Feynman Lectures I all about 'Gorce'

For about fifty years for Physics Students, around the globe, the Feynman Lectures something of a trademark; This three-volume introduction work has been translated into a dozen languages ​​and alone of the English-language editions, there are 1.5 million copies; making it the most widely used physics book.

Early 60s deliberate Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton and Matthew Sands at Caltech, as the two-year introductory physics course could be interesting designed and better adapted to the modern developments of the department; the usual beschäftigtet students with inclined planes and problems of electrostatics before they got to hear of the 'cool' ideas of relativity and quantum mechanics. Acting on a proposal from Sands Feynman should stay the course for the first time in the academic years 1961/62 and 62/63, by the means of tape recordings, the manuscripts of the present volumes have been written, which appeared in 1964 for the first time.

In the preface Feynman attracts a fairly pessimistic summary of its exchange rate experiment, too many students would have remained on the plug. Kip Thorne, who contributed the foreword to the Millennium Edition, has interviewed several former participants by email, in fact, many have lectures as a highlight of their study time in memory ('transforming experience' or 'It was like going to church') some came but with Feynman's very special physics to operate not cope: ... as long as you listened F., everything was obvious they wanted to recap what they hear later, it did not work ... --- an experience that even shared several colleagues occasionally as Albert Hibbs in 'No Ordinary Genius' reports.

After Richard Feynman had accepted to keep the new physics lectures for beginners, he worked intensively on their conception, he wanted the matter in his own way to solve therefore best, he was already famous for, to look at problems from many different angles, and could thus always surprise you with amazing abbreviations; he put some rules on each lecture should be shot in essentially every issue be taken up only once, so no 'provisional' explanations that would later be revised or expanded, everything said should be understood from the foregoing, unless it is explicitly mentioned otherwise, so the listener can always keep in mind a 'map' of the subject matter. In fact, Feynman was a gifted lecturer, his notes were usually only two sheets of paper, but he had the matter thoughtfully designed, including its Tableware choreography, he started in the top left, and when he arrived rechsts down and chalk out hand lay, had come with his topic 'just in time' to an end.

Among others This first volume deals with Newtonian mechanics, the foundations of special relativity, electromagnetic radiation, the kinetic theory of gases and statistical mechanics, and the quantum behavior in the field of atomic mechanics. Apart from the already mentioned early insertions of relativity and quantum mechanics, this list is certainly comparable to the themes of many similar introductory courses with material for about a year. But unique is the Feynman vision of things: Feynman wants to convey not only the necessary facts, he would also like some of 'the pleasure of finding things out' give, he takes at length time to explain the principle of conservation of energy with his blocks metaphor , potential energy is modeled after the Carnot process, using simple mechanical machines discussed; 'warn' to the reader in front of the tautological interpretation of Newton's second law, he invents 'Gorce' ... all this to illustrate again and again that it's not about definitional terms introduced, but the ever anew stunning revelation that behind many natural phenomena, recognizable, simple laws stand. This can be seen to understand their character exactly, and to see how far-reaching conclusions can be drawn if necessary, that's the heart of the understanding of physics as Feynman it lived, and how he wanted to convey it in his lectures on.

The 'Feynman Lectures' were certainly not often used as a lecture script outside the Caltech again, and for the reasons stated, they are as 'very first' physics textbook certainly a challenge, but in addition to many exchange rate Requirements / Restrictions, they are for generation of students and all other physics enthusiasts always been a source of inspiration and original collection Feynmanscher ideas.

Over the years, these books have found the net a loyal band of enthusiasts who operated several pages of tasks, solutions, Guess and stories about this work, which can be a valuable complement to reading.