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"Principia" for our times
Isaac Newton wrote "Principia" in the 1600's, and it was the definitive book on Physics, although it is basically unreadable. (Now, of course, it is also slightly outdated.) Feynman has done a better and muchmore complete job than Newton himself.

Having said this, this is NOT abook for the layman. It appears simple: heavily conceptual, few equations,no homework problems at the end of each chapter. But this is deceiving. Asan undergraduate physics student, I was completely lost. It was only as agraduate student in physics that I came to not only appreciate them, butlove them.It turned out to not be just me: I later read that hisundergraduate students at Cal Tech dropped the course in droves when hetaught it; it was the graduate students and fellow physics faculty membersthat filled most of the seats in the lecture hall by the end of the course.

Those of you with a physics background that have never read Feynmanshould definitely consider it. Those of you who majored in History, Law, oreven Biology and want to gain some insight into all this physics stuff youhave always heard about should probably look elsewhere. This is heavystuff.

Feynman's typical excitement and enthusiasm are evident.
In this collection of audio lectures on advanced quantum mechanics and related topics, Richard Feynman exhibits his typical excitement and enthusiasm for the subject he knew so well.These lectures are bestlistened to while viewing the text version of the Feynman Lectures, as thetopics are complex and difficult to conceptualize without the printed page. The pages, however, really come to life when you actually hear Feynmangive the lectures.A much fuller picture of quantum mechanics is obtainedthan by employing the text or the tape separately.These publicationsconstitute a wonderful way to acquirean appreciation for and an increasedknowledge of physics from one of its best teachers. ... Read more

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Richard Feynman's fame rests to a large extent on his picaresque exploits, but he was also a theoretical physicist of some significance. The discovery of the notes for his major lecture on the motion of planets around the sun, presented in this book, allows readers an insight into the workings of his mind. The book relates how the notes came to be lost, and how they came to be found again and reconstructed. The lecture concerns the fact that, when a planet or any other body arcs through space under the influence of gravity, it traces out a specific set of mathematical curves. Feynman considers why nature chooses to trace out in the sky those - and only those - elegant geometrical constructions.Amazon.com Review
Richard Feynman, the rock star of theoretical physics, has left an image that belies his nerdy side. Not many bongo-playing surfer beatniks would have spent hours of their spare time proving Newton's law of elliptical planetary motion using only plane geometry. But Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun shows that the great man did just that. Originally delivered to an introductory physics class at Caltech in 1963, this 76-minute CD and book set contains everything the math-savvy listener needs to savor the pleasures of applied math. Caltech physicist David L. Goodstein and archivist Judith R. Goodstein found the notes and tape amid another professor's papers and set to work making sense of them; unfortunately, photographs of the blackboard drawings didn't survive. The book briefly covers their find and recovery work, then presents the proof as reconstructed--crucial reading if one is to follow the lecture. There's nothing easy about it, as Feynman acknowledges in the lecture:

I am going to give what I will call an elementary demonstration. "Elementary" means that very little is required to know ahead of time in order to understand it, except to have an infinite amount of intelligence.

Customer Reviews (12)

If you are a Feynman fan
This is a lot of fun -- if.If you are pretty good at mathematical games and have a love for all things Feynman. What makes it work is the CD with Feynman giving the lecture.He goes at the speed of light, but he is always amazing, even when you have no idea what he just said!I can't imagine what it was like for the young folks trying to make sense out of what was going on. But, I bet he inspired them for the rest of their careers. He still does that to people today. If you want a sample of the Feynman magic this is a tough place to start.But do find a way to start.

Feynman's proof of the law of ellipses
First we see that planets sweep out equal areas in equal times, following Newton's easy proof. Now to prove that planets move in ellipses. Cut the orbit into infinitesimal, equiangular pieces (as seen from the sun). Each little piece of the orbit corresponds to the velocity vector at that point. Draw a velocity diagram by moving all of these velocity vectors so that they have a common origin point. Obviously, as we move around the orbit, the velocity vector will make one revolution around the origin. In fact, it will trace out a circle, as we shall now prove. The orbit is cut into infinitesimal triangles with equal angles at the sun, so clearly these triangles are similar with a scaling factor r, i.e. an area scaling factor r^2. But time is the same as area, so time also varies as r^2. The change in velocity in one of these pieces is force*time=(1/r^2)*(r^2)=independent of r, so the dv steps in the velocity diagram are all of equal size, and because of the equiangular division they all make equal angles with each other (dv parallel to PS), so the velocity vector does indeed trace out a circle, and the equiangular division of the orbit as seen from the sun translates to an equiangular division of this circle as seen from its center. Of course, the center of the circle is not the origin of the velocity vectors; in particular, the velocity vector going through the center of the circle is the longest velocity vector, so it corresponds to the position on the orbit closest to the sun (as is obvious by the law of equal areas). If we turn the orbit diagram so that this position is straight to the right of the sun, then the longest arrow in the velocity diagram points straight up, since the velocity vector drawn in the orbit diagram will of course be parallel to the tangent to the orbit. When we have advanced a given angle beyond this starting point on the orbit (as seen from the sun), the corresponding velocity vector (i.e. the tangent to the orbit at this point) is found by advancing the same angle in the velocity diagram (as seen from the center of the circle) and connecting this boundary point with the origin of the velocity vectors, and conversely. So the velocity diagram contains complete information about the tangents of the orbit, so it contains complete information about the orbit up to scaling. So the problem becomes: for any velocity diagram, to recreate the orbit. To do this we turn the velocity diagram 90 degrees to the right. To recreate the orbit we must now find a curve that is always perpendicular to the velocity vectors. This can be done as follows. For any point p on the circumference of the velocity diagram circle, draw the line connecting it to the origin O of the velocity vectors and the line connecting it to the center C of the circle. Mark the point P where the perpendicular bisector of Op cuts Cp as a point on the orbit. Now we prove that the orbit generated in this way, as p moves around the circle, is an ellipse (we assume O to be inside the circle; if it was on the boundary the orbit would be a parabola, etc.). The perpendicular bisector cuts the triangle OPp into congruent halves (SAS), making OP=Pp, so CP+OP=CP+Pp=radius of the circle=independent of p, so P traces out an ellipse with foci C and O, and the perpendicular bisector is tangent to this ellipse (because all its other points are outside of the ellipse because they have greater sum of distances to the foci), as required. QED.

