Personal life Paul Dirac

1 personal life

1.1 years
1.2 education
1.3 family
1.4 personality
1.5 religious views
1.6 honours
1.7 death

personal life
early years

paul adrien maurice dirac born @ parents home in bristol, england, on 8 august 1902, , grew in bishopston area of city. father, charles adrien ladislas dirac, immigrant saint-maurice, switzerland, worked in bristol french teacher. mother, florence hannah dirac, née holten, daughter of ship s captain, born in cornwall, england, , worked librarian @ bristol central library. paul had younger sister, béatrice isabelle marguerite, known betty, , older brother, reginald charles félix, known felix, committed suicide in march 1925. dirac later recalled: parents terribly distressed. didn t know cared [...] never knew parents supposed care children, on knew.

charles , children officially swiss nationals until became naturalised on 22 october 1919. dirac s father strict , authoritarian, although disapproved of corporal punishment. dirac had strained relationship father, so after father s death, dirac wrote, feel freer now, , own man. charles forced children speak him in french, in order learn language. when dirac found not express wanted in french, chose remain silent.

education

dirac educated first @ bishop road primary school , @ all-boys merchant venturers technical college (later cotham school), father french teacher. school institution attached university of bristol, shared grounds , staff. emphasised technical subjects bricklaying, shoemaking , metal work, , modern languages. unusual @ time when secondary education in britain still dedicated largely classics, , dirac later express gratitude.

dirac studied electrical engineering on city of bristol university scholarship @ university of bristol s engineering faculty, co-located merchant venturers technical college. shortly before completed degree in 1921, sat entrance examination st john s college, cambridge. passed, , awarded £70 scholarship, fell short of amount of money required live , study @ cambridge. despite having graduated first class honours bachelor of science degree in engineering, economic climate of post-war depression such unable find work engineer. instead took offer study bachelor of arts degree in mathematics @ university of bristol free of charge. permitted skip first year of course owing engineering degree.

in 1923, dirac graduated, once again first class honours, , received £140 scholarship department of scientific , industrial research. along £70 scholarship st john s college, enough live @ cambridge. there, dirac pursued interests in theory of general relativity, interest had gained earlier student in bristol, , in nascent field of quantum physics, under supervision of ralph fowler. 1925 1928 held 1851 research fellowship royal commission exhibition of 1851. completed phd in june 1926 first thesis on quantum mechanics submitted anywhere. continued research in copenhagen , göttingen.

family

paul dirac wife in copenhagen, july 1963

dirac married margit wigner (eugene wigner s sister), in 1937. adopted margit s 2 children, judith , gabriel. paul , margit dirac had 2 children together, both daughters, mary elizabeth , florence monica.

margit, known manci, visited brother in 1934 in princeton, new jersey, native hungary and, while @ dinner @ annex restaurant met lonely-looking man @ next table. account korean physicist, y. s. kim, met , influenced dirac, says: quite fortunate physics community manci took care of our respected paul a. m. dirac. dirac published eleven papers during period 1939–46.... dirac able maintain normal research productivity because manci in charge of else.

personality

dirac known among colleagues precise , taciturn nature. colleagues in cambridge jokingly defined unit called dirac , 1 word per hour. when niels bohr complained did not know how finish sentence in scientific article writing, dirac replied, taught @ school never start sentence without knowing end of it. criticised physicist j. robert oppenheimer s interest in poetry: aim of science make difficult things understandable in simpler way; aim of poetry state simple things in incomprehensible way. 2 incompatible.

dirac himself wrote in diary during postgraduate years concentrated solely on research, , stopped on sunday, when took long strolls alone.

an anecdote recounted in review of 2009 biography tells of werner heisenberg , dirac sailing on ocean liner conference in japan in august 1929. both still in twenties, , unmarried, made odd couple. heisenberg ladies man flirted , danced, while dirac— edwardian geek , biographer graham farmelo puts it—suffered agonies if forced kind of socialising or small talk. why dance? dirac asked companion. when there nice girls, pleasure, heisenberg replied. dirac pondered notion, blurted out: but, heisenberg, how know beforehand girls nice?

according story told in different versions, friend or student visited dirac, not knowing of marriage. noticing visitor s surprise @ seeing attractive woman in house, dirac said, is... wigner s sister . margit dirac told both george gamow , anton capri in 1960s husband had said, allow me present wigner s sister, wife.

another story told of dirac when first met young richard feynman @ conference, said after long silence, have equation. have 1 too? .

