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The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a three volume collection of an experimental two year series of class lectures given to freshman and sophmore physics students at Caltech university given by Richard Feynman in 1962. The collection was then published two years later when professional physicist Robert Leighton edited the text into book format.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics are perhaps his most accessible work for anyone with an interest in physics. His original lectures were so popular that by the end of the first semester, there were more regular attendees that weren't officially registed for the class than were.
The collection is now commonly considered to be the classic introduction to modern physics, including information on mathematics, Newtonian physics, quantum physics, and even the relation of physics to other sciences. The six most readily accessible chapters of the book were later compiled into a book entitled Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher, and the next six hardest in Six Not So Easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry and Space-Time.
The first volume, for example, shows how to solve the N-body differential equation for the motion of the planets numerically, a feat which would have impressed Isaac Newton. The second volume is mainly on electrodynamics and electromagnetism. The third volume, on quantum mechanics, shows, for example, how the double-slit experiment contains the essential feature of quantum mechanics.
Addison-Wesley also published a collection of problems to accompany the Feynman Lectures on Physics. The problem sets were first used in the 1962-63 academic year and organized by R. B. Leighton.
Quotes about the Feynman Lectures on Physics
- Feynman once commented, about these three volumes: "[This set of books] has views which are very close to my own."
Publishing Information
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (with Leighton and Sands). 3 volumes 1964, 1966. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 63-20717
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