Lucid explanation of Feynman's proof of the law of ellipses
The book first walks you through the works of Copernicus, Galileo, Brahe and Kepler. Then it gives a brief account of Feynman's life and his work. Then, through numerous diagrams, the authors clearly explain Feynman's ingenious proof of the law of ellipses. Finally, the book presents Feynman's lecture "The Motion of Planets Around the Sun".

It is amazing how Feynman, starting on the lines of Newton, and then not being able to follow Newton's reasoning, devised a different but elegant proof of the law of ellipses.

An Entertaining And Captivating Lecture
This Review refers to the paperback edition of Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun with audio CD.

The title of Goodstein's book, Feynman's Lost Lecture, may be a bit misleading in terms of the overall content.The book is, in truth, mainly an explanation of the elliptic patterns performed by the planets, among other things, that an unpublished Feynman lecture originally referred to (although the lecture is included in text and on CD, the lecture is only a fraction of the overall book).Goodstein provides a geometrical means of explaining elliptical patterns that even a non-physicist will find easily comprehensible, especially considering the frequency of companion diagrams.The book also includes a rather unique introduction providing a brief biography of Feynman along with the author's personal experiences related to the well-known physicist.An unexpected, but greatly appreciated, addition is Feynman's original notes regarding his lecture contained in the back of the book.

Feynman's Lost Lecture details how to use geometric proofs to find answers to problems such as the speed of a planet when in motion around the sun and how to prove geometrically that an object is an ellipse.The author properly explains and demonstrates these concepts throughout the book via written and visual examples.

Goodstein presents the topics in such a fashion that the reader can easily try for himself\herself the idea portrayed.This is generally due to a generous selection of diagrams and exemplary situations, which properly convey the ideas that Goodstein presents (although it would probably be much more beneficial if more of the diagrams accompanied Feynman's actual lecture).The main text is also of a form easily understood and more than adequately conveys the topic that the author presents.However, the literary style is slightly lacking - in that it often becomes a bit informal in description and detail.

Overall, the literary shortcomings do not interfere with the author's ability to convey the topic and makes for a rather interesting read.Yet another above-par lecture accompanied by a surprisingly above-par explanation, Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun is more than worth it's price and should be a welcome addition to any reader's (both physicists and non-physicists alike) personal library.

authors create a labour of love for Feynman
This book is a labour of love by Judith and David Goodstein for their friend Richard Feynman. I really enjoyed the revelations of the human side of the great physicist, especially the 20 page reminiscene by David Goodstein (a fellow physicist at cal tech) and Feynman's sometimes gruff answers to questions after the lecture. A different view of the human side of Feynman than what you read in "Surely, you're joking". I found the technical side of the book even more rewarding (see next paragraph) but be warned: this is pretty intense geometry and logic - I have a hard time imagining anyone without at least a couple years of post secondary math or physics or engineering following all the arguments.

But if you have the background and patience, it's some pretty cool stuff. Like many folks, I learned planetary dynamics using calculus, not geometry, and so this was my first exposure to the elegant relationship between velocity diagrams and orbits. While Feynman's lecture is somewhat unorganized and not entirely clear, the book does a great job filling in the blanks. There are certainly some rough spots (way too much time on the initial simple properties of ellipses, the argument connecting Kepler's third law to the law of gravitation is not clear, and more) but anyone with sufficient background willing to invest a few hours will be able to get past these minor problems. I kind of like how the pace accelerates to a ridiculous level by the end, leaving you to pretty much work out all the hard details of Rutherford's law of scattering for yourself.

Listen to the lecture, scratch your head wondering "what the heck was that", then read the book and study the arguments, then listen again and feel enlightened. ... Read more

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The best physics textbook ever written
I don't know if I can add much to the many excellent reviews already written, but this set is quite simply the best.The first volume is wonderfully un-orthodox in its presentation of classical physics, doing physics the way Feynman does it.Even the chapters on stat. mech. and thermodynamics, which are usually so dull in texts, is fascinating, and one is just riveted to the book, waiting to see how he will treat the next topic.Despite Feynamn's statement in the preface that his educational experiment failed in the second and third volumes, these too are classics.The second treats classical E and M, at what nowadays is at least at the Junior/Senior level, and in some parts (notably electron self-energy) even covers graduate material.All throughout the book is filled with his charm and spirit of adventure.Finally, the third volume is a highly un-orthodox intro to quantum mechanics. This is the only text I know which has been able to cover QM simply and yet completely, with classic sections on the two-slit experiment. In short, every serious physicist should have these volumes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Marvelous
Feynman is a true American genius with a wit and charm that sets him apart from the rest of us pedestrians. A hilarious adventure into the mind of a "Curious Character"... thank God he walked among us.

