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Rating: 
Summary: A Challenging Intro to Thinking Physical
Review: "Six Not-So-Easy Pieces" are six selections from the Feynman "Lectures on Physics". They represent not the hardest material to be found in the "Lectures" (and certainly not elsewhere concerning Feymnan's essays or other lectures) but perhaps some of the most thought-provoking and challenging conceptually (although, if you would like a conceptual challenge, check out Feynman's "QED"). Spacetime, Relativity (Special and General), Vectors, Symmetry --- there is no end to the knowledge and unique grasp of physics that Feynman possesses. He first introduces the reader to some fundamental that they need in order to begin thinking like a physicist -- specifically, vector algebra, connecting directions with movements in space. This might take a little while for the beginner to work through, but he is careful to show all of the steps geometrically and makes it seem quite clear. Then he moves on to talk about symmetries physicists know and work with, especially the symmetry where the physics you do is invariant according to your place in space and time. Capping the book off with more abstractly challenging concepts -- special relativity and general relativity, tying ideas of the previous chapters in (vectors and symmetry) he slowly is able to make beginning readers understand aspects of physics difficult even for the amateur physicist. I recommend this book to any high school student who has had geometry, and to any scientific and non-scientific reader who is curious about the universe.
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Summary: Not-So-Difficult, But Wonderfully Challenging
Review: "Six Not-So-Easy Pieces" are six selections from the Feynman "Lectures on Physics". They represent not the hardest material to be found in the "Lectures" (and certainly not elsewhere concerning Feymnan's essays or other lectures) but perhaps some of the most thought-provoking and challenging conceptually (although, if you would like a conceptual challenge, check out Feynman's "QED"). Spacetime, Relativity (Special and General), Vectors, Symmetry --- there is no end to the knowledge and unique grasp of physics that Feynman possesses. I recommend this book highly to anyone with the impulse to ask, "Why?"
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Summary: Not So Easy But Oh So Worth It
Review: Feynman's Not So Easy Pieces is not so easy to get through, unless you have a degree in QED. But, it is worth trying to get through. Feynman brings to each piece his unique ability to describe the very complicated in a way that makes you understand what he is talking about if not exactly what he means. He never talks down to his audience so don't expect any favors - there is no grading on a curve in Feynman's universe. There are lots of ideas about how the universe works. More importantly for the non-scientist, there is way of looking at the world that is uniquely "scientific" - that is, amazed and informed by each thing in it.
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Summary: Not-so-easy to stop reading
Review: How refreshing it was to read Feynman's explanation of relativity after wading through Einstein's dry coverage of the same material. Perhaps the drama didn't come through in the translation from the German, but Feynman's account was so much more gripping. Moreover, Feynman went far beyond simply explaining the special and general theories of relativity; he pieced them together into the larger fabric of physics and pointed out all sorts of interesting curiosities along the way. If you want a solid introduction to relativity and you have an understanding of basic physics, this is the place to get it.
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Summary: NOT for the beginner.
Review: If you've got a fair background in beginning Calculus and elementary physics, you may find this book very worthwhile. I wouldn't know. Don't be fooled, however, by reviewers who claim that Feynman explains things in such a way that even without those basic tools, the book isn't incomprehensible. I've HAD basic calculus, albeit a LONG time ago, and I'm a tad rusty. And I have even less grounding in physics. But I'm far from mathematically illiterate, or incapable. And it isn't true that I got nothing out of my reading of this book; the sixth chapter did, in fact, answer the question that I'd hoped to have answered when I bought it. But by and large, the book was close to impenetrable. Now, clearly, this may well be due to my lack of preparation in the prerequisites for understanding it. But it definitely is NOT the first step in the process of understanding physics, as one reviewer actually called it and others implied. Read "Six Easy Pieces" first, and brush up on first-year Calculus. THEN consider tackling this book.
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Summary: Great lectures, though a bit out of place
Review: Six not so Easy Pieses is a small anthology of six pieces taken from Feynman's great classic, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, which were delivered to Caltech freshman. I would not recommend buying this book unless you have an excellent backround in calculus and how it relates to physics. I have read the first volume of the Lectures, and i will tell you it is nice having this to accompany it, since some of the chapters such as on Relativity merit to be read twice and since the Lectures is so bulky and heavy. There is no way someone can read understand what he's saying without knowing a good amount of math. Its like reading a book in which all the concepts are expressed in Greek. Also, these lectures were given during the middle of course, and he often mentions things which were discussed in previous lectures. The reason it gets a four is because the lectures are great (many great lectures were ommitted though), but it is too short and is out of place. This is NOT a great sequel to Six Easy Lectures, they have practically nothing to do with each other. The perfect sequal to Six Easy Lectures is the whole first volume of the Lectures.
