ferrous's review against another edition
4.0
Although the Feynman Lectures are not always well-pitched for their intended undergraduate audience, the author's explanations of many physics topics are unsurpassed. The writing is lucid, well-structured and authoritative, and only let down a little by Feynman's occasional failure to appreciate the difficulty of the concepts he is setting out.
scottkirkwood's review against another edition
5.0
I have the boxed set, Volume I & II. Volume two is tough going, but I truly love that I now know how the world works at a much deeper level.
david_reads_books's review against another edition
5.0
This is the absolute best physics book(s) ever. If you read the bio's for the US Physics Team, you will regularly find the sharpest high school minds have been inspired by reading Feynman's Lectures. It is inconceivable that one single person, Richard Feynman, can know/understand this amount of material and explain it all so thoroughly. You really need to have taken Physics already prior to diving into these volumes to fully appreciate the clarity that Feynman conveys on these topics.
You can actually see this entire 3-volume series online at https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
Feynman has another book called "Six Easy Pieces", which is directly taken from these lectures:
Six Easy Pieces (1994)
Chapters:
Atoms in motion = Lectures Chapter 1
Basic Physics = Lectures Chapter 2
The relation of physics to other sciences = Lectures Chapter 3
Conservation of energy = Lectures Ch 4
The theory of gravitation = Lectures Chapter 7
Quantum behavior = Lectures Chapter 37
You can actually see this entire 3-volume series online at https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
Feynman has another book called "Six Easy Pieces", which is directly taken from these lectures:
Six Easy Pieces (1994)
Chapters:
Atoms in motion = Lectures Chapter 1
Basic Physics = Lectures Chapter 2
The relation of physics to other sciences = Lectures Chapter 3
Conservation of energy = Lectures Ch 4
The theory of gravitation = Lectures Chapter 7
Quantum behavior = Lectures Chapter 37
marlene8020's review against another edition
4.0
Fairly easy to take in, hard to retain. Chapters vary widely in difficulty.
4+ stars instead of 5 because really I think this should be listened to, not read. A lot of Feynman’s charm is lost and equations are harder to take in in text form. Nevertheless, it’s probably as enjoyable and easy to read as a textbook is going to get.
4+ stars instead of 5 because really I think this should be listened to, not read. A lot of Feynman’s charm is lost and equations are harder to take in in text form. Nevertheless, it’s probably as enjoyable and easy to read as a textbook is going to get.
joao_melo's review against another edition
4.0
I have some mixed feelings about this book. I read it as a third year undergraduate student of Physics, so, I new most (if not all) of the content presented here, however, this was originally intended as an introductory book for someone who has just finnished secondary school. Therefore I must take into consideration both view points.
This book presents introductory physics in a completely different way than the classical textbooks of the matter, and has its advantages and disadvantages, and because of its vast extent there were various different degrees of quality throughout the book. Some things were absolutely extraordinary, bortherline genius ways to teach the fundamental ideas like his chapters on vectors, rotation and the second law of thermodynamics. Other chapters were more akin to a regular presentation of the topic, the harmonic oscilator for instance is one of those.
However, some ideas were only really suitable for someone who already knows the subject at hand, because they may be very clever and insightful but, there are far from clear for a begginer, this was the cases with the conservation of linear momentum and the conservation of energy. Unfortunately, some ideas have not aged very well, because of revision in the way we view the world, like his discussion of relativistc mass, a concept which has been almost completely abandoned, or the fact that quarks had not yet been discovered at the time of writing, so he mentions many times the fact the they did not understand the structure of hadrons, when in fact we already have that knowledge in the present.
All in all, I think it is definitely a must read if you are already familiar with the ideas presented here, because it is a completely different way of approaching these topics, which is sure to teach you a lot (my case). On the other hand, I cannot recommend this book to its originally intended audience, the fact that this approach is completely different makes some ideas really hard to follow if you are not already familiar with the topic, however, some chapters are really good and can serve this purpose. The lack of exercises and examples of application also contributes to this idea.
My real rating would have to be 4/5 for someone who already is familiar with these subjects and 3/5 for someone unfamiliar with them.