I admire Feynman and liked the book, but...
While the first four or five CDs are engaging and (as Feynman would say) very interesting, I found the second half somewhat tedious. His comments on physics decrease steadily throughout the book and the last half is taken up with his adventures in nightclubs and playing music in Brazil.

The voice talent is great -- he may not sound like Feynman but he reads the words like a highly intelligent 12-year-old boy, which captures Feynman perfectly.

Two WinnersFeynman and Raymond Todd
Todd, who sounds nothing like Feynman, brings easy to listen to enthusiam and wonderment to this magnificent story.

Feynman, just the single name carries the legend of this Nobel winning genius. However, the real story is the breadth of his interests and adventures. Independent thinker, he could probably have done the Challenger study alone and delivered a more useful product. His insights are priceless.

The other side is his unscientific pursuit of women. The romantic vs the reality. He studies the few single ladies available in the area of the remote nuclear labs with the same approach he took to training the ants in his room to march in a semi-circle and out the door. However, his heart and his science seem to be in eternal conflict in the romantic arean.

Feynman travels to Brazil and ends up learning tomake music with one of the hundreds of ghetto bands. Later he sits on the board that selects textbooks for California students where he is a solo voice for quality books and integrity in the acquisition process.

The story is told in a manner that is ageless and suitable for listeners of all ages. A wonderful gift for a young student wondering if scientists have any fun. For all ages the book is positive, inspirational without preaching and a joy. Highly recommended ... Read more

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Beginning with his earliest, awkward drawings of the human figure in 1962, the book displays Feynman's fascinating development of a personal artistic sensitivity to line, form and the moods of his subject; as well as his experimentation with various styles and media.
The selected artwork was produced over a 25 year period until 1987, the year before his death. It mainly consists of black and white drawings, his favourite medium, all carefully chosen by his daughter, Michelle.
This book brings together, for the first time, a collection of the artwork of Richard P. Feynman, scientist extraordinaire and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965. ... Read more

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Another side of Feynman
The amazing thing about great minds is just how many subjects they encompass. Feynman is known as a physicist and occasional drummer, but he was a fair amateur artist, too.

These drawings and paintings show how quickly he progressed, once he decided to learn drawing. I suppose it gave him yet another way to enjoy the female form, and yet another reason to habituate "gentlemen's clubs." He had other motivations, too, as shown by some very sensitive drawings of his friends and children.

This isn't great art. It is, however, very competent amateur work. Most of all, it's another view, from an unexpected angle, of one of the great minds of our time.

//wiredweird

What a find!
This is a really terrific collection. In this book are many of the little-known sketches and paintings of the late, great physicist/folk hero Richard P. Feynman. I sought this book out after reading Ralph Leighton's Feynman biography "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" I'm glad I went to the trouble to do so.

The book commences with a foreword by Albert Hibbs, whom many Feynman fans will recognize as Feynman's friend and co-author of "Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals." Don't skip over this foreword. Hibbs has a lot of interesting things to say about how visual Feynman was in all his projects, including his style of doing physics.

After the foreword is a helpful preface by Feynman's daughter Michelle. (Michelle works as a photographer, and was the primary person in charge of selecting these artworks). She describes some interesting features of Feynman family life, such as the fact that many of the models for these paintings became lifelong Feynman family friends. She gives us a fun little window into the experience of "growing up Feynman."

This book also contains Feyman's wry, interesting essay "But is it Art?" from "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!," as well as a selection of biographical sketches from four of Fenman's friends, including three artists and his biographer.

The actual sketches are really pretty good, in my humble opinion. There are about a hundred pages of black and white sketches, including charcoal, pencil, and ink wash drawings. Many are quite simple and direct. Others clearly took quite a bit of time.

Let me give you a friendly warning here, incidentally. Leafing through this section, you will go through page after page of sketches of young, beautiful women, in a variety of attractive poses. This will lead you to a pleasant, happy, blissed out frame of mind. Suddenly, with absolutely no warning whatsoever, you will turn the page and be confronted by the dilapidated, craggy, wrinkled face of an anonymous, elderly male physics professor, frowning under a ponderously furrowed unibrow, glaring out of the book at you. Be warned, O reader, and try not to have a seizure. Also included among these sketches are occasional other topics, such as Feyman's dog Rufus, and a few "one minute line drawings" (a common exercise in art classes)... Personally, I think Figure 87 is pretty neat. It includes small sketches of various subjects -- a woman, faces, a plant, a sleeping dog, and more. But there's more -- the background is full of Feynman's equations! They wind all over the place, throughout the drawing. It makes for kind of a neat juxtaposition. I could definitely see that sketch making a great poster.

After the black and white sketches are a small collection of color paintings, including a sketch of a little town, and Feynman's trusty dog Rufus.

Basically, if you are a Feynman fan, this book will go a long way toward rounding out your appreciation of him. Besides, there are some really terrific pictures in here. Two thumbs up! ... Read more

Product Description
Eagerly awaited by scientists and academics worldwide, Feynman's famous Lectures on Physics, now on CD.

Basic Books is proud to announce the next two volumes of the complete audio CD collection of the recorded lectures delivered by the late Richard P. Feynman, lectures originally delivered to his physics students at Caltech and later fashioned by the author into his classic textbook Lectures on Physics. Ranging from the most basic principles of Newtonian physics through such formidable theories as Einstein's general relativity, superconductivity, and quantum mechanics, Feynman's 111 lectures stand as a monument of clear exposition and deep insight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

not for casual listening
For those familiar with the classic 3 Vol text set, one would not expect these lectures to be suitable for the scientifically inclined layperson, nor even the average physics undergrad. But I had expected these audio lectures to be in similar format as the texts, where specific chapters can be played while on a long drive, or trying to sleep at night. First, they are disorganized, with quantum mechanics on Vol 1, while kinectics and heat are on Vol 5, etc..and he constantly refers to this diagram or that equation, as if there should video to watch along. And if you are familiar with his QED book, then imagine listening to a CD of it, with all its diagrams and illustrations. I would not recommend this for anyone who does not have accompanying notes or video. And BTW, it has helped me to go to sleep at night. Thanks Dick!!

