by Feynman, Richard P.

Published in 1985 by Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
ISBN: 0691083886
Edition: First
Binding: Hardback
Condition: Near fine
Dust Jacket included. Condition of Dust Jacket: Near fine
Comments: Readers may be used to seeing the term “Q.E.D.”— short for “quod erat demonstrandum” - in its original Latin, roughly translated into English as “thus it is proved”—in mystery novels with courtroom settings, at debating contests, in philosophical arguments, at the end of mathematical proofs…but not, in itself, as a noun. But it is a noun in the world of quantum physics. QED is the shortened term for quantum electrodynamics, the theory that describes how light and matter interact. Feynman was a Nobel prize winning physicist and his theory, involving both quantum mechanics and classical descriptions of the motion of particles, can be daunting to understand. But this book, “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter,” based on a series of lectures Feynman gave for the general public at UCLA, uses everyday language, visualizations, and his famed “Feynman diagrams” instead of complicated formulas to make the concepts clear to the educated lay reader.

There is much frustration and confusion among book sellers and collectors about how to determine a first printing of a first edition of this particular work. There are a number of variants that appear with what are obviously at least very early printings—some include a blurb for a book by another physicist, Rudolph Peierls, on the back dust jacket flap, while others don’t; the printing on the spine on some copies is regular gilt, while in other copies, like ours, it is stamped in purple. Our extensive research concurs with the mostly-agreed-upon determination that the purple or violet-lettered edition is the genuine first printing, making this copy a first printing of the first edition. Our copy is remarkably free of blemishes of any kind. Neither the book nor the dust jacket has any marks, tears, or creases, and the text block is tight and solid, with no missing or loose pages. See our photos for details, and additional photos available on request.

Seller Inventory #: 0000497