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jfmirab2's review against another edition
5.0
After a long time (what was it, almost a year?) of reading three or four lectures at a time, I've finished at least a first pass through the Feynman Lectures! There's no such thing as being done with these lectures (I'm already back into the first, skimming through things again) which seem to take more and more brilliant shades on with increasing intuition. If Feynman wasn't the greatest mind of the 20th century, then I'd at least wager he was the sharpest, and the most empathetic to the learner. His friendly examples and ability to link disparate examples within physics together absolutely astounds.
I'm learning physics in a bad generation, I'm sure of it. Reading Feynman's teachings makes me nostalgic for a community of particle physicists I've only ever met in pages.
I'm learning physics in a bad generation, I'm sure of it. Reading Feynman's teachings makes me nostalgic for a community of particle physicists I've only ever met in pages.
librocubicularist_jess's review against another edition
99% went over my head. I tried!
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
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
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.