Learn from the best- con't
We purchased this series because we checked them out from the library and decided we should own them.The _Feynman Lectures on Physics_ are great resources for you as a parent desiring to impart these concepts. Feynman explains complex ideas through very simple and entertaining stories.***** These CDs are a "must have" for roadtrips!

Use with the Feynman Lectures (Red Books) - 3 Volume Set
As other reviewers have stated this series has a few problems. The first is that the audio was copied from audio tapes as one long CD track without partitions which is a huge pain. The lectures are also all jumbled up into "topic areas", and the listener is left to align them to the chapters in the Feynman Lectures on Physics.The sections to which the commentator on the CD's refers are in these books (ISBN: 0201021153, or even better get the hardcover). If you are learning physics for the first time, you definitely want the books to go along with at the same time.

Audio Volume 3: From Crystal Structure to Magnetism
'The Feynman Lectures on Physics: From Crystal Structure to Magnetism (Feynman Lectures on Physics (Audio))'
Volume II, Chapter 30: The Internal Geometry of Crystals
Volume II, Chapter 32: Refractive Index of Dense Materials
Volume II, Chapter 39: Elastic Materials
Volume II, Chapter 10: Dielectrics
Volume II, Chapter 11: Inside Dielectrics
Volume II, Chapter 34: The Magnetism of Matter

Audio Volume 4: Electrical and Magnetic Behavior
'The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. 4 : Electrical and Magnetic Behavior'
Volume III, Chapter 13: Propagation in a Crystal Lattice
Volume III, Chapter 14: Semiconductors
Volume III, Chapter 15: The Independent Particle Approximation
Volume III, Chapter 21: The Schrödinger Equation in a Classical Context: A Seminar on Superconductivity
Volume II, Chapter 35: Paramagnetism and Magnetic Resonance
Volume II, Chapter 36: Ferromagnetism

Thanks to Autodidact Andy for the contents list (taken from his How To List on the cassette versions).

5 Stars for sure but here is a caveat before you buy
There is no way you can follow these lectures UNLESS you have the books (R.P Feynman lectures on Physics Vols 1-3) in front of you or maybe you can follow them if you are smarter than RPF himself, which is unlikely (otherwise i'd be reading your book). Anyway, the reason for this is there is a lot of formulae and explaining happening on the black board and RPF talks pretty fast with his sharp brooklyn accent. So, have the book and chapter he is talking about in front of you and pay attention to what he is saying and frequently pause to digest what he has said and you'll appreciate the lectures more. It may not be possible to understand everything he says in his books, let alone in the audio, which makes it difficukt understanding when you are not in possession of his books. But the CD's are a blast to listen to, EXCEPT the people who produced the CD's should be impaled on some sharp object because each CD has ONE track from start to finish. So to go back or skip sections is a real pain.

If you liked the book then try this......
If you are looking for a laymans' basic physics primer, look somewhere else! If you have a background in the material and are looking for a review or for alternative views of the subject then this is appropriate.

I first read the "Feynman Lectures" (in book form) during thefirst year of my physics studies. They struck me then, and still do, as offering inspired and inspiring insight from a first class brain.

To hear him speak, after reading so much of his material through the years is a real kick. At first I couldn't imagine how one could hear the lectures without the written material in support. Although I think that this material is in fact best absorbed in conjunction with the written Lectures, yet these tapes are a pleasurable and thoughtful listen all by themself. ... Read more

