Re: [asa] QED

Feynman didn't say "exactly 100 photons..." "..precisely 4..." Rather, the meaning was that for every 100 photons, on average 4 will be reflected. Which I would suggest is equivalent to 4% of the light being reflected.

I'll be happy to pass along to you any Nobel prize which might apply--maybe the "alternative Nobel prize?"

Randy
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Dick Fischer
  To: ASA
  Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 9:27 PM
  Subject: 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

  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 Mon May 5 12:15:06 2008