Friday, September 13, 2013

Feynman Lectures On Physics

I just read a note by Mike Gottlieb on the availability of the famous Feynman Lectures on Physics online, for free!

Not sure how long this has been available, but in case you didn't know, now you do!

Now, let me clarify something. I think this book is a classic, and advanced physics students, and graduate students, should read parts of it (or if you have time, read as much as you want). It provide quite a bit of insight into many different physics subjects.

However, as a pedagogical tool to teach physics to new students, I think this book is unsuitable and may be beyond what such students can comprehend. So if you are a freshman, or just trying to pick up some physics, you may still read it, but don't be surprised if you find it rather difficult to learn from. It is one of the reasons why this book isn't a popular intro physics text in most schools.

Zz.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I read QED over the summer.. I got through the first part OK.. Pushed myself through the rest with little understanding.

Buddha Buck said...

I have heard a (possibly apocryphal) story that when Feynman was giving the lectures, over the course of the semester more and more upperclassmen, graduate students, and faculty came to the lecture hall while fewer and fewer of the actual enrolled students showed up. The audience size remained the same, so it took Feynman a long time to realize what was going on.

I unfortunately lost my copy of VolIII a decade ago, and have been unable to replace it.