after presented lecture @ conference, 1 colleague raised hand , said don t understand equation on top-right-hand corner of blackboard . after long silence, moderator asked dirac if wanted answer question, dirac replied not question, comment.

dirac noted personal modesty. called equation time evolution of quantum-mechanical operator, first write down, heisenberg equation of motion . physicists speak of fermi–dirac statistics half-integer-spin particles , bose–einstein statistics integer-spin particles. while lecturing later in life, dirac insisted on calling former fermi statistics . referred latter einstein statistics reasons, explained, of symmetry .

religious views

heisenberg recollected conversation among young participants @ 1927 solvay conference einstein , planck s views on religion between wolfgang pauli, heisenberg , dirac. dirac s contribution criticism of political purpose of religion, appreciated lucidity bohr when heisenberg reported him later. among other things, dirac said:

i cannot understand why idle discussing religion. if honest—and scientists have be—we must admit religion jumble of false assertions, no basis in reality. idea of god product of human imagination. quite understandable why primitive people, more exposed overpowering forces of nature today, should have personified these forces in fear , trembling. nowadays, when understand many natural processes, have no need such solutions. can t life of me see how postulate of almighty god helps in way. see assumption leads such unproductive questions why god allows misery , injustice, exploitation of poor rich , other horrors might have prevented. if religion still being taught, no means because ideas still convince us, because of want keep lower classes quiet. quiet people easier govern clamorous , dissatisfied ones. easier exploit. religion kind of opium allows nation lull wishful dreams , forget injustices being perpetrated against people. hence close alliance between 2 great political forces, state , church. both need illusion kindly god rewards—in heaven if not on earth—all have not risen against injustice, have done duty quietly , uncomplainingly. precisely why honest assertion god mere product of human imagination branded worst of mortal sins.

heisenberg s view tolerant. pauli, raised catholic, had kept silent after initial remarks, when asked opinion, said: well, our friend dirac has got religion , guiding principle there no god , paul dirac prophet. everybody, including dirac, burst laughter.

later in life, dirac s views towards idea of god less acerbic. author of article appearing in may 1963 edition of scientific american, dirac wrote:

it seems 1 of fundamental features of nature fundamental physical laws described in terms of mathematical theory of great beauty , power, needing quite high standard of mathematics 1 understand it. may wonder: why nature constructed along these lines? 1 can answer our present knowledge seems show nature constructed. have accept it. 1 perhaps describe situation saying god mathematician of high order, , used advanced mathematics in constructing universe. our feeble attempts @ mathematics enable understand bit of universe, , proceed develop higher , higher mathematics can hope understand universe better.

in 1971, @ conference meeting, dirac expressed views on existence of god. dirac explained existence of god justified if improbable event have taken place in past:

it extremely difficult start life. might difficult start life has happened once among planets... let consider, conjecture, chance life starting when have got suitable physical conditions 10. don t have logical reason proposing figure, want consider possibility. under conditions ... life not have started. , feel under conditions necessary assume existence of god start off life. like, therefore, set connexion between existence of god , physical laws: if physical laws such start off life involves excessively small chance, not reasonable suppose life have started blind chance, there must god, , such god showing influence in quantum jumps taking place later on. on other hand, if life can start , not need divine influence, there no god.

dirac did not commend himself definite view, described possibilities answering question of god in scientific manner.

honours

dirac shared 1933 nobel prize physics erwin schrödinger discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory . dirac awarded royal medal in 1939 , both copley medal , max planck medal in 1952. elected fellow of royal society in 1930, honorary fellow of american physical society in 1948, , honorary fellow of institute of physics, london in 1971. received inaugural j. robert oppenheimer memorial prize in 1969. dirac became member of order of merit in 1973, having turned down knighthood did not want addressed first name.

death

dirac s grave in roselawn cemetery, tallahassee, florida. buried wife manci (margit wigner). daughter mary elizabeth dirac, died 20 january 2007, buried next them not shown in photograph.



the commemorative marker in westminster abbey.

in 1984, dirac died in tallahassee, florida, , buried @ tallahassee s roselawn cemetery. dirac s childhood home in bristol commemorated blue plaque , nearby dirac road named in recognition of links city. commemorative stone erected in garden in saint-maurice, switzerland, town of origin of father s family, on 1 august 1991. on 13 november 1995 commemorative marker, made burlington green slate , inscribed dirac equation, unveiled in westminster abbey. dean of westminster, edward carpenter, had refused permission memorial, thinking dirac anti-christian, (over five-year period) persuaded relent.