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Few would argue that Richard Feynman was one of the greatest American-born theoretical physicists of the twentieth century, and fewer still would dispute that he was the most iconoclastic. In the words of the eminent mathematician Mark Kac, geniuses are of two kinds: the ordinary, and the magicians. Feynman was a magician of the highest caliber. No one could guess how his mind worked, how he could make transcendental leaps of the imagination so fearlessly. A true original, Feynman was both an inspired, Nobel-prize winning pioneer, and a born showman. He never lost sight of his vision of science as "a long history of learning how not to fool ourselves."
The Beat of a Different Drum is a superb account of Feynman's life and work, encompassing a singular career that spanned from the detonation of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos to the frontiers of our understanding of the universe. The first biography to offer deep insight into both Feynman's scientific achievements and his personal life, it is written by Jagdish Mehra. An accomplished physicist and historian of science in his own right, Mehra knew Feynman for thirty years, and their friendship deeply informs all aspects of the book. Feynman invited Mehra to spend three weeks with him shortly before his death in 1988, and after Feynman died, following a ten year battle against cancer, Mehra interviewed almost eighty of his friends and colleagues. They share their recollections of Feynman from his precocious childhood in Queens, New York, to his final days, painting an unforgettable portrait of a scientist who insisted throughout his life on taking the whole of nature as the arena of his science and his imagination. Mehra writes clearly and comprehensively about the theoretical and technical aspects of Feynman's achievements: his crucial role in the development of the atomic bomb; his association with Hans Bethe at Cornell, where he worked out his famous path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, and went on to develop the Feynman diagrams, so ubiquitous in quantum field theory, elementary particle physics, and statistical mechanics; and the full range and depth of his work from 1950 until shortly before his death at the California Institute of Technology.
Here, too, are intimate glimpses into the development of Feynman's inner life, including his devoted relationship with his extraordinary father, a self-taught uniform salesman, and his first marriage, to his boyhood sweetheart, Arline, whom he married knowing that she had only a short time to live. Feynman was an eyewitness to some of this century's key moments of scientific discovery, and Mehra devotes an entire chapter to Feynman's more philosophical reflections on the implications of these discoveries. Flamboyant and impatient, but dedicated to his vision of a better world through cooperation and the fearless pursuit of scientific truth, Feynman emerges here as a genius whom fellow Nobel laureate Julian Schwinger remembered as "an honest man; the outstanding intuitionist of our age and a prime example of what may lie in store for anyone who dares to follow the beat of a different drum." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Let's Talk a Little About the History of Science Because Jagdish Mehra Wrote the Book On it
My dad ,Jagdish Mehra, passed away on September 14, 2008 . He was Richard Feynman's only official biographer . He authored and edited a lot of books!Jagdish Mehra was awarded both the Humboldtand Leibniz prizes for physics. He lectured all over the world . He knew these scientists of the twentieth century personally. He interviewed more physicists and men and women of letters than anyone . I know because I was there - Mead , Huxley , Galbraith, Macleish , Rao, C P Snow. Hechronicled what he called "The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics". He lived for his work and he worked hard. I remember watching a lecture of his at the University of Texas- the hall was packed,standing room only . You could hear a pin drop as this brilliant man , armed with first hand knowledge and an array of stunning equations, held the room in the palm of his hand.He had what the great thinkers of his time said about him -the gift of " Historical Insight ".But that gift came with a huge price attached to it ! He suffered from heart disease and diabetes because he burned the candle at both ends. He knew them all- Heisenberg , Fermi ,Pauli ,Dirac ,Bohr, Feynman , Holton , Oppenheimer , Bethe, Dyson , Enz , Lamb ,Salam , Schwinger ,Sudarshan, Wigner , Wheeler , Weisskopf , Weisner, Prigogine , Casimir , Teller and Gell-Mann . It is widely known that Mehra was instrumental in Prigogine receiving the Nobel Prize! Nobody else was everywhere at once illuminating the scientific accomplishments of these physicists.These Nobel laureates enjoyed my father's company and valued his work too because no one else was chronicling in scholarly detail their accomplishments. So when I read some of these cheap shot reviews by people who are not as classically educated,witty,erudite and just plain intelligent as my dad I get a little riled up . He worked so hard to complete his History of Science and he was very proud of his Feynman biography . Let's face it - Mehra is the one that is most quoted and used as a source more than others because he was more insightful and thorough in detail.The inaccuracy of the "Library " review galls! Mehra's assistance was a sourceGleick used for his second hand book.After all it was Mehra who Feynman selected to be his scientific biographer. I too am what Feynman called "A chip of the old block" - a tiny chip at that but I would argue that my dad wrote a pretty good book about the thought process of a great physicist in "The Beat of a Different Drum". He did not like to be edited , but that was about his ego - he always thought he said it better and more precisely than others . I don't think Gleick's book is very good at all . John and Mary Gribbin do a very fine job of writing and editing their wonderful Feynman biography -"Richard Feynman-A Life in Science". If you want something highly insightful but a little easier to read than Mehra and better written than Gleick, I'd turn there . I 'll bet those who found the math tedious didn't really understand its elegance and those who found the prose too detailed and factual didn't really get the value of precision . We are not going to get another historian of science like Dr. J anytime soon.Another part of the story that I think is very important is the fact that Dr. Mehra knew Richard Feynman for thirty years and Feynman really enjoyedmy dad's brilliant conversational abilities. That intellectual interaction began at Caltech in 1958 and developed over the years. It was Hans Bethe who would almost twenty-five years later ask my dad to help Gleick ( who was four years old when Mehra and Feynman were batting around math problems and physics equations like ping-pong balls, who never knew Feynman personallyand certainly had not had deep discussions of QED with him) with a biography he was attempting . Hans Bethe knew the esteem Feynman held for Mehra and so James Gleick got valuable information from my dad -long after the story was over and had already been written, of course . Mehra's intention was to write a a detailed scientific biography complemented by his personal knowledge of Feynman's life and work and exhaustive interviews of eighty sources-something that no one else could really do and and something that no one else has ever done!! This is important work and deserves to be read by every student of Physics. As Oppenheimer said it would take a "modern day Sophocles" to chronicle the History of Quantum Theory. That is indeed correct and that is what Jagdish Mehra did .

A Port in Any Storm
This book isn't for everyone.What the-3-star-and-1-star (hoping-for-zero-stars) reviews describe is true.

I just find the unedited style somehow comforting.It make me feel less lonely.

The Science and Life -- inthat order
There are two type of reviews of this book.Those who were interested in the man from a personal, non science perspective and those who know science, areinterested and can read and understand Feynman's scientific work.Those who interested in the more entertaining books on Feynman, e.g., Gleick, and some of Feynman's own books should tread on this book lightly for it includes mathematical and scientific analysis you cannot get from the other books.On the other hand, Jagdish Medra does an excellent job in reciting some of the personal stuff between him and his father, which were crucial in forming both Feynman's personal and scientific personality. This is the only book you will get that.Mehra did not include some of the more interesting andecotes that are in Feynman's books, so it is not a complete biography despite its length and breath. If you are interested in some of Feynman's reasons for his ideas and the context of those ideas, then you must read this book.If you are not interested, for example, in Maupertuis, Lagrange, Hamilton ideas on minimum action -- you might have to skip large parts of the book because Mehra recounts Feynman's ideas in detail (including all his equations).
I have found the best way to understand science and personality (Feynman was of a temperament Inventor Rational) is to read detailed biographies of the principles -- Jagdish Mehra did excellent job with this biography, you can pick up the other details of Feynman in his own books.I am sure Richard would give Mehra five stars.

