I completed my last Physics class in 1964, and I still go back to these lectures from time to time simply because they're a joy to read. OK, I'll admit I spent 35 years developing system software and I have a life long love of math and science, but I think these...
See moreI completed my last Physics class in 1964, and I still go back to these lectures from time to time simply because they're a joy to read. OK, I'll admit I spent 35 years developing system software and I have a life long love of math and science, but I think these lectures are accessible to anyone who wants to actually understand what physics is all about. Dr. Feynman is able to present the concepts in a way that gets past the "here's the formula, memorize it" approach that many introductory presentations have been reduced to. If you persist, you will be rewarded with an understanding of how all those odd sounding bits fit together and at least some idea of how it all works. Taking on these three volumes is a daunting task, but if you truly want to grasp this material, you won't find a shorter or easier path to getting there. You can read all kinds of popularizations relating to the voodoo of quantum mechanics, the time twisting of relativity, and the unfathomability of the smallest and the largest scales of the universe, but if you want to glimpse the reality behind the magic you need to recognize that a lot of very, very smart people have spent the past few hundred years sorting it out. The fact that all this can be made comprehensible to us mere mortals at all is a major accomplishment.
I completed my last Physics class in 1964, and I still go back to these lectures from time to time simply because they're a joy to read.
OK, I'll admit I spent 35 years developing system software and I have a life long love of math and science, but I think these lectures are accessible to anyone who wants to actually understand what physics is all about. Dr. Feynman is able to present the concepts in a way that gets past the "here's the formula, memorize it" approach that many introductory presentations have been reduced to. If you persist, you will be rewarded with an understanding of how all those odd sounding bits fit together and at least some idea of how it all works.
Taking on these three volumes is a daunting task, but if you truly want to grasp this material, you won't find a shorter or easier path to getting there. You can read all kinds of popularizations relating to the voodoo of quantum mechanics, the time twisting of relativity, and the unfathomability of the smallest and the largest scales of the universe, but if you want to glimpse the reality behind the magic you need to recognize that a lot of very, very smart people have spent the past few hundred years sorting it out. The fact that all this can be made comprehensible to us mere mortals at all is a major accomplishment.
