6 ms·
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1961-1964)
- SubjectToChange 4y agoWhat is the best way to make an offline copy?
- andi999 4y agoBuying the paper version?
- SubjectToChange 4y agoIt has been on my wish list for a while now, but in any case I would still like something I can read on my laptop.
- bacon_waffle 4y agoIt's available as an ebook too, from at least Amazon and Kobo.
- 52-6F-62 4y agoIf it's all static HTML you should be able to wget the entire batch. https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/downloading-entire-web-site-wget https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/downloading-entire-web-... Or buy the paper version, as another said. They are available. They're not always cheap, though. I bought one or two volumes in the past as a general reference and now just learned they're here, gratis. C'est la vie.
- pvg 4y agoA big pile of previous discussions: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=feynman%20lectures%20comments%3E10&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- idoh 4y agoIt’s on my bucket list to read through these lectures and grok them. Maybe it will be a retirement project? While we are talking about this, I feel like I need to brush up on my math. Does anyone know what level of math is required to work through these?
- slowhand09 4y agoLooking at the slides, pretty sure I'd need a semester or two, part refresher, part growth.
- hither_shores 4y agoLinear algebra and multivariable calculus
- joshvm 4y agoIn theory high school algebra should be enough if you go through in order. Feynman introduces calculus in the chapter on motion (from first principles) and on it goes from there. The challenge is it's assumed that you're now familiar with these introduced concepts, and Feynman is very good at tricking you into thinking you understand what's going on. A sibling comment mentions linear algebra. Vectors are introduced early on, and the chapter on tensor introduces matrices (eg second rank tensors). Multi variable calculus? I can't find where partial derivatives enter, but there's a chapter on vector calculus (to get ready for Maxwell). Really, it's all in there with no prior knowledge needed. It's certainly a lot easier if you've seen the material before and read FLP as a second perspective. Hence why so many of the attendees were grad students and faculty. What it lacks as a teaching aide is the mind numbing exercises that all physics students do in their first year to practice using the mathematics. There's a reason the "University physics" books are doorstops.
- Graffur 4y agoIs there any benefit to a layman working their way through this? Or is it only relevant to studying/passing an exam?
- pvg 4y agoIt's a classic and highly regarded physics course although these days there are many options to choose from. It's not for median laypeople, though - the original audience was CalTech undergrads so there's a fair bit of mathematical (and, realistically, physics) pre-req.
- ravel-bar-foo 4y agoI read somewhere (probably another HN comment) that most of the undergrads dropped the course, but Feynman didn't know because they were replaced by grad students.
- jonjacky 4y agoThis can't be right. You couldn't drop the course. Two years of physics in the freshman and sophomore years, taught from the Feynman Lectures, was a requirement for all Caltech undergrads, including those in humanities majors like economics, history and even English -- there were a few. The whole two year physics sequence - the lectures where your entire class attended together, always in the same room, three times a week for two years, the homework sets, the sections, the weekly take-home quizzes - were a shared rite of passage, a central part of the Caltech experience for every student. It was difficult for some of us, but we had to persevere - it wasn't optional. A classmate called it 'intellectual boot camp'.
- ravel-bar-foo 4y agoOh. I didn't know that. Thanks for clearing that up. The comment I read (or my memory) must have been wrong, then.
- sillysaurusx 4y agoI heard that Feynman's lectures weren't written entirely by Feynman, but were actually a collaboration between a bunch of physicists. Is that true? Where can I read about the history of this aspect? (It appears in the footnotes Feynman's Lectures on Computation, toward the end of the book. https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Gentoomen%20Library/Extra/Richard_P._Feynman-Feynman_Lectures_on_Computation__-Addison-Wesley%281996%29.pdf https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Gentoomen%20Library/Extra/Richard...) Reading through the lectures, you get the sense that it's superhuman to be able to write all of them. Once someone mentioned that it wasn't only Feynman doing the writing, it made a bit more sense.
