The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume II

http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_toc.html

by jonbaer • 13 years ago

126 22 13 years ago

feynmanlectures.caltech.edu

ekm2• 13 years ago

From the bottom of my heart,thank you!

ashray• 13 years ago

How I WISH I had access to this kind of material when I was studying high school/pre-engineering physics. These lectures are brilliant just so very easy to understand.

arjie• 13 years ago

As an Indian, this is something I have been very glad for. Almost every book has a South Asian edition which is super cheap and just as good (so long as you don't have graphs that use colour).

I had access to everything because if I skipped out on a couple of movies, I could buy this whole set.

stiff• 13 years ago

They are definitely not easy to understand, at least for me, they are just easy and pleasant to read, but it's deceptive. Once you go to the exercises and try to work out what Feynman meant really precisely and how it applies you realize how big reasoning leaps he does all the time in the lectures. I mean, years ago, I read the full first volume once, almost like a work of fiction, it just was pleasurable, but I understand almost nothing, except for the first few chapters of general introduction. I came back after 10 years to it with much more math background, and it's still really really difficult to understand what Feynman is doing and why and solve the exercises. He is the kind of author that will make you almost angry, several times I thought he must be wrong in something, and then an hour later you realize he was exactly right but he choose the most clever way to put it. On the other hand, if you are not struggling with a textbook, you are just memorizing, not learning, so maybe it's not a bad thing, I can't really say.

bsaul• 13 years ago

I completely agree. In every physics book from feynman i've read, the most pleasant thing was the introduction paragraphs that gave you a context, and tried to give you an intuition of what happend, and i think that´s a very important thing which probably inspired a lot of school book writers. Now for the "hard" part of solving real problems, i think my current school book were better.

sillysaurus2• 13 years ago

This one in particular is quite good: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_06.html

Further study: http://www.refsmmat.com/statistics/

mg74• 13 years ago

Volume 1: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_toc.html Volume 2: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_toc.html Volume 3: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/III_toc.html

justin66• 13 years ago

Now that this is done it'd be lovely to read a project postmortem. Great work, everyone.

milhous• 13 years ago

Perhaps it's just me, but I get real giddy when I see the formulas rendered by LaTex. Very beautiful!

officialjunk• 13 years ago

i picked up the hard copy of this set when border's was liquidating :) very glad to see a digital copy.

maaku• 13 years ago

These might also be helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lewin_Lectures_on_Physic...

binocarlos• 13 years ago

this is Christmas for hungry minds and the great explainer just came down the chimney - thank you!

aaronsnoswell• 13 years ago

Why do these lecture series keep showing up on HN? It seems every month now they are re-posted. I for one have no interest reading about Physics (I dropped that major for a reason!)

ceejayoz• 13 years ago

I dropped that major for a reason!

With a professor like Feynman, you might not have.

cothomps2• 13 years ago

Except manny of the CalTech freshmen in these courses did drop - with seats being filled by grad students.

(FWIW - the recordings marketed in the "Easy Pieces" series from the lectures are a great last minute Christmas gift.)

Jtsummers• 13 years ago

Mostly it's been announcements about the new volumes. Volume II wasn't available last time a post about the lectures was posted, which was the announcement of Volume III. And if you have no interest in it, guess what, you can ignore it.

I for one am interested because when I was an undergrad I couldn't grok physics, I don't know why. After I graduated I went back and found the material that was breaking my grades seemed trivial. Something I had learned between Physics I/II and graduating put the pieces in place in my brain to understand the subject. I've just never gone back to study it in depth, this sort of content is a boon for people like me.

cothomps2• 13 years ago

... and as a freshman physics student many of these lectures were a little opaque. I really came to appreciate them as an upperclassman / grad student.

guan• 13 years ago

My favorite chapter is the Principle of Least Action: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_19.html

al2o3cr• 13 years ago

+1 for that. An especially neat chapter given the work he won the Nobel for...

intenex• 13 years ago

Why didn't this just link to http://feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/?

guscost• 13 years ago

The best physics textbook ever compiled, in HTML with no paywall. Just wonderful.

myramnath• 13 years ago

Love them!

The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume II

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