Can you tell me the way to immortality?
Long before Men In Black came out and classified it as a capital offense, I read Quantum Mechanics books as pre-teen. Of course, I forgot 90% of what I read within two minutes, and never could work out the math, but the concepts were so lovely that I fell for the whole field, from the obscurities of Quantum Chromodynamics to the bizarre fringes of event horizon radiation. And now that Morgan Freeman is involved, it is again OK (and not so freakish as to be alien) to think that science is pretty darn cool.
Now, I didn’t wait for science to be cool to resume my studies, but rather, waited for that unique feminine crisis at age 30 to overwhelm me and remind me of my on-again/off-again affair with Quantum realities. So why not do something about it? I asked myself. And do you know what? I could not think of a good reason.
Who cares I still don’t have my bachelor’s degree? Who cares that I am a mother of two. If a plumber from Brooklyn can become one of the most famous physicists in the world (for his gentleman’s bet with Stephen Hawking), then why can’t I learn enough mathematics and physics to be useful to society at 30?
The standard argument is that theorists do their best work by the time they are 30, and are washed up forever after this remarkable age. So it is, then, fitting that this rebellious hellion waits until she is nearly 30 to even begin.
“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows.” (Frank Herbert, Dune).
Perhaps it is folly to think myself beginning the road to physics and growth now. As I mentioned, I have studied physics from a qualitative level since I was 11. I read books and watched television programs. I have even started (but did not finish) two quantum mechanics courses in college, only to be drowned in the mathematics (despite my precocity in mathematics apart from physics). Theoretical physics is, after all, simply applied mathematics, which is my least favorite kind of mathematics. But this time, we will dive into the rabbit’s hole together, and take whatever twisting, turning, side-tracked way we must to arrive at the final destination: a contribution to the world of physics from my own less-than-humble self. The reason I wish to do this publicly is a) to show that the resources needed are fully available on the internet and b) to make sure I shame myself into actually making some sort of progress.
So where shall we truly begin?
How about an Introduction to Quantum Physics? This is the text from which I'll be working, as we journey together into the amazing world of the teensy tiny.
Chapter One
(to be completed week of 7/11/2010:)
