Rating: Summary: An Essential for any budding Physicist Review: Anybody wanting to be a physicist, or just interested in physics, should have this set of books. Whether used as a reference or as a primary text, it will enhance your physics experience exponentially.
Rating: Summary: Highly recommended Review: This book is EXCELLENT!!!!! The explanations and examples Mr. Feynman gives are very clarifying... I study Physics in Brazil and this book has helped me a lot... I have read many physics books, and so far, I haven't found anything better than these. I definetly recommend.
Rating: Summary: A classic that I've turned to over and over Review: This is -- by far -- the best physics text book I've ever read. I picked it a few months ago for work on my M.S. in Physics, and I have to say, I've never enjoyed a college book so much. It's well-written and incredibly precise. I wish all my textbooks were like this.
Rating: Summary: absolute delight Review: This is a book for the physics hobbyist. Read the set in high school after I took physics. Absolutely enchanting. Made physics a lifelong interest even though I didn't go into it. Read the three volumes in a more scattered way a couple more times over the years. The magic is still there. I would not say the material is difficult--this is undergraduate physics after all. However, Feynman's view is often different in a fundamental way. Reading the Notes is like reading special relativity for the first time--it is the splendid physical arguments that draws you. The mathematics used is basically simple algebra.
Rating: Summary: AUDIO LECTURES OF Q.M. - NOT A REVIEW OF THE PRINTED BOOK! Review: This is a review of the AUDIO BOOK ON TAPE - despite Amazon's placement of this review on the printed book web-page.
Here's what you get: Six hours of Feynman lecturing (in his characteristic idiosyncratic demeanor) to freshman & sophomore undergraduate students at Caltech during the first few years of 1960. I was born about 30 miles away from the CALTECH campus in the same year he was giving some of these lectures. It is decidedly pleasant to listen to the obvious delight this brilliant man has for teaching. For example, his voice rises and falls in tempo, volume and pitch whenever gets enthusiastic about the wonderful knowledge he knows he is passing on to you, the student. Once in a while he chuckles at his own occasional mistakes and inside jokes. Sometimes he takes great pains to apologize for the incomprehensibility of historically "Old School" conventions in scientific notation & units. This will lead you to believe in his sincere sympathy for being on the receiving side of this detailed, if not convoluted, sea of information. Once in a while he will make an admission that he doesn't know it all - a humble trait I find charming. Nonetheless, his enthusiasm is contagious and you will feel blessed to have heard his original approach to such literally wonderful subjects. Back to what it is that you get in these recorded audio lectures. The audio volume contains six cassettes, each of which is one classroom hour long. There is absolutely no audio editing of the background noise however the publisher announces the date, lecture title, and where each chapter subsection begins. It is interesting to hear the background noise of the students when they file in and out of the lecture hall and towards the end of each lecture. You also hear bells in the hallway signaling the end of the class or possibly the lunch break. The students enthusiastically demonstrate their appreciation of Professor Feynman's efforts by applauding him at the end of each lecture. Of course Professor Feynman makes use of the chalkboard which you wont have the advantage of seeing but you could keep a copy of the printed lectures on hand to get whatever visuals you need from the transcribed illustrated diagrams which were published (I have done this and it's handy). Mostly I just listen to these tapes (I have a collection of over 60 taped lectures) on my one hour a day commute each day, over and over again. It's like I'm always in school with the great genius of Feynman every day! Well anyhow, I thought that you'd like to see how these audio lectures correlate to the printed "Lectures on Physics" by audiocassette to volume & chapter in each book:Cassette 1 = Volume I Chapter 2 Basic Physics - Sept. 29, 1963 (this lecture can be found in "Six Easy Pieces") Section 2.1. Introduction Section 2.2. Physics before 1920 Section 2.3. Quantum Physics (this is an interesting section - one of my favorites) Section 2.4. Nuclei and particles Cassette 2 = Volume III Chapter 1 Quantum Behavior - April 3, 1962 (this lecture can be found in "Six Easy Pieces" as well in Volume 10) Section 1.1. Atomic mechanics Section 1.2. An experiment with bullets