Basic Physics: Feynman's Physics Explained
Before about 1920 we thought we understood the world: a three-dimensional stage, things changing in time, and particles pushed and pulled by forces like gravity and electricity. Then we looked closely at the world of the atom and found the old rules were wrong. On a small scale, things behave in strange, 'unnatural' ways. This is quantum mechanics, where you cannot know a particle's position and speed at the same time and where we can only predict probabilities. That stranger physics is the deeper game Nature is really playing.
The big idea
The familiar rules of everyday life break down inside the atom.
Think about it
Why might it be reasonable that the rules look different for things far smaller than anything we can see or feel directly?
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