshman physics where he states that a Faraday cage works both ways. There's an interesting note from Kip Thorne at the bottom of the page, including a quote from Feynman, "You should, in science, believe logic and arguments, carefully drawn, and not authorities. You also read the book correctly and understood it. I made a mistake, so the book is wrong. I probably was thinking of a grounded conducting sphere, or else of the fact that moving the charges around in different places inside does not affect things on the outside. I am not sure how I did it, but I goofed. And you goofed, too, for believing me."
http://www.feynmanlectures.info/flp_errata.html

 

[vanesch]

And you goofed, too, for believing me."
http://www.feynmanlectures.info/flp_errata.html

From the link:

last updated 10/29/2008

 

[atyy]

Dang! It took me half an hour to realize what you meant!

 

[Minich]

It is still conservation of baryon number ! It is amazing, but actually you don't have to change a word in the Lectures, after all this time...

I've read Feinman 10 years later in 1970.
So i can suppose Feinman is solid )
And fractional charge is liquid.
And quark is gas.
And broken now supercollider proves that barion number is forever.

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