Section 1.3. An experiment with waves Section 1.4. An experiment with electrons Section 1.5. The interference of electrons waves Section 1.6. Watching the electrons Section 1.7. First principles in quantum mechanics Section 1.8. The uncertainty principle Cassette 3 = Volume III Chapter 2 The Relation of Wave and Particle Viewpoints - April 6, 1962 (this lecture can be found in Volume 10 of this series) Section 2.1. Probability and wave amplitudes Section 2.2. Measurement of position and momentum Section 2.3. Crystal diffraction Section 2.4. The size of an atom Section 2.5. Energy levels Section 2.3. Philosophical implications Cassette 4 = Volume III Chapter 3 Probability Amplitudes - April 11, 1963 Section 3.1. The laws for combining amplitudes Section 3.2. The two slit interference pattern Section 3.3. Scattering from a crystal Section 3.4. Identical particles Cassette 5 = Volume III Chapter 5 Spin One - April 18, 1963 Section 5.1. Filtering atoms with a Stern-Gerlach apparatus Section 5.2. Experiments with filtered atoms Section 5.3. Stern-Gerlach filters in series Section 5.4. Base states Section 5.5. Interfering amplitudes Section 5.6. The machinery of quantum mechanics Section 5.7. Transforming to a different base Cassette 6 = Volume III Chapter 6 Spin One-Half - April 22, 1963 Section 6.1. Transforming amplitudes Section 6.2. Transforming to a rotated coordinate system Section 6.3. Rotations about the z-axis Section 6.4. Rotations of 180 and 90 degrees about y Section 6.5. Rotations about x Section 6.6. Arbitrary rotations Check out my 'Listmania Lists' and 'Shared Purchases' by clicking on the "IndiAndy (see more about me)" link above. I've put together a handy list of all audio (and some video) Feynman... I hope you enjoy your Feynman experience! Regards, IndiAndy
Rating: Summary: Volume 3 - From Crystal Structure to Magnetism Review: recorded Nov 1962 to April 1963, Cal Tech Cassette 1 - V2 Ch30 The Internal Geometry of Crystals Cassette 2 - V2 Ch32 Refractive Index of Dense Materials Cassette 3 - V2 Ch39 Elastic Materials Cassette 4 - V2 Ch10 Dielectrics Cassette 5 - V2 Ch11 Inside Dielectrics Cassette 6 - V2 Ch34 The Magnetism of Matter There is something magical about hearing Richard Feynman deliver a lecture on physics that goes beyond the content of the textbooks derived from these same lectures.
Rating: Summary: Table of Contents Review: Recorded April - Sept 1963, Cal Tech Cassette 1 - V1 Ch2 Basic Physics Cassette 2 - V3 Ch1 Quantum Behavior Cassette 3 - V3 Ch2 The Relation of Wave and Particle Viewpoints Cassette 4 - V3 Ch3 Probability Amplitudes Cassette 5 - V5 Ch1 Spin One Cassette 6 - V3 Ch6 Spin One-half There is something magical about listening to Richard Feynman deliver a lecture on physics.
Rating: Summary: A brilliant collection for the less brilliant student Review: I love physics, but I used to think that it was difficult. Most authors of physics books are too smart to explain it to other people. Feynman is one of the few who realized that not every student is brilliant and that some of us never paid attention during calculus classes - my observation is that people who really like physics don't like mathematics. He takes his time explaining calculus and he pays attention to the smaller steps that in other books are neglected since the author seems to think that readers can do these steps by themselves. We don't, we are stupid!
Rating: Summary: The best physics book you will ever read. Review: Dick Feynman is an eloquent speaker and is a master of explaining pretty much anything, especially physics. This set of books is a masterpiece and a reference to be passed down for generations. It is not light reading by any means. However, the good thing for the non-physicist is that there is a minimal number of equations. Instead you will find detailed verbal descriptions of the intricacies of physics.
Rating: Summary: Wonderful Supplemental Material for Intro. Physics Review: This is an excellent series of lectures that is great to supplement the standard introductory material dealing with these subjects. It isn't a textbook and it doesn't address any of the subjects contained within it as rigorously as texts that are devoted to the particular subjects. Still, the lectures contained hererin present material in new and enlightening ways. Even if you already know the material through a different text, Feynman will get you thinking about things you never thought about and might make things more conceptually clear. The lectures read quite well and often can be read out of order. One word of caution: there are a couple books out there, like "Six Easy Peices", that are just scaled down versions of this set of lectures. No need to buy those books if you own this.
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