An awful compendium
The book is already out of print, which perhaps indicates a
collective wisdom of the technical readership. As others (e.g.,
"zero stars") have pointed out, this is a carelessly compiled
assortment of facts.And it is too bad, because Feynman
deserves a fine technical biography.There do exist
excellent books on Feynman's life and work.Gleick's "Genius"
is a masterful personal biography (Gleick is a fine writer
for the technically literate; e.g., see his "Chaos").
Schweber's "QED and the men who made it" is an excellent
historical presentation of QED, in which of course Feynman
plays a major role. But Mehra's book fails in all aspects.
In particular, the technical parts are disorganized and
full of errors. I gave up half way through the book in disgust.

Feynman's technical work went well beyond QED and
the introduction of path integral methods. It was
so broad that few scientific biographers could have done
it justice.Mehra failed.Pais didn't try.
Schweber has covered Feynman's early contributions well.
But there is much good writing on (and by) Feynman.
If you want to know more about Feynman's life and personality,
see "Genius", along with Ralph Leighton's wonderful 2-volume
retelling of Feynman's stories and his "Tuva or Bust".
Also, see the 1990 memorial issue of Physics Today, devoted to
his work style and relationships with his colleagues.
Feynman was often described as a "teacher's teacher," and
the 3 volume "Lectures" demonstrate that well.Feynman's
no-nonsense, intuitive approach also comes out in his
1960-era monographs "Quantum Electrodynamics" and "Theory of
Fundamental Processes", which, though written before
the Standard Model, still give a fine introduction to relativistic quantum mechanics.

Great, but only for a certain audience
Jagdish Mehra is, to be sure, not one of the great literary stylists, and his notion of historical writing is to throw in every available fact and save evaluation and historical analysis for a later date.Fair enough, I say: his is not the final word on Feynman, nor does he think so.Feynman's contribution to Quantum Electrodynamics is the central problem for any real biographer, and here Mehra is on stronger grounds.By its very nature, the book is steeped in math, and you will need to be up on calculus and Fourier expansions, not to mention the basic points of QED to read it with profit.It is good, solid history of science, but hardly a page-flipper for reading on the beach this summer. ... Read more

Product Description
This revised edition of Feynman’s legendary lectures includes extensive corrections Feynman and his colleagues received and Caltech approved, making this the definitive edition of The Feynman Lectures on Physics. For all readers interested in physics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol 1
Vol2 was ordered but Vol 1 was delivered.I decided to keep Vol 1 and place a new order for Vol 2.

Vol 1 was in excellent as-new condition and was the required edition.Delivery was as advertised. ... Read more

Product Description
Eagerly awaited by scientists and academics worldwide, Feynman's famous Lectures on Physics, now on CD

Basic Books is proud to announce the next two volumes of the complete audio CD collection of the recorded lectures delivered by the late Richard P. Feynman, lectures originally delivered to his physics students at Caltech and later fashioned by the author into his classic textbook Lectures on Physics. Ranging from the most basic principles of Newtonian physics through such formidable theories as Einstein's general relativity, superconductivity, and quantum mechanics, Feynman's 111 lectures stand as a monument of clear exposition and deep insight.

12 CDs: Total playing time: Approx. 12 hours ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Rotation, Oscillation and Light
just an extension to Alex Morgan's helpful reviews of the first six volumes. (the chapters are split to separate tracks now.)

Audio Volume 7: Feynman on Mechanics
Volume I, Chapter 19: Center of Mass, Moment of Inertia
Volume I, Chapter 20: Rotation in Space
Volume I, Chapter 21: The Harmonic Oscillator
Volume I, Chapter 24: Transients
Volume I, Chapter 25: Linear Systems and Review
Volume I, Chapter 40: The Principles of Statistical Mechanics

Audio Volume 8: Feynman on Light
Volume I, Chapter 26: Optics The Principle of Least Time
Volume I, Chapter 27: Geometrical Optics
Volume I, Chapter 28: Electromagnetic Radiation
Volume I, Chapter 29: Interference
Volume I, Chapter 30: Diffraction
Volume I, Chapter 31: The Origin of the Refractive Index

Good but it was hard to understand.
I found this lecture specifically hard to understand, because it was not design to be hear. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A genius, an artist, a musician and a safecracker....
I generally do not like to have anything read to me aloud.First of all, I tend to drift off to sleep, and, second I can't put a marker in someone's mouth and return a few hours later and have them begin again where we had left.

This audio book on CD was different. The narrator is so much fun to listen to you could swear it was the author himself reading his stories.This is an autobiography that is composed mainly of short stories and glimpses into the life of Richard Feynman, one of the minds behind the atom bomb.

His genius was quite evident as he was growing up; at a very early age he began repairing radios. First as a personal challenge and hobby, then as a way to earn a few bucks.At one point in his early career he needed some testing equipment to measure electrical resistance. He could not afford to buy the equipment so he made his own.The remarkable thing about this is he was about 10 years old when he built the testing equipment!

From his days at Los Alamos (his fame as a safecracker started here), his artistic time (you won't believe where he spent most of that time!) to the loss of his beloved first wife this book was an inspiration.I want to be just like Richard Feynman in my next life!

