Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Silvan S. Schweber

Quote by Silvan S. Schweber

“Dirac's equation not only accounted for the spin of the electron and its observed magnetic moment, but also correctly explained the fine structure of the hydrogen atom. If the derivation of the Sommerfeld-like formula for the spectrum of the hydrogen atom was one of the striking successes of the Dirac equation, some of its other features were very troublesome.”

Quote by Silvan S. Schweber

Book:QED and the Men Who Made It
Create image

Work

QED and the Men Who Made It

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Silvan S. Schweber

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Silvan S. Schweber. more

You May Also Like

“It is shown that the golden ratio plays a prominent role in the dimensions of all objects which exhibit five-fold symmetry. It is also showed that among the irrational numbers, the golden ratio is the most irrational and, as a result, has unique applications in number theory, search algorithms, the minimization of functions, network theory, the atomic structure of certain materials and the growth of biological organisms.”

MathematicsBiologySymmetryFine Structure ConstantGolden RatioGolden MeanNumber TheoryFibonacci Sequence
Book:GOLDEN RATIO AND FIBONACCI NUMBERS, THE
Create image

“The bridge between the electron and the other elementary particles is provided by the fine structure constant. ... An expanded form of the constant leads to equations that define the transformation of electromagnetic energy into electron mass/energy, ...”

PhysicsHistory Of ScienceFine Structure ConstantElectromagnetismHistory Of PhysicsElectron
Book:The Enigmatic Electron: A Doorway to Particle Masses
Create image

“The prime number 137 had continuously occupied Pauli's mind. It is an approximate value for a constant appearing in the fine structure theory of atomic spectra which in its theoretical expression ties together electromagnetism, relativity and quantum theory. Pauli saw the fine structure theory of spectra as a key in understanding the deepest contemporary problems of theoretical physics. For that reason the number 137 possessed a mysterious attraction for him.”

PhysicsAtomsHistory Of ScienceFine Structure ConstantWolfgang Pauli
Book:Beyond the Atom: The Philosophical Thought of Wolfgang Pauli
Create image

“In his first philosophical lecture on modern physics that Pauli gave in November 1934 to the Zurich Philosophical Society he said that only a formulation of quantum theory would be satisfactory which expresses the relation between the value of [the fine structure constant] and charge conservation in the same complementary was as that between the space-time description and energy-momentum conservation.”

PhysicsQuantum TheoryHistory Of ScienceFine Structure ConstantWolfgang PauliCharge Conservation
Book:No Time to be Brief: A Scientific Biography of Wolfgang Pauli
Create image

“If QED [quantum electrodynamics] is merely a phenomenology, how can one account for its remarkable quantitative success? The answer is intimately related to one of its most characteristic features, renormalizability. Because of this, short distance, high energy effects in QED can be absorbed into a finite number of measurable masses and charges. For the first time in the history of physics, there exists a theory which has no obvious intrinsic limitation and enables us in principle to calculate physical phenomena to any accuracy we need in terms of a few measurable parameters such as the elementary electric charge e [fine structure constant] and the electron mass m. Thus the detailed high energy structure of the ultimate theory is irrelevant to the analysis of low energy phenomena except insofar as it determines these parameters. [Quantum Electrodynamics]”

Quantum PhysicsFine Structure ConstantHistory Of Physics
Author:Toichiro Kinoshita
Create image

“In the early days of atomic physics [before quantum field theory revealed the true meaning of the fine structure constant to be the strength of the coupling between the electron and photon], it was thought to have a value so close to being precisely 1/137 that numerologists started to establish cultish associations with the number 137.”

Quantum PhysicsHistory Of ScienceFine Structure ConstantHistory Of PhysicsAtomic Physics
Book:Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics
Create image

“But some numbers, called dimensionless numbers, have the same numerical value no matter what units of measurement are chosen. Probably the most famous of these is the "fine-structure constant," .... Physicists love this number not just because it is dimensionless, but also because it is a combination of three fundamental constants of nature.”

PhysicsHistory Of ScienceFine Structure Constant
Book:Geons, Black Holes and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics
Create image