Book Title: Simply Dirac

Author: Helge Kragh

Cover image for Simply Dirac

Book Description: Simply Dirac looks at the life and work of one of the world’s most accomplished—and strangest—theoretical physicists, Paul Dirac, who was among the founders of quantum mechanics. Written by physics scholar Helge Kragh for a non-academic audience, Simply Dirac is an engaging, accessible, and highly entertaining biography that requires no previous knowledge of physics to fully appreciate the odd life and lasting legacy of a man who revolutionized his field and changed the way we see the world.

License:
All Rights Reserved

Contents

Book Information

Book Description

Paul Dirac (1902–1984) was a brilliant mathematician and a 1933 Nobel laureate whose work ranks alongside that of Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton. Although not as well known as his famous contemporaries Werner Heisenberg and Richard Feynman, his influence on the course of physics was immense. His landmark book, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, introduced that new science to the world and his “Dirac equation” was the first theory to reconcile special relativity and quantum mechanics.

Dirac held the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a position also occupied by such luminaries as Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking. Yet, during his 40-year career as a professor, he had only a few doctoral students due to his peculiar personality, which bordered on the bizarre. Taciturn and introverted, with virtually no social skills, he once turned down a knighthood because he didn’t want to be addressed by his first name. Einstein described him as “balancing on the dizzying path between genius and madness.”

In Simply Dirac, author Helge Kragh blends the scientific and the personal, and invites the reader to get to know both Dirac the quantum genius and Dirac the social misfit. Featuring cameo appearances by some of the greatest scientists of the 20th century and highlighting the dramatic changes that occurred in the field of physics during Dirac’s lifetime, this fascinating biography is an invaluable introduction to a truly singular man.

Author

Helge Kragh

License

Simply Dirac Copyright © 2016 by Helge Kragh. All Rights Reserved.

Subject

Biography: science, technology and medicine

Metadata

Title
Simply Dirac
Author
Helge Kragh
License

Copyright © 2016 by Helge Kragh

Cover Illustration by José Ramos
Cover Design by Scarlett Rugers

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below.

permissions@simplycharly.com

ISBN: 978-1-943657-00-1

Brought to you by http://simplycharly.com

Primary Subject
Biography: science, technology and medicine
Additional Subject(s)
History of science
Publisher
Simply Charly
Publication Date
April 29, 2016
Ebook ISBN
978-1-943657-00-1
Print ISBN
978-1-943657-09-4