You should be able to pick this up at a garage sale or used book bin at finer book stores.Treat yourself to a great "read"! I have decided that it is nice to have someone else do the work for you.



... Read more

Product Description
Provides a tribute of Feynman and a new exploration of the limits of computers by some of today's most influential scientists. The contributors are all distinguished physicists and computer scientists, and many of them were guest lecturers in Feynman's famous CalTech course on the limits of computers. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

disapointing
I was quite disappointed with this book. I came from the "Feynman lectures on computation", a really enlightening book that answers fundamental questions.
Do not look for the same kind of book in the "Feynman and computation" it is a quite old and non-fundamental view of the subjects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Feynman Tapes, Volume 2 (Audio CD)
These audio CD's are much more convenient and durable than the lectures on tape.It's wonderful to be able to hear the master's voice just as if you were there in the lecture hall. Just thankful that these lectures are available on CD. I have transferred my CD's to my iPod so that I can listen whenever I have time - very convenient. ... Read more

Product Description
Quantum electrodynamics - or QED for short - is the 'strange theory' that explains how light and electrons interact. Thanks to Richard Feynman, it is also one of the rare parts of physics that is known for sure. In this lucid set of lectures, Feynman provides the definitive introduction to QED. 'It is a book to enlighten' - "Mail on Sunday". 'Marvellous...a vivid introduction to QED leavened and enlivened by his wit. Anyone with a curiosity about physics today should buy it' - "Nature". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Interesting play
This is a good play.Unfortunately I didn't see it though.When it was running in 2002, I was mentally recovering from the events of 9/11, which really threw me for a loop.I'd had emotional problems before and like a lot of people in that state, 9/11 was very traumatic.Additionally I saw the Pentagon burning from my view out the window at work in Washington D.C.

However I have read the script recently and it appears to capture Feynman pretty well.He was interested in a lot of different things and did have many unusual life experiences so the play reflects that. I think keeping it to part of one day was a good idea.One of the problems with Feynman is restricting the scope of what you say about him, b/c there is so much, and limiting the time that the play covers is one way to do that.

I hear that Alda did a really good job portraying Feynman but I have not seen that.

Alan Alda has talked about the process of "Finding Feynman" for an address he gave to Caltech in 2002, in which he described his background and the way that he and other people went about writing this play, which took many drafts b/c Feynman was "elusive," according to Alda.In this speech Alda stresses science education, which was important to Feynman, and states that he would like to see examples of education for the public in which scientists entertain and educate at the same time, or figure out ways to explain science to many people, maybe using music, or maybe not.He references detective stories and says that reading about the twists and turns that it takes to get to a successful discovery or conclusion is what's desired.Don't just present the result but show how you got there.

I have seen a good example of this and I have to say I am biased b/c my husband worked on this project but astrophysicist John C. Mather won the Nobel in 2006 with George Smoot for their measurement of the Cosmic Background Radiation via the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) project.This is an important discovery and astronomy textbooks have been rewritten to reflect it, from what I understand.My husband was one of over 1,000 people who worked on the project.He worked for three years on it and did some of the testing of some of the equipment.

This project took many years to complete and the cooperation of many different people.Mather was able to get them all to work together.All of this is documented in Mather's book, The Very First Light: The True Inside Story of the Scientific Journey Back to the Dawn of the Universe, which he co-wrote with science journalist John Boslough.However there is some drama in this book, in addition to the suspense about whether the project will work, b/c Mather and Smoot had a falling-out.Smoot is not well-regarded at NASA/Goddard, let's put it that way.

He says people have said they are exhausted after reading that book b/c of the suspense and the twists and turns and the people working on it were exhausted too.Mather has a biography on the Nobel Prize website and it is one of the longest biographies that I have ever seen :)That is b/c he seems to feel the need to thank virtually every person who significantly influenced him or helped him on his way.:)But it shows genuine gratitude and not the desire to thank people out of obligation.

My husband is mentioned by name in the appendix of the second edition of The Very First Light: The True Inside Story of the Scientific Journey Back to the Dawn of the Universe.Mather gave him an inscribed copy of the book thanking him for his work.

In addition, in his biography on the Nobel site, Mather says Feynman was one of his heroes and he stresses science education, which he is currently participating in by meeting with elementary and high school students and talking to them about their interests.And near the end he says that:

"NASA's review panels have saved our projects over and over, though we often hate to hear their opinions, and I especially thank the people who told us when we were doing things wrong. It is so much better to know about it before we push the launch button!"


This is very important and an attitude a lot of people don't have, especially once ego becomes involved, but Feynman valued this too.It is very common knowledge that Feynman investigated the Challenger disaster near the end of his life.This is an example of what you do so you don't have a disaster.You work with a lot of people in ways that show you respect them, whether they are a famous 'name' or not, and you listen to feedback even when it tells you things that you don't want to hear.Before you launch a satellite, you keep working until you get it right, not until you figure that it must be good enough b/c you've worked on this a long time.

Feynman is mentioned twice in Mather's book.Once when he says that his original career plan was to become "another Richard Feynman" and work as an elementary particle theorist. But then he realized "the job was already taken" and more importantly, there were no positions available in this work when Mather was making his career plans in 1968.Feynman is mentioned again in reference to his work on the Challenger and his O-ring demonstration on television.Mather was at NASA at that time and describes how the Challenger explosion impacted his COBE project.The Challenger is discussed briefly and mostly as it pertains to the difficulties that the explosion provides for Mather's project.It could be read as dismissive or uncaring of the impact of the explosion but I know enough about Mather from my husband's experience and what I've read to know that is not the case.It is not clear whether Feynman and Mather ever met, at NASA or anywhere else.Mather's project was unmanned so they may not have had reason to interact.

