Each January, I scamper out of the basement and talk to folks during MIT's Independent Activities Period. The Alumni Association is the sponsor (no one from the physics or math department is inviting me).

My hope is to limit the jargon but point out different branches of physics.  Sometime around 2:30 on Friday, I will create a Google Hangout, so if you wish to tune in, find me on Google+ and hopefully I can get that to work and maybe even record it.  To be honest, I have made little progress on the software due to the craziness of everyday life, but I am liking my minimal-jargon out line of mathematical physics.


Here is the description of the session.


Relativistic Quantum Field Theory as a 3D Blender Game
Douglas Sweetser '84
Jan/23 Fri  03:00PM-05:00PM
32-124
Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required (18 folks so far)

This is a new project. The stretch goal is to make the unreachable algebra that drives mathematical physics into a game that can be played on a phone ("So that is what it means to get a hydrogen atom 'excited'"). A sense of what equations are key to relativistic QFT will be sketched (no quizzes). I will explain its odd starting position using the quaternion group Q8 and avoiding the real number line. Stories of battles between the blender game engine and python will be shared. We will put on 3D glasses and look at a few simple things.

Doug Sweetser '84
Course 7 and Course 10