The Feynman Lectures on Physics Complete Set v. 1-3 by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands, Addison Wesley, 1998. ISBN:0201021153
This is the complete set of the Feynman Lectures on Physics given by Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman at the California Institute of Technology to all students who needed knowledge of physics beyond school level. The Feynman Lectures on Physics were brought to publication through careful editing by his colleagues Leighton and Sands.
- "I find that teaching and the students keep life going, and I would never accept any position in which somebody has invented a happy situation for me where I don't have to teach. Never." - Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman was a great researcher and teacher who had no equal in his passion for physics, and he shows it to the full in the Feynman Lectures on Physics. The first few lectures discuss physics as a whole and how it relates to the other sciences, Science and philosophy students are fortunate in having these lectures, which remain an unequalled introduction to physics at a university level.
Feynman's lectures on physics - complete
Some of the Feynman Lectures on Physics have been released in best-selling popular physics books (e.g. Six Easy Pieces); but every lecture is worth reading, and there are over a hundred in this complete set.
One of the best aspects of the complete set is the explanation of the mathematics needed to develop the equations of physics. You get to understood the mathematics through Feynman's brilliant explanations, rather than having to suffer an inferior school textbook.
For example, in one lecture Feynman introduces calculus by showing exactly how differentiation and integration work in the world of Newtonian mechanics. You are not beset with excess mathematical formalism, just shown how mathematics applies to the physical world. After that any fear of mathematics should be defeated.
From the basics of mechanics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism; through relativity and up to a superb account of quantum mechanics, the Feynman Lectures on Physics lead the physics student to a base camp for an assault on the heights of physics research. Alternatively, Feynman gives other scientists a solid physics backbone, and general readers a joyous account at a level far above the popular science pot-boilers.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics has garnered over 100 reader reviews on Amazon and Amazon UK, most of them extremely positive.
- "Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it."
- R. Feynman
Feynman Lectures on Physics links:
Nanosystem lecture - a later feynman lecture on this new area of technology
Richard Feynman biography - from the St. Andrews site.
Nobel prize lecture on the offical Nobel prize site.
Richard Feynman on teaching from the pitt.edu site.
Richard Feynman on mathematics textbooks - a hilarious account of Feynman's attempt to find a good school textbook.
Feynman Lectures on Physics Online - including all the original questions on the CalTech course, with answers.