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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/ !
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