Product Description

Essentials of Physics explained by its most brilliant teacher, Richard P. Feynman. Taken from his famous Lectures on Physics. An ideal introduction to the fundamentals of physics by one of the most admired and accessible scientists of our time. DLC: Physics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #157912 in Books
• Published on: 1994-11-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

From Library Journal
This book reprints the six easiest chapters from Feynman's celebrated Lectures on Physics (LJ 12/15/63), which the Nobel Prize-winning scientist delivered from 1961 to 1963 at the California Institute of Technology. Intended for as wide an audience as possible, these chapters are primarily qualitative in nature, with a minimum of formal mathematics. They discuss atoms, basic physics, the relation of physics to other sciences, the conservation of energy, gravitation, and quantum behavior. While this informative work provides a relevant historical perspective on the essentials of physics, the result is somewhat superficial. Nonetheless, because Lectures on Physics is out of print and because the information is still relevant, reprinting these specific chapters was probably a realistic move. The material will be readily understood by scholars, physics students, and informed lay readers. Recommended for academic and public libraries. (Audio tape and CD packages are also available.)-Donald G. Frank, Harvard Univ. Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Richard P. Feynman (1918-88) was one of this century's most brilliant and original thinkers. He taught at Cornell and the California Institute of Technology and received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in quantum electrodynamics. Books by Feynman published by Penguin include QED, and THE CHARACTER OF PHYSICAL LAW. Forthcoming: THE MEANING OF IT ALL (May 98) and SIX NOT-SO-EASY PIECES (September 98).

Customer Reviews

Feynman as an excellent teacher
From 1961 to 1963, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman delivered a set of lectures to classes in basic physics. By design, the contents of the lectures were transcribed, with the goal being the creation of a set of materials that could be used worldwide in the teaching of physics. Unlike so many abstract scientists, Feynman was an excellent teacher, able to explain the principles by using everyday analogies and without appeal to advanced mathematics. This book is a collection of six of those lectures, chosen for their appeal to the general reader.
The titles and topics of the lectures are:

i) Atoms In Motion - an examination of the atomic theory of matter and how atoms react with each other.
ii) Basic physics - the history of physics before and after the discovery of quantum mechanics.
iii) The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences - how physics can be used to explain chemical, biological, geological and astronomical phenomena.
iv) Conservation of energy - the fundamental principle of conservation of energy, and how energy can change form.
v) The Theory of Gravitation - the development of the theory of gravity from Kepler to Einstein.
vi) Quantum behavior - an explanation of some simple thought experiments demonstrating the weirdness of quantum behavior.

Feynman is also honest with his audience in saying that in many cases, the mechanism is not known.
Since the lectures were delivered forty years ago, many advances have been made. However, they still remain an excellent introduction to the basic principles of physics and can be read and understood by anyone interested in how the universe functions. They can also still be used as primer material in a basic physics course.

A few more tries like this and even I will begin to get it
If you have been reading the reviews of this book you might be beginning to suspect that this book is a great place to start. You're right. Feynman uses easy to understand examples and relates them very well to his subject matter.
After I saw the 10 year anniversary edition to "A Breif History of Time" I felt guilty and I read my 10 year old copy. I should have read this book first. I would have been much better prepared to read the other. Both books were great but Feynman did a better job of relating the scientific to the mundane.

It's True, This Isn't For Physicists (It's For Educators)
As a college physics teacher, and like many other reviewers, I too found the content of this abridged version of Feynman's famous lectures not worth the price of the book, but as I listened to the tapes (and by the way, several are extremely poor quality), it occured to me that the brilliance that comes through is Feynman the Educator, not the Nobel Laureate, or physicist, or college professor......and from this standpoint this set is well worth both the cost and time to anyone who fancies themself as a teacher. I have degrees in education and get great reviews from my students on a regular basis, but that didn't stop me from learning a lot from Feynman about how to expand a student's perception, application, and analysis skills and for this addition to my own personal bag of skills, I thank him.