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A review by joao_melo
The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol 1 by Richard P. Feynman
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.