One of the biggest influences on my scientific career, and later my career as a populariser of science, was the multi-volume Feynman Lectures on Physics which appeared in the early 1960s. This epitome of that masterwork really does offer an easy guide to what physics, and science in general, is all about. Feynman explores the most fundamental scientific theories that all intelligent people should be aware of – the structure and behaviour of atoms, quantum mechanics and gravity. These are the fundamentals that ought to be as well known as Shakespeare, Mozart and Picasso. The material is essentially a transcript of Feynman lecturing (you can even get the lectures themselves on a CD to accompany the book), and comes across like a wise friend giving you the inside story on a subject he loves.

Sehr beeindruckend wie Richard Feynman die verrückten Wunder der Welt so einfach beschreibt. Die Struktur des Buches war ein wenig verwirrend, weil es zufällig ausgewählte Vorlesungen sind (glaube ich jedenfalls; es könnte auch einfach an den Sechs Jahren Pause liegen die ich beim Lesen dieses Buches eingelegt habe).

Niente non ho ancora trovato un libro divulgativo di fisica che mi conquisti, certo è meglio di Sette brevi lezioni di fisica ma comunque non è quello che cerco (sempre esista quello che cerco).
Abbandonato.

I think I first read this towards the end of high school, when I was starting to get into these sort of things, fun to reread, and Feynman is the sort of teacher I want to be like. A number of tidbits stored away for classroom use.

Feynman might be the finest example of how a clear understanding yields simple and precise explanations.

No pensaba que iba a tener tanto contenido de física teorica, o sea, asi de pesado. No habia leido de que se trataba este libro asi que pense que iba a ser algo mas de novela, pero estaba completamente equivocada, y creo que es por eso que le tengo que dar esta puntuación, ya que si lo hubiera leido con la predisposición a leer algo asi, me hubiese encantado. Aunque de todos modos, hubieron algunos capítulos que no pude entender, así que igual se necesita una base fuerte en física.

Great, original book! I doubt it serves its intended goal as teaching material though for first year students. The book introduces Richard Feynman as one of Earths greatest teachers and at the same time describes how half of his pupils drop out without him noticing. I think Feynman is a superb teacher for those already familiar with the subject, sharing exciting unique perspectives and thought experiments aiming for deep understanding.

The thing that bothers me about this is that physics sounds interesting in a book like this but I did my high school physics and first year physics at university and the core of it, the thing you had to learn and understand want the fascinating results and conclusions, it was the collection of vast amounts of data and then the math. The formulas, the statistical analysis, the endless calculation. It's math (maths?). It's all math. And math is beautiful sometimes but it's also a huge amount of grunt learning. I could have recited everything in this book and completely failed every exam in first year university physics if I did. I didn't fail though. Instead I learn how to use the formulas and solve problem questions. That's how you pass. Maybe I'm just bitter but none of this was part of my first year physics

This is a sampling from the legendary Feynman Lectures put together to introduce laypeople to physics. I'm not sure this short book succeeds in achieving that goal. It isn't thorough enough or organized well enough to teach people who haven't already been exposed to physics something useful about the subject.

If you have dipped your toes in the fascinating world of physics, however, this is definitely worth reading. This book won't teach you anything new but it'll give you new eyes and a new way of looking at some of the central problems of physics. This is where Feynman really shines; he provides some unique and brilliant insights that sometimes change the way you think about a problem and make you go, Aha!

The first three chapters explain what physics really is, what doing physics entails, and how physics relates to the other sciences. In the final three chapters, Feynman gets into real physics and discusses conservation of energy, theory of gravitation, and quantum behavior.

In the chapter on the theory of gravity, Feynman provides a historic account of its development from Copernicus to Newton and shows us what particular problem each of them was trying to solve and what their contribution was which is really helpful. The other two chapters are also very interesting. There are some simple equations in there but nothing you wouldn't already have seen elsewhere.

Feynman frequently surprises you with his refreshing attitude of saying, "We don't know why that is", thereby pointing out the limits of existing (during his time) scientific knowledge. I strongly recommend this book to those with a keen interest in physics, not to learn anything new but to get a Feynman-eye-view of basic physics. Also check out its sister volume, The Six Not-So-Easy Pieces.

I have read several other books by and about Richard Feynman: a man whose brilliance and oddness were well known within the Physics community, but sadly only his eccentricities were known by most of the wider world.

This book is not really about Feynman, rather it is six chapters excised out of a two-year course of physics lectures he gave at CalTech in the mid 60s. The publisher created this volume (and a second one that I am just getting into called "Six Not-So-Easy Pieces") and a companion audio book in Feynman's own voice about 15 years ago.

Although they are not biographical, and I took "freshman physics" a while ago, I picked up these two volumes to read how this man attempted to re-invent the teaching of introductory and intermediate physics. The approaches and "patter" are definitely Feynman's own. His thinking, humor, and enjoyment of "natural philosophy" shine through the pages.

Granted the knowledge of cosmology and particle physics contained in this volume are dated (it was 45 years ago, give the guy a break!), but that only adds a patina of warmth to the presentation.

The title is correct: there is virtually no math in this volume (except a bit near the end). Nothing that you need to fear: blowing over it will still get you the gist of the point(s).

If you have read any of the other books relating Feynman's adventures as a young (20s) man working at Los Alamos, the pick this up and see how the man lived and breathed physics. You'll be happy you did!

god i love physics. the story of neptune's discovery is insane!! also it's terrifying to think about how gravity works almost infinitely and yet doesn't work at the atomic level !?!?!? what the HELL. someone needs to reconcile gravitation with quantum mechanics NOW. they will be the next Einstein, no doubt about it.

thankfully cry count: 0

A great book for a first understanding of how our world is actually built on a very very small scale.
Although there are some formulas involved in this book, that I admit I don't understand, the author gives easy to follow examples for non-physicists too.
The book also gives a look into how scientists think, which I also appreciate.