- kaidon 4y agoStanding on the shoulders of giants
- fsckboy 4y agoI've always liked "if I haven't seen as far as some of my peers, it's because I stand in the footprints of giants"
- linspace 4y agoThe giants are so high by now that is hard just to reach the shoulders
- Qem 4y agoIndeed. We need to build some sort of scalator, so more people get a shot at arriving there, instead of spending whole careers just to fall midway, nowhere near the shoulders.
- ducttapecrown 4y agoAbout the Authors page: https://feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_89.html https://feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_89.html
- purple1 4y ago
- ducttapecrown 4y agoWow. This is a beautifully lightweight browser textbook. It has essentially everything I'd expect. Good math typesetting, customizable margin and font with simple javascript (I'm guessing I didn't check). Envisioning a responsive open source browser textbook is pretty easy, I'm glad someone with cachet like Caltech is providing a role model. Hopefully every important textbook will eventually be as accessible as this one is.
- criddell 4y agoI think I'd still prefer a pdf. Doesn't require an internet connection and I can highlight, sketch, and scribble in the margins.
- vincentmarle 4y agoI think I found a PDF version: https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/feynman-lectures.pdf https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/feynma...
- dylan604 4y agoMy only dislike is the 100% width, but that's just a modern styling preference.
- wintermutestwin 4y agoAs someone who zooms in on 80% of websites, <100% width is infuriating.
- ryanianian 4y agoIt's great to see this all in one place. The text follows the audio reasonably well, and the UX is spartan and functional. Is there a version that includes videos of the lectures as well?
- herodoturtle 4y agoThe linked page does indeed include the videos (if that’s what you’re asking). Scroll down a bit.
- Maursault 4y ago> Is there a version that includes the videos of the lectures as well? No. Feynman's early 1960's undergraduate lectures were tape-recorded and photographed only - they were never filmed or videotaped. But in 1964 Feynman delivered lectures at Cornell, called "Messenger Lectures," and these were filmed by the BBC.[1] [1] https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/messenger.html https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/messenger.html
- captn3m0 4y agoAudio Version: - MP4/Vorbis/MP3 downloads. https://archive.org/details/feynman-lectures-on-physics-audio-collection https://archive.org/details/feynman-lectures-on-physics-audi... - Web Player and Original Source. https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/flptapes.html https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/flptapes.html Previous discussion on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27322636 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27322636
- jakedata 4y agoThanks for the link to the downloadable versions. I have the Feynman Lectures loaded on an old iPod and I find them to be an amazing sleep aid. This is not a criticism, they are engaging enough to take my mind off of whatever is keeping me up while also being baffling enough that I fall asleep during the extended sections of blackboard writing sounds. My current set of files is not as good as the recently re-edited Caltech set but I don't want an active Internet device by my bed. Unfortunately they occasionally lead to somewhat stressful dreams of being in college again. It's a risk I am generally willing to take.
- metalliqaz 4y agoI do this with astronomy youtube channels. SEA... mmmmmm
- erigonk 4y agoSEA is great, I would also recommend Cool Worlds [1] his videos are amazing and his voice is so soothing that I've reached a point where I can't sleep without having one of his videos playing. [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGHZpIpAWJQ-Jy_CeCdXhMA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGHZpIpAWJQ-Jy_CeCdXhMA
- metalliqaz 4y agoYes I follow him as well. Also Astrum.
- dreadlordbone 4y agoI do this too, but with long form video game analysis (Joseph Anderson, Action Button). I wonder how much of a crutch it's creating for me however.
- beastman82 4y agoYeah I would stress dream regularly if I did this. Better to read a beach novel IMO
- stodor89 4y ago
- zanethomas 4y agoNice! I bought the books decades ago and lost them, decades ago. :\
- zengargoyle 4y agoSame, I had my books from 1986 (when I was 16) bought from Caltech's bookstore while I was there at a summer program (YESS, Young Engineer Summer Scholars) that went on for months where I learned 2-3 semesters worth of undergrad physics/calculus. Such a wonderful summer nerd program for the day and age. Best summer camp ever! So many stories. Lost the books in a move in the late 1990's, still a bit sad about it. One of these days I'll add them back to my shelf.
