B1,+Watkins,+Silas,+Paul+Dirac

**Paul Dirac (1902-1984) **
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**Early Life**
Paul Dirac was born Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac on August 8th, 1902, in Bristol, England. His father was a Swiss man named Charles Adrien Ladislas Dirac and his mother was an English woman named Florence Hannah Holten Dirac. Paul received his secondary education at the Merchant Venturer's Secondary School, and continued to Bristol University at the age of 16. After 3 years of studying electrical engineering, he earned his B.Sc in engineering. Without a job, Dirac decided to return to college to study further. He studied mathematics for 2 years, eventually wining a scholarship award and moving to Cambridge University to continue his studies.

**Scientific Work**
It was here that Dirac became interested in the use of mathematics to explain atomic physics. He earned his Ph.D from a paper he wrote in 1925, called "The Fundamental Equations of Quantum Mechanics". Dirac explored this topic in several other papers that he published during hisyears at Cambridge, and the years following. Dirac strived to unify the great equations of Einstein, Heisenberg, and Schrodinger, and to explain how light and electrons could both act as subatomic particles and as waves. He acheived this when he created his famous wave equation, which unified special relativity and quantum mechanics, and allowed subatomic particles to act as waves. Throughout his life, Dirac also created the Fermi-Dirac statistics, conducted research on the d-function, fundamental length, and the theoretical magnetic monopole. However, it was in the late 1920's-early 1930's, work ing together with Heisenberg, when Dirac's work with quantum physics would lead him what would possibly become his greatest discovery.

**Antimatter**
While working with the quantum mechanics of the electron, Paul Dirac realized that there was a flaw in Einstein's famed equation E=mc2, because the correct algebraic form of the equation is E=±mc2 (This is due to the fact that to solve this equation one must take the square root of a quantity, which always introduces the possibility of a negative square root as well as a positive one.) Because the equation has both a negative and a positive solution, this meant that for every electron there must have to have be another subatomic particle with the same mass and size, but with an opposite charge. The positron, an electron-like particle with a positive charge, fit this description perfectly. The positron was actually discovered in the lab a few years after Dirac had predicted it. Along with this, antiprotons and antimatter were also discovered, as well as the process of cancellation, or anihilation (also predicted by Dirac), which caused both antiparticles and particles to destroy each other and release energy when they came in contact.



**Antimatter in Today's Science**
The discovery of antimatter by Dirac allowed for the use of this substance as an energy source. Antimatter engines use the controlled collisions of matter and antimatter to create a steady release of energy to create propulsion. In theory, they have the potential power to send humans to distant bodies in space quickly and efficiently, and according to Gerald Jackson of Hbar Technologie s, just 30 milligram of antimatter could fuel a starship to pluto.

**Interesting Facts**
 * Paul Dirac was a very socially awkward man. He was very disinterested in regular conversation, and had the habit of answering questions with short answers of "yes," "no," or "I don't know." Some people have hypothesized that he suffered from Asperger's syndrome, a illness that is related to autism, but may only make someone very unaccustomed to normal social behavior, and may also grant the person incredible mental ability.
 * Dirac did talk at length, but it was only during his long scientific lectures.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">His brother committed suicide while Paul was in graduate school.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">He spoke English, French, German, and Russian.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">His father was psychologically abusive.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">He had a wife, a son, and three daughters by the time he died.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Dirac died on October 20, 1984, in Tallahassee, Florida.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Dirac was an Atheist.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Achievements and Honors**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">Paul Dirac was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1930.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">He was given the title of the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University in 1932.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">He was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1933 for his discovery of the positron.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1946.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">He was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1952.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Dirac's wave equation (also referred to simply as the Dirac equation,) was etched in the stone of Westminster Abbey, an honor that is distinctive only to this equation. The equation remains there to this day.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Graham Farmelo wrote a biography on Dirac in 2009.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Quotes**

 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">"God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">"I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They are in opposition."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">"I should like to suggest to you that the cause of all the economic troubles is that we have an economic system which tries to maintain an equality of value between two things, which it would be better to recognise from the beginning as of unequal value."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">"Pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> " In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Helpful Links for Readers**
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/dirac-bio.html http://www.bookrags.com/biography/paul-adrien-maurice-dirac/ http://www.nndb.com/people/314/000072098/ http://www.lbl.gov/abc/Antimatter.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nca-jgg5mA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45KGS1Ro-sc&feature=related

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**Sources** http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/dirac-bio.html http://www.butterflyeffect.ca/Close/Pages/PaulDirac.html http://www.economist.com/node/12970834?story_id=12970834 http://www.bookrags.com/biography/paul-adrien-maurice-dirac/ "Physics of the Impossible" By Dr. Michio Kaku, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/books/review/Gilder-t.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nndb.com/people/314/000072098/ http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/paul_dirac.html http://www.nndb.com/people/314/000072098/