Dirac: Equation and Dirac Notation by Gary Smith
Albert Einstein, you’ve all heard of his name.
Relativity theories gave him great fame.
But I’ll tell you a tale of another great mind,
Whose quantum discoveries were a great find.
Paul Dirac was the name of this gentle fellow,
A mild mannered man, you could say he was mellow.
He came from the West Country, Bristol they say.
In theoretical physics a great part he’d play.
An equal to Einstein in the century past,
His contributions to physics are many and vast.
He saw beauty in numbers and working things out.
That there was no god, he had not a doubt.
He wouldn’t use five words when one word would do.
He kept pretty quiet, of words he was few.
But, now and then, he’d say something quite bright.
And everyone knew when he spoke he was right.
With Erwin Schrödinger Dirac did share
A physics Nobel Prize, wow what a pair.
A relativistic version of Erwin’s equation
Was what Dirac saw on that occasion.
The quantum world opened a whole new extent.
But of great ideas Dirac was not spent.
Discovering new atomic conjecture
Was a subject on which he was oft to lecture.
He developed notation, with bra-kets and lines,
For quantum mechanics most useful signs.
His equation described how particles spin,
They’re smaller, you know, than the head of a pin.
It also forecast antimatter, you know,
Which no-one before was able to show.
It’s like normal matter but not quite the same.
But describing it here is not my aim.
Dirac’s quantum world may not seem so vast
But his theories and thoughts will no doubt out last
Other physicists work, good though they may be.
A contribution to go down in history.
If you would like to know more about Paul Dirac I recommend the biography
"The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius" by Graham Farmelo. BACK TO GALLERY
Albert Einstein, you’ve all heard of his name.
Relativity theories gave him great fame.
But I’ll tell you a tale of another great mind,
Whose quantum discoveries were a great find.
Paul Dirac was the name of this gentle fellow,
A mild mannered man, you could say he was mellow.
He came from the West Country, Bristol they say.
In theoretical physics a great part he’d play.
An equal to Einstein in the century past,
His contributions to physics are many and vast.
He saw beauty in numbers and working things out.
That there was no god, he had not a doubt.
He wouldn’t use five words when one word would do.
He kept pretty quiet, of words he was few.
But, now and then, he’d say something quite bright.
And everyone knew when he spoke he was right.
With Erwin Schrödinger Dirac did share
A physics Nobel Prize, wow what a pair.
A relativistic version of Erwin’s equation
Was what Dirac saw on that occasion.
The quantum world opened a whole new extent.
But of great ideas Dirac was not spent.
Discovering new atomic conjecture
Was a subject on which he was oft to lecture.
He developed notation, with bra-kets and lines,
For quantum mechanics most useful signs.
His equation described how particles spin,
They’re smaller, you know, than the head of a pin.
It also forecast antimatter, you know,
Which no-one before was able to show.
It’s like normal matter but not quite the same.
But describing it here is not my aim.
Dirac’s quantum world may not seem so vast
But his theories and thoughts will no doubt out last
Other physicists work, good though they may be.
A contribution to go down in history.
If you would like to know more about Paul Dirac I recommend the biography
"The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius" by Graham Farmelo. BACK TO GALLERY