RE: [asa] QED

Hi Randy, you wrote:
 
>> A well known topic touched on in the play was the
reflection/transmission of photons and how when 100 photons strike a
pane of glass, 96 will be transmitted and 4 will be reflected--how does
a photon know whether to transmit or to reflect?<<
 
To say that a pane of glass reflects 4% of the light striking it is one
thing. To say that if you fire exactly 100 photons at a pane of glass
precisely 4 will bounce back every time is quite another. My uneducated
guess is that the first case is closer to the truth. If I'm right can I
have a Nobel prize too?
 
Dick Fischer, author, lecturer
Historical Genesis from Adam to Abraham
 <http://www.historicalgenesis.com> www.historicalgenesis.com
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of Randy Isaac
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 2:57 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: [asa] QED
 
This weekend we were able to attend a production of Peter Parnell's play
QED on the life of Richard Feynman. We had seen this play previously
when it was first produced on Broadway when Feynman was played by Alan
Alda. Keith Jochim played Feynman this time and did almost as well.
 
One brief segment of the play struck me as odd. The script had Feynman
exchanging a conversation with a colleague concerning a simulation of
the role of sexual selection in evolution they were doing jointly.
Feynman's comment was that the simulation showed a remarkable modulation
of rate of development that seemed to be similar to punctuated
equilibrium. The topic then changed abruptly, never to be addressed
again. I don't recall ever reading about anything Feynman published in
this area. Do any of you know about such a topic in Feynman's work?
 
A well known topic touched on in the play was the
reflection/transmission of photons and how when 100 photons strike a
pane of glass, 96 will be transmitted and 4 will be reflected--how does
a photon know whether to transmit or to reflect? In the discussion
following the play, led by Nobel prize winner Jerome Friedman, someone
asked him if we didn't have the answer by now. Friedman semurred, saying
no one knows.
 
This production was only in the preview phase now but will be live in
July and August in Boston for any of you that are in this area then.
Well worth seeing.
 
Randy

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Received on Sun May 4 21:28:48 2008