Feynman Lectures On Physics (3 Volume Set)

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Summary: What I think so far
Review: I just finished high school having done well in physics AP's. I am now reading through the feynman lectures (about a third of a way through volume 1). I think they are great if you already have some knowledge of essential mechanics problem solving. Certainly his section on probability and introduction to the heisenberg uncertainty principle is absolutely original and fascinating. Also the book is fun to read.
Importantly, Feynman is unpretentious in stating physical principles. He states Newton's 2nd law in its original form as it should be by deriving it from momentum considerations. Many introductory texts will simply state the second law and then prove it later or not at all the way Newton intended.
Another thing about these books: They set the goal as the truth. Most textbooks will simply define things like gravitation in a sort of standard way so that it can be learned as simply as possible. Most textbooks make the error of considering the absolute truth as a hindrance to learning. Feynman is great because when he shows diagrams of a box with some atoms in it he mentions the fact that the world is 3-d and most of the time you wouldn't see atoms of that particular type in the classroom in a diagram of that size.
THese books are great because even though they stray from the real world as all abstract texts do, Feynman revisits the real world and applies his abstractions to it in a common sense way. THe humor of the paradox of not knowing the essential truths of life yet knowing all these complex formulas is always wandering about this book. Feynman tries to connect these beautiful and true abstract concepts to the beautiful and yet totally non-abstract concepts of human life: Like a walk in the park.!

Rating:
Summary: a wonderful introduction to physics
Review: I love these books. I read them when I was a graduate student in mathematics as part of my transition from pure to applied mathematics. I had no background in physics at all, and these books were a very good way to get introduced to the subject. Feynman is one of those people that sees things in a way that is almost magical to everyone else, and he was a masterful teacher.

That said, these are real physics books, so don't bother if you are looking for a superficial understanding. If you already know physics you can probably breeze through the books pretty easily getting a lot of nice insights, but otherwise you need to be prepared to work hard. Also, as a self-teaching tool, these books are incomplete, since they contain no problems, and actually don't prepare you very well to do problems (unless, perhaps, you are as smart as Feynman). For that you probably need a more conventional physics text. I used Jannerstan's book "Mathematical Physics", which I recommend if you can find it because it has lots of problems with complete solutions in the back of the book, but there are many other good, more pedestrian, physics texts to supplement FLP.

If what you want is something lighter, I highly recommend "The Character of Physical Law". You'll learn something and it won't hurt so much. (I also recommend that you see the movies if you possibly can. He was amazing in front of an audience.)

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Summary: A classic-- but not really for everyone
Review: The Feynman lectures on physics is a transcript of some of the lectures Feynman gave at the California Institute of Technology to freshman and sophomore students. It was somewhat of an "experiment"; feynman had never done this before. He purposed to adress these lectures to the most "intelligent" of the class. It should be no surprise that these lectures are difficult. Caltech students are among the highest scoring on the math college boards of the country; they can handle the math, so often used in these lectures. Feynman often assumes knowledge of certain subjects. These are some things that are helpfull to understanding the content the first volume: equation of oscilliating spring, Newton's equation of gravitation, fundamental algebra, trigonometry, a couple theorems of geometry... Calculus is definately helpfull to know, as Feynman's lecture on its principles is just a reminder to the students he was adressing, most of which were already proficient in the matter. These things aside, this texbook is one of the best college texbooks you can get; lucid, interesting, and very challenging. Feynman at his best; he can be quite humourous at times: i personally love it when he makes fun of the philosphers. So buy the book, but don't get discouraged if it's hard.