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Summary: Six More Elegantly Explained Concepts
Review: Six Not-So-Easy Pieces is the sequel to the book Six Easy Pieces. The first book is a collection of six of the easier lectures from Feynman's freshman and sophomore physics classes at CalTech. Six Not-So-Easy Pieces are some of the more difficult lectures from those classes. In contrast to the first book, these lessons are much more mathematical. Freshman calculus is definitely a prerequisite to reading this book. Courses in vector calculus and differential equations will help the reader to more completely understand the works, but they are not absolutely necessary. However, without much mathematical knowledge, one can just take Feynman at his word for all the equations, reading mainly the conceptual explanations, but one will invariably miss out on some of the points. For anyone reading the book, Feynman's teaching style is something that can be enjoyed. He explains the concepts in a comprehensive and not-too-difficult manner and seems to have a full understanding of what the student in the lecture hall is thinking. The six topics (chapters) covered in this book are: Vectors, Symmetry in Physical Laws, The Special Theory of Relativity, Relativistic Energy and Motion, Space-Time, and Curved Space. This book is in no way a survey of physics. It is more of a sampling of Feynman's teaching. However, the common thread that runs through the six pieces is that they all relate to understanding relativity. For the layman who has a mathematical background and wants to understand the concept of relativity, this book is an excellent help. I would suggest reading Six Easy Pieces before reading this book, but it is not necessary. If you enjoyed reading the first book, I would highly recommend this one and vice versa.
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Summary: The "Theory" behind the Theory of Relativity
Review: These lectures where designed to give the student the reasoning behind relativity. Unlike some books, this book does not just explain the results or phenomena of relativity. Feynman actually explains the problems with Newton's laws and actually derives and gives the reasoning for Einstein's theories about relativity. These lectures need only some calculus and basic physics knowledge to appreciate. However, as with most bonfide scientific literature, the more "mathematically and scientifically mature" the reader the better. Feynman uses pieces of calculus (very basic stuff), algebra (symmetry, vector notation, cross products, and dot products), geometry (non-Euclidian), and basic physics knowledge (conservation laws, Newton's laws, Maxwell's equations etc). You don't need all of this to listen and understand the lectures, but obviously the more the better. Feynman also does a good job of explaining some the mathematics involved as well. The lectures pretty much follow the book so you can read along while you listen. These are actual lectures that Feynman gave at Caltech to undergraduates so they are very rigorous. In short, the lectures were clear, very understandable, and offer something to everyone. You don't need anything more than a solid background in calculus and introductory physics to get something out of these lectures.
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Summary: An adventure
Review: Though I'm not very excellent in Physic,I can understand what he wants to say easily. In the prosses of reading this book, you may find interesting for he never tells you the answer but guids you to find it by yourself. It's just like an adventure. In addition, if you are not satisfied with what you had learned, you can learn Feynman how to explain a thing more clearly and easily to people.
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Summary: From A Great Teacher
Review: Though the title implies it, this book is not really a sequal to the Six Easy Pieces. They can be read seperately. It treats some of the concepts centered around Special and General Relativity that revolutionized physics near the turn of the century. It would be impossible to find another book that can dive so deeply into topics such as symmetry and space-time, while bypassing formalism and exposing the fundemental ideas and signficance in every-day terms. The delivery is in lecture form, and while that makes it more authentic and real, the fact that this is a book and the reader is not really in a lecture, makes it a little awkward. One often gets the feeling that one had to be there to get the full benefit. There is little attempt at explaining the historical context and other niceties and focus is solely on the concepts themselves. One needs to have at least college level math background to follow the derivations. Feynman has done a phenomenal job in reducing such complex concepts into digestable pieces of conversation. There is no abstraction, everything is quantified. I especially enjoyed the chapter Curved Space, as I had never seen it treated so intimately. The self consistency of all these topics and how they are interrelated is elegantly presented.
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