l like Feynman phraseology
but,
I stuck in the last parts
I think it will be better understood visiually!

What can I say? It's Feynman doing what he knows best. It is a companion reading to his lectures, so if you just want to clarify some topics go for it, if you want to go a bit deeper, get the lectures themselves. I also really appreciate the pep talk he gives in the beginning because studying physics is hard if you can't put your feelings aside for a bit.

Gyroscope. 4/5

I still remember one of the first Feynman Physics problems I worked on in the Supplemental Problems booklet of my freshman physics class. It was something like this:

"Long ago, a raindrop falls from the sky into a Paleozoic footprint of a T. Rex. Then, in 1963, you drink a glass of water. Estimate the number of water molecules from that Paleozoic raindrop you just swallowed."

Well, I eventually came up with an estimate that turned out to be not even close, off by many orders of magnitude. But I still recall the difficulty of Feynman Physics problems!

This book is a collection of Richard P. Feynman's insights into the nature of solving physics-related problems. Included are some of those brain-puzzling problems, a prelude to the forthcoming book, Exercises for the Feynman Lectures on Physics.

I really enjoyed the memoir by Matthew Sands, one of the co-authors of the Feynman Lectures on Physics books. It focuses on the background of the creation of the Lecture books and the many decisions that were made regarding the course Feynman taught at CalTech and the books that followed, authored by Feynman, Leighton, and Sands.

It was interesting that in talking to physics professors at various universities, Sands found that "most instructors did not consider that the Lectures suitable for use in their classes." Sometimes there was a fear that students would ask questions the teachers could not answer! The books were often used by graduate students as study aides.


In the Foreward, Ralph Leighton relates an anecdote in which Chinese soldiers waving Mao's Little Red Book are taunted by a drafted Indian physics student by the waving of the three red volumes of Feynman's Lectures on Physics!


A great read for anyone who has taken a course using the Lectures--or has just heard of them! Or anyone with an interest in the history of physics teaching!

Hey, I've found these recordings of some revision lectures that Feynman gave; do you think we should publish them?
But they're such a rambling set of contrived examples and they're more likely to confuse than illuminate. The way that Feynman works with numbers rather than symbols, and makes mistakes all the time and has to go back and correct. I mean it's an insight into his chaotic mind, but it's not a good example for undergraduates to follow.
No, but with Feynman's name on the cover, it's sure to sell. We could throw in that lecture on gyroscopes too, that never made it into the main series.
Hmm, still a bit thin. How about we interview some of the staff who were around at the time and pass it off as a scholarly work on physics pedagogy.
Still not enough, well I have these mechanics problems lying around. Let's add those in too.
Ker-ching.

The best adjective to describe this book is disappointing. Definitely 2* - not a book I am going to read again.

A great supplement to his lectures. You can hear him speak throughout the book as his jokes and personality are clearly shown. The supplement is rather short though. But there's plenty of practice at the end of the book.

This was a very entertaining and informative book. It especially gave insight to how the Feynman Lecture on Physics came to be. For those who may not know: this book is a compilation of four lectures that Feynman gave to his students at the end of the 1st semester of the course. They didn't really fit the program and so weren't included in the other volumes of the series. So in that sense, the book is NOT Feynman's on solving physics problems - except in the context of those four very specific lectures. At the end is a short appendix of some problems from across the lecture series, and I found those very interesting (I'll try some with my own students! :)

*not that the book is less excellent than other books by Feynman, it's just that the material was not the one I need ><*

I didn't do the problems. Duh.

This was a nice piece of history. One of the interesting things about it is the limit of science at the time of the lectures was evident. So he will say things that are unknown, but have actually been proven since.

I might look into the problems or the book of problems them come from, but not yet.

Richard P. Feynman was both a genius and fabulous educator whose lectures remain a critical resource for all physics students.

As sort of an addendum and miscellania for things left out of Feynman's lectures, this book is not the most exciting part of that series. The historical accounts of the lectures through interviews are interesting but not overflowing with insights. The extra lectures are fine, though you can tell why this was not included in the main lectures.
I have not done the problem sets yet and will probably update this once I have.

Very misleading title... It has the preface, the forward, the acknowledgement, the introduction, and the following chapters:
1. On the Origin of the Feynman Lectures - memoir by Matthew Sands
2. Interview with Feynman
3. Interview with Leighton
4. Interview with Vogt
5. Lecture A
6. Lecture B
7. Lecture C
8. Dynamic effects
9. selected exercises

Now why would anyone seeking tips on physics be bothered with the book? (That's a rhetoric question) If you are interested in how the Feynman lectures on physics were created, you may be bothered; or if you have the working knowledge of rotation in a rotating frame, aka the more torturing part of the Lagrangian mechanics course, and are still curious about gyroscopes, be bothered. Otherwise, most of the book will just be explanations of some problems with no clear assumptions or conclusions. They are like transcripts of lectures. There are no tips whatsoever. The conversation between Feynman and students are mostly pointless...