This book presents introductory physics in a completely different way than the classical textbooks of the matter, and has its advantages and disadvantages, and because of its vast extent there were various different degrees of quality throughout the book. Some things were absolutely extraordinary, bortherline genius ways to teach the fundamental ideas like his chapters on vectors, rotation and the second law of thermodynamics. Other chapters were more akin to a regular presentation of the topic, the harmonic oscilator for instance is one of those.
However, some ideas were only really suitable for someone who already knows the subject at hand, because they may be very clever and insightful but, there are far from clear for a begginer, this was the cases with the conservation of linear momentum and the conservation of energy. Unfortunately, some ideas have not aged very well, because of revision in the way we view the world, like his discussion of relativistc mass, a concept which has been almost completely abandoned, or the fact that quarks had not yet been discovered at the time of writing, so he mentions many times the fact the they did not understand the structure of hadrons, when in fact we already have that knowledge in the present.
All in all, I think it is definitely a must read if you are already familiar with the ideas presented here, because it is a completely different way of approaching these topics, which is sure to teach you a lot (my case). On the other hand, I cannot recommend this book to its originally intended audience, the fact that this approach is completely different makes some ideas really hard to follow if you are not already familiar with the topic, however, some chapters are really good and can serve this purpose. The lack of exercises and examples of application also contributes to this idea.
My real rating would have to be 4/5 for someone who already is familiar with these subjects and 3/5 for someone unfamiliar with them.
stevex's review against another edition
3.0
This collection is a set of recordings of Feynman's first presentation of his famous re-interpretation of the freshman physics lectures on quantum mechanics, recorded at Caltech in 1961. I got the audiobooks, with the intention of listening to them in the car, and absorbing some physics as I drove.
Well... it was a nice idea, but the reality is that, to put it in mathematical terms, (level of concentration required to follow the audiobook) + (level of concentration required to drive the car safely) > (quantity of concentration I have available). So something had to give - either drive the car into a tree, or find a more relaxed place to listen.
The trouble is, even then, that some of the lectures just don't work terribly well as audio-only. They might have been bearable as videos, where you can see what Feynman is writing, but hearing him rapidly talk his way through what he is writing, try to keep all of the equations in mind and still follow the lecture is not very comfortable.
Some of the pieces are easier to follow than others - the lectures on Gravity and Motion are OK, but Amplitude, for example, is an auditory snake-pit of writhing equations.
If your applied maths or physics experience is recent, you might fare better, but it's (harrumphety-mumble) years since I needed to differentiate or integrate anything, so I'm going to call this a failed experiment and resort to the book, the rather optimistically named, "Six Easy Pieces"
I was also a little disappointed in Feyman's presentation - for someone who comes across in print, and on TV, as a very engaging and humourous person, the Feynman of these lectures is a bit mumbly and dull, to be honest.
Well... it was a nice idea, but the reality is that, to put it in mathematical terms, (level of concentration required to follow the audiobook) + (level of concentration required to drive the car safely) > (quantity of concentration I have available). So something had to give - either drive the car into a tree, or find a more relaxed place to listen.
The trouble is, even then, that some of the lectures just don't work terribly well as audio-only. They might have been bearable as videos, where you can see what Feynman is writing, but hearing him rapidly talk his way through what he is writing, try to keep all of the equations in mind and still follow the lecture is not very comfortable.
Some of the pieces are easier to follow than others - the lectures on Gravity and Motion are OK, but Amplitude, for example, is an auditory snake-pit of writhing equations.
If your applied maths or physics experience is recent, you might fare better, but it's (harrumphety-mumble) years since I needed to differentiate or integrate anything, so I'm going to call this a failed experiment and resort to the book, the rather optimistically named, "Six Easy Pieces"
I was also a little disappointed in Feyman's presentation - for someone who comes across in print, and on TV, as a very engaging and humourous person, the Feynman of these lectures is a bit mumbly and dull, to be honest.
charleshb's review against another edition
5.0
Quantum mechanics is a challenging subject in and of itself. It's even more challenging by audio book without being able to see the equations and diagrams Prof. Feynman was writing on the boards or otherwise displaying during his lectures. Luckily I found a website with the original course handouts and scanned pdfs of a student's class notes: http://www.feynmanlectures.info/FLP_Original_Course_Notes/ !