QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
This book is about quantum electrodynamics, the theory which describes how light and matter interact on the smallest scales. As can be expected from any book by Richard Feynman, this book is a joy to read. Feynman manages to explain in clear layman's terms why it seems that light travels by straight lines, how light reflects from surfaces, why it behaves wave-like and how light-particles interact with electrons. In the final part of the book he concludes with an appetizer on the so-called quantum chromodynamics (QCD), which is the theory of the (strong) interaction between even more exotic particles. Feynman takes the reader by the hand starting with simple examples and step-by-step advance on those examples pointing out the strangeness of the theory when scales or distances get very, very small. It would not make sense to summarise here what is so perfectly described in his book, best is to read it yourself. However I want to mention the main take-out for me, which is that the ...