Mather and Feynman seem to have (had) a similar worldview in some ways so that is why I'm talking about him even though this play is not about him - but the book is also an example, in my opinion, about how science education could be made interesting.This book, the Very First Light, is still pretty obscure, I think.It's hard for me to judge b/c I know about it.I don't know how many people even if very interested in science have heard of it.Smoot is better known for self-promotion.

In terms of this play, one problem is that it shows he loved his first wife but it's harder to show he loved his "second" family.When you lose someone you can pour your feelings out in an expression of grief which is very moving, and is documented.When you have people in your life that you love, you can call them and say, let's go out to dinner, just because, and then have a good time.If you look at the letters it may appear you love the one who is gone, more.But those kind of letters are not necessary when the people are here to talk to.That may be one reason why getting a hold on Feynman is hard.Those are two different types of experiences, having a family vs. losing someone, and the written and visual and audio/audio-visual records don't capture well how you express caring for those in the present.In this play he does receive a call from his wife but it's hard, it's really hard to convey the emotions there vs. something that is very poignant b/c the other person is not here.That's a dilemma I would have a hard time solving, myself.But I know it does not mean his family was any less important than his first wife.But how do you show that though?It's a hard question to answer.

Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From The Beaten Track: The Letters Of Richard P. Feynman does a good job of showing his caring for his family b/c that book presents his letters but this is a play in which he is sitting in his office and presumably could talk to his family at any time, and in fact, does talk to his wife.Why would he be sitting there reading or writing letters to his family?He could, if mortality were on his mind, but an issue with that is it could become maudlin given all of the other serious/traumatic topics that are addressed.

Beyond that, I think the play describes a lot of things that were important to him, or activities he engaged in, really well.The only thing I would say could be added is his lecture series but again - he's in his office and why would that come to mind at that time?It would be a little odd unless he wanted to start preaching about scientific education and citing his lecture series as a really good way of doing that.It IS a good way, although it does not work for everyone but...preaching like that?Or congratulating himself about it?I think those lectures were recorded a fairly long time before he died and it might seem odd that that specifically would be on his mind.

Shake the Hand that Shook the Hand of John L. Sullivan...
(...I once took a course at Stanford and its instructor had once worked at CalTech.I once mentioned my interest in Richard Feynman to her and this led to her recounting her real-life encounters with him.Notably, she english-teacherly entoned "he definitely had something."By meeting with this english professor, I in effect did touch the hand that shook the hand of Richard P. Feynman. )

This is superb treatment on how light and matter interact.Suprisingly, many of these concepts prove invaluable in semiconductors, but as far as I can tell, they are not usually discussed in undergrad solid-state courses.But these Richard Feynman type concepts could easily be taught and should be taught.

Back in school, I was interviewed by an Bell-Labs/Stanford EE Ph.D. grad as part of my program's ABET certification renewal process.When I pointed out this obvious weakness in the standard EE solid-state course, this guy became angry and hostile towards me.His body language, his tone, and the words that he used suggested that I didn't know what I was talking about and I remember him saying "Teaching Semiconductor Physics can never be easy," forcefully contradicting my assertion that teaching semiconductor physics could be much simpler (and in all likelihood even easy, at least to honestly interested students).

Anyway, if one is planning to take or have taken sophmore level EE solid-state physics, I recommend reading this book.It will provide a framework that will enhance one's understanding of many solid-state concepts very quickly.And to hell with Bell-Labs and Stanford's EE hidden curriculum.

Frenetic and Fascinating
This play comes up short as a deep history (see Gleick's "Genius" for that), but does a great job of laying out in broad strokes the diverse and idiosyncratic nature of one of the recent histories' greatest minds.I wish I had been able to see Alan Alda perform this piece, because based on how it read I can imagine that he did Feynman great justice. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fascinating science biography
I'm an adult without a physics background and I found the book an interesting, informative read.LeVine does a great job of bringing Feynman to life for the reader, sharing fascinating details, and helping us appreciate what an amazing man Feynman was. I recommend the book not only for young people, but also for adults who want to know about one of the most important scientists of the 20th century, but who don't have enough physics knowledge for a more technical treatment of the subject.

For budding scientists
I bought this for my grandkids, but only one is now old enough to appreciate it. This is an eight year old who got about halfway through before she bogged down. I'd recommend it for 10 to 12 year olds unless they are especially good readers.

It is extremely well written and covers complex subjects in an understandable manner. The way the author covered the science impressed me, a retired engineer. Feynman is not only the "great explainer." so is the author. Bravo! ... Read more

Product Description
For nearly 50 years, until his death in 1988, Richard Feynman's work lay at the heart of the development of modern physics. Always controversial, Feynman was the key physicist from his days as part of the A-bomb-making team at Los Alamos in the early 1940s, until his discovery of the reason for the Challenger space shuttle disaster 40 years later. The book combines biography with an accessible account of his thought and its context. ... Read more

Product Description
The two latest volumes of recorded lectures by the world's greatest physics teacher.

The two latest volumes in the acclaimed Feynman Lectures on Physicsaudio series deal with the fundamentals of mechanics and sound. Theselectures by the late Richard P. Feynman were originally delivered tohis physics students at Caltech and later fashioned by the author intohis classic textbook Lectures on Physics. Volume 12, Feynman onFundamentals: Sound, includes a discussion of the wave equation,beats, modes, and harmonics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Amazingly funny
My only wish was that someone had had the foresight to film this guy more often...these stories is Feynman at his best--a master storyteller ... Read more