This is one of those rare books whose title says everything that has to be said about it. In fact, the title sums up the book so well that I’ll only repeat it:

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Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by its Most Brilliant Teacher

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I enjoyed Feynman's explanation, at the start of the book, of the fundamental facts that all sciences share and the relation of physics to the other sciences. When he started explaining the actual physics of things, I found it hard to grasp some of it. It reminded me why physics was my weakest course in college--I am not good at visualising these things. That's not the book's fault though. I enjoyed it and learned from it even if some of it was lost on me.

Ahh I just love the way Feynman used to teach Physics in such an innovative and fun way. There's no way I would've dozed off in his lectures, but sadly not all of our wishes come true. His book "Six easy pieces: Essentials of Physics" talks about some of the basic topics of Physics, so it's a great book for beginners. However, for people who are even slightly well versed with the subject of Physics, this book can merely be used to brush up their basics.
One thing that is very particularly interesting about all of his work is how he encourages people to study Physics by making connections to the other fields of science like Chemistry, Biology, etc. And that's what makes me come back time and again to dwell in the mesmerizing realm of Physics which Feynman offers to his readers!

It was refreshing revisiting some old Physics concepts from high school and under-grad in the voice of Richard Feynman. If someone studying Physics is finding themselves lost or questioning why they're studying what they're studying, this book might be a good way to rekindle their curiosity.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I need to read this before every year of teaching. We all do. I am going to make a series of videos explaining it, too. Hooray!

I had lot of expectations from this book, lacked lucid diagrams for explaining things better, or may be it's just issue with kindle version!

Feynman to jest miód na serce i nauczyciel marzenie. Ten zbiór to wybrane rozdziały z jego Wykładów, te łatwiejsze do zrozumienia, wprowadzające we współczesną fizykę.
Styl opowiadania Feynmana jest bardzo obrazowy, zamiast wzorów woli użyć porównań, znaleźć odniesienia do eksperymentów w codziennym życiu i wskazać po co nam ta wiedza. Poza tym jest fascynatem, a u fascynatów czuć pasję i energię, która napędza i ta radość z odkrywania wybija się z tych stron.
Dobór materiału, tak w Wykładach, jak i tym zbiorze jest bardzo nieoczywisty i dzięki temu nie wprowadza schematyczności podręcznikowej znanej ze szkoły. Od razu zaczyna od tłumaczenia fizyki atomowej jako podstawy istnienie świata i robi to w najbardziej zrozumiały sposób z jakim się spotkałem (dobry przykład jak propagować naukę, bo uważam że nawet ktoś komu daleko było w szkole do przedmiotów ścisłych spokojnie zrozumie te podstawy).
Odejmuję 1 gwiazdkę, bo wyprowadzenie wzorów też pojawia się z opisu, co było dla mnie trudne do wyciągnięcia takich wniosków bez głębszej analizy, no i też matematyka niektórych rozdziałów sięga dalej niż standardowy zakres wiedzy (co nie przeszkadza, żeby oswoić się z teorią, ale utrudnia praktyczne testowanie).

Even though this collection of lectures was destined to freshmen, I pity the 18-year old who had to pass Feynman's class if that was the material lol (and Feynman himself notes how the lectures were mostly succesful with graduates and fellow professors).

Feynman has first of all a great talent for comedy: despite his physicist's tendency to place physics above all else, the lectures are also full of quips that make them fun and sometimes un-serious.

Most importantly Feynman manages to boil down physics to a few fundamental principles and ties everything he covers back to these - something I have never read done this way and this effectively.

Finally it is Feynman's lyrical lines about his love for physics and the mysteries of the universe that pushes this book from 'just the fundamentals of physics' to 'Yes I got a Nobel but I sure do love the world'.

"There are animals and seaweed, hunger and disease, and the observer on the beach; there may be even happiness and thought. "

"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars -mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is “mere”. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination -stuck on this carousel my eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern -of which I am part- perhaps my stuff as belched from some forgotten star, as on is belching there. Or see them with the greater eye of Palomar, rushing all apart from some common starting point when they were perhaps all together. What is the patter, or the meaning, or the why? It does no harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagines! Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?"

"A poet once said, “The whole universe is in a glass of wine.” We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do not write to be understood. (...) If our small minds, for some convenience, divide the glass of wine, the universe, into parts -physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on- remember that nature does not know it! So let us put it all back together, not forgetting ultimately what it is for. Let us give it one more final pleasure: drink it and forget it all!"

"A poet once said, “The whole universe is in a glass of wine.” We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do not write to be understood."

Deci il recomand pe dl Feynman, mai ales dupa experienta mai putin placuta cu ‘Scurta istorie a timpului’ in care, pe langa ca ordinea ideilor era haotica, lucrurile mai complexe nu erau explicate dar, multumesc ca mi s-a explicat legea gravitatiei ori de cate ori simteam ca as fi uitat-o.
Logica ideilor si analogiile clare au dat un fir rosu lectiilor si cum ii zice si titlul chiar e o carte recomandata celor care suntem incepatori si vrem sa aflam mai multe despre acest domeniu. Pe langa aceasta carte as recomanda si ‘The universe in your hand’ scrisa de elevul lui Hawking, in care se face apel la imaginatia cititorului si se porneste intr-o calatorie (mai mult sau mai putin) imaginara prin univers.

Six Easy Pieces consists essentially of some of the initial lectures from the famous Feynman Lectures. The last chapter of this book, also taken from the lectures, is an introduction to quantum mechanics, namely the double-slit experiment. If you’ve never read anything from Feynman, here’s a good point to start.

This book is supposed to introduce the basic concepts of physics and is very easy to read. Feynman was a great teacher. His enthusiasm could captivate anyone, even in written words, and I always find myself listening to his enthusiastic voice inside my head. He was also famous for making scientific concepts understandable for anyone and you can very easily see his style here.

I had read the first Volume from the Feynman Lectures many years ago, so this was a nice read to get a reminding of how good they were. The best chapter of this book is definitely the last one, with Feynman demonstrating the double-slit experiment in a brilliant and accessible way. The only downside is that some of the things he mentions about particle physics might be a bit outdated. Otherwise, this is an excellent book.

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I first encountered Richard Feynman through his 'Fun To Imagine' series as a teenager (the series is fully available on YouTube). He has a talent for making complex physics immediately accessible, and the series is definitely worth your the time—if not for what he says, then for the way he says it.

This book covers six fundamental concepts: atomic motion, basic physics, physics' relationship to other sciences, energy conservation, gravitation, and quantum behavior—all explained in Feynman's characteristic conversational style.

While the book succeeds in explaining these topics, some extremely well (like the final chapter 'quantum behaviour'), its lecture-based content sometimes works against its mass-market aims. The 'Basic Physics' chapter exemplifies this issue: it rushes from basic electromagnetism straight into an extensive list of quantum particles (strangeness, leptons, mesons, etc.) merely to conclude that "This, then, is the horrible condition of physics today." It's a bit of dramatic flair, and while that approach might work well in a lecture, in book form it feels more like a missed opportunity (and wasted space!).

Explanations, too, sometimes feel poorly written, using terms before they are defined. Again, it is a defect of more casual speech or a lecture that does not translate well to a book.

I would have loved to have liked this book more. This particular experience won't stop me from continuing to read through the rest of his works.

3/5