- zanethomas 4y agoMust have been awesome. My dad was a physicist and we lived next door to a physicist from caltech so ... I met Feynman twice.
- theptip 4y ago> The atoms [in water] are 1 or 2×10−8 cm in radius. Now 10−8 cm is called an angstrom (just as another name), so we say they are 1 or 2 angstroms (Å) in radius. Another way to remember their size is this: if an apple is magnified to the size of the earth, then the atoms in the apple are approximately the size of the original apple. This is one of my favourite Feynman analogies, right at the beginning of these lectures. He had such a remarkable ability to transpose concepts into more understandable forms.
- dekhn 4y agomy chemistry teacher kept saying "a mole is just like a dozen of something. Except it's 6.023*10**23".
- beginning_end 4y ago"This paper reports my memories of being a beginning graduate student in physics at Caltech and working on the team producing The Feynman Lectures on Physics" : https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.05210.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.05210.pdf
- Stratoscope 4y agoIf you enjoy Feynman's lectures as much as I do (he taught freshman physics when I went to Caltech!) I highly recommend his armchair series, "Fun to Imagine": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYg6jzotiAc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYg6jzotiAc He's sitting at home in Pasadena, talking about stuff that comes to mind. • Jiggling atoms who like to make friends with each other. • Where do trees come from? (It's not the dirt.) • Why don't your arms sink through the armrests of your chair? • How do trains stay on the tracks? It's an hour of fun science, and especially accessible for anyone who is curious about physics but doesn't enjoy all the equations.
- dylan604 4y agoIt's amazing to see something like this on film. Someone had to think long about doing this to ensure they had the equipment necessary, the money available to process/develop the film, edit the film, etc. Now, someone just whips out their phone and shoots someone without even thinking about it.
- fsckboy 4y agohe makes a solid--but ok, some of you would quibble it--Newtonian physics error in that series. anybody else here have a claim that they can correct Feynman?
- tux3 4y agoThe errata from the aforementionned Lectures is quite a list if I remember correctly, so probably a few people :)
- jonjacky 4y agoThere's the time a student was misled by an error in the Feynman Lectures and wrote to him about it. Here's the story and the recent HN thread about it. https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2020/feynmans-advice-to-wm-student-resonates-45-years-later.php https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2020/feynmans-advice-to-wm-s... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30417660 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30417660
- 4y ago
- Dig1t 4y ago>However, we want to be clear that this edition is only free to read, look at and listen to online, and this posting does not transfer any right to download all or any portion of the book The Feynman Lectures on Physics, its photos or tape recordings, for any purpose. What the heck, why not just make them available for download? So stupid, this is some of the best information in the world and should be shared as widely as possible. An institution of higher learning shouldn't be concerned with tightly controlling how knowledge is disseminated outside of the institution. Especially old things from the 60's like this.
- 52-6F-62 4y agoBrowsers download the portions automatically just by visiting the page, so that's strangely murky. Usually licenses for the purpose of preventing unlicensed publication would just issue the publication with a non-distribution clause.
- hyperpallium2 4y agoIs there a description anywhere of what's covered in each lecture?
- sydthrowaway 4y agoWhere are these people now? Not solving the problems at the universe, making money at Meta I suspect
- sleepycatgirl 4y agoInteresting, Is there any requirement what I should understand, before taking on those lectures?
- scelerat 4y agoChapter 22: Algebra is a treasure. Clarified a bunch of relationships for me. https://feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_22.html https://feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_22.html
- Sander3Utile 4y agoto those thinking about using these as your intro to physics, I would think again. Its common sentiment among the physics crowd that these are nice to go through after you understand the concepts, not as an introduction. Usually your junior year summer go through them for fun if you have the time