The Feynman Lectures On Physics

Information about The Feynman Lectures On Physics

Cover of the book on quantum mechanics

The Feynman Lectures on Physics, by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynman's most accessible technical work, and is considered a classic introduction to modern physics, including lectures on mathematics, electromagnetism, Newtonian physics, quantum physics, and even the relation of physics to other sciences. The three volumes were compiled from material presented in a 2-year introductory physics course given in the early 1960s by Feynman at Caltech. Six readily accessible chapters were later compiled into a book entitled Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher, and six more in Six Not So Easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry and Space-Time.

The first volume focuses on mechanics, radiation, and heat. The second volume is mainly on electromagnetism and matter. The third volume, on quantum mechanics, shows, for example, how the double-slit experiment contains the essential features of quantum mechanics.

Background

By 1960 Richard Feynman was already a legend in his own time; at age 42 his research and discoveries in physics had resolved a number of troubling inconsistencies in several fundamental theories. In particular, it was his work in quantum electrodynamics which would lead to the award in 1965 of the Nobel Prize in physics. At the same time that Feynman was at the pinnacle of his fame, the faculty of the California Institute of Technology was concerned about the quality of the introductory courses being offered to the undergraduate students. It was felt that these were burdened by an old fashioned syllabus and that the exciting discoveries of recent years, many of which had occurred at Caltech, were not being conveyed to the students.

Thus it was decided to reconfigure the first physics course offered to students at Caltech, with the goal being to generate more excitement in the students. Who better to teach this course than the most famous lecturer of physics on campus? To the surprise of the Department, Feynman readily agreed to give the course, though only once. Aware of the fact that this would be a historic event, Caltech recorded each lecture and took photographs of each drawing made on the blackboard by Feynman.

Based on the lectures and the tape recordings, a team of physicists and graduate students put together a manuscript that would become Richard Feynman's most widely read and influential scientific work: The Feynman Lectures on Physics.

As the two-year course (1961-63) was still being completed, word of it spread throughout the physics community. In a special preface to the 1989 edition, David Goodstein and Gerry Neugebauer claim that, as time went on the attendance by registered students dropped sharply but was matched by a compensating increase in the number of faculty and graduate students. Sands, in his memoir accompanying the 2005 edition, contests this claim.

Addison-Wesley 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 Robert Leighton. Some of the problems are sophisticated enough to require understanding of topics as advanced as Kolmogorov's zero-one law, for example.

Addison-Wesley also released all the audio tapes of the lectures, over 103 hours with Richard Feynman, in CD format after remastering the sound and clearing the recordings.

In March of 1964, Feynman appeared before the freshman physics class as a guest lecturer, but the notes for this lecture were lost for a number of years. They were finally located, restored, and made available as .

In 2005, Michael A. Gottlieb and Ralph Leighton co-authored Feynman's Tips on Physics, which includes four of Feynman's freshman lectures (three on problem solving, one on inertial guidance) not included in the main text, a memoir by Matt Sands about the origins of the Feynman Lectures on Physics, and exercises (with answers) that were assigned to students by Robert Leighton and Rochus Vogt in recitation sections of the Feynman Lectures course at Caltech.

Volume 1. Mainly mechanics, radiation, and heat

Preface "When new ideas came in, I would try either to deduce them if they were deducible or to explain that it was a new idea ... and which was not supposed to be provable."
Chapter 1. Atoms in motion
Chapter 2. Basic Physics
Chapter 3. The relation of physics to other sciences
Chapter 4. Conservation of energy
Chapter 5. Time and distance
Chapter 6. Probability
Chapter 7. The theory of gravitation
Chapter 8. Motion
Chapter 9. Newton's laws of dynamics
Chapter 10. Conservation of momentum
Chapter 11. Vectors
Chapter 12. Characteristics of force
Chapter 13. Work and potential energy (A)
Chapter 14. Work and potential energy (conclusion)
Chapter 15. The special theory of relativity
Chapter 16. Relativistic energy and momentum
Chapter 17. Space-time
Chapter 18. Rotation in two dimensions
Chapter 19. Center of mass; Moment of inertia
Chapter 20. Rotation in space
Chapter 21. The harmonic oscillator
Chapter 22. Algebra
Chapter 23. Resonance
Chapter 24. Transients
Chapter 25. Linear systems and review
Chapter 26. Optics: The principle of least time
Chapter 27. Geometrical optics
Chapter 28. Electromagnetic radiation
Chapter 29. Interference
Chapter 30. Diffraction
Chapter 31. The origin of the refractive index
Chapter 32. Radiation damping. Light scattering
Chapter 33. Polarization
Chapter 34. Relativistic effects in radiation
Chapter 35. Color vision
Chapter 36.
Chapter 37. Quantum behavior
Chapter 38. The Relation of Wave and particle viewpoints
Chapter 39. The kinetic theory of gases
Chapter 40. The principles of statistical mechanics
Chapter 41. The brownian movement
Chapter 42. Applications of kinetic theory
Chapter 43. Diffusion
Chapter 44. The laws of thermodynamics
Chapter 45. Illustrations of thermodynamics
Chapter 46. Ratchet and pawl
Chapter 47. Sound. The wave equation
Chapter 48. Beats
Chapter 49. Modes
Chapter 50. Harmonics
Chapter 51. Waves
Chapter 52. Symmetry in physical laws

Volume 2. Mainly electromagnetism and matter

Chapter 1. Electromagnetism
Chapter 2. Differential calculus of vector fields
Chapter 3. Vector integral calculus
Chapter 4. Electrostatics
Chapter 5. Application of Gauss' law
Chapter 6. The electric field in various circumstances
Chapter 7. The electric field in various circumstances (continued)
Chapter 8. Electrostatic energy
Chapter 9. Electricity in the atmosphere
Chapter 10. Dielectrics
Chapter 11. Inside dielectrics
Chapter 12. Electrostatic analogs
Chapter 13. Magnetostatics
Chapter 14. The magnetic field in various situations
Chapter 15. The vector potential
Chapter 16. Induced currents
Chapter 17. The laws of induction
Chapter 18. The Maxwell equations
Chapter 19. The principle of least action
Chapter 20. Solutions of Maxwell's equations in free space
Chapter 21. Solutions of Maxwell's equations with currents and charges
Chapter 22. AC circuits
Chapter 23. Cavity resonators
Chapter 24. Waveguides
Chapter 25. Electrodynamics in relativistic notation
Chapter 26. Lorentz transformations of the fields
Chapter 27. Field energy and field momentum
Chapter 28. Electromagnetic mass
Chapter 29. The motion of charges in electric and magnetic fields
Chapter 30. The internal geometry of crystals
Chapter 31. Tensors
Chapter 32. Refractive index of dense materials
Chapter 33. Reflection from surfaces
Chapter 34. The magnetism of matter
Chapter 35. Paramagnetism and magnetic resonance
Chapter 36. Ferromagnetism
Chapter 37. Magnetic materials
Chapter 38. Elasticity
Chapter 39. Elastic materials
Chapter 40. The flow of dry water
Chapter 41. The flow of wet water
Chapter 42. Curved space

Volume 3. Quantum mechanics

Chapter 1. Quantum behavior
Chapter 2. The relation of wave and particle viewpoints
Chapter 3. Probability amplitudes
Chapter 4. Identical particles
Chapter 5. Spin one
Chapter 6. Spin one-half
Chapter 7. The dependence of amplitudes on time
Chapter 8. The Hamiltonian matrix
Chapter 9. The ammonia maser
Chapter 10. Other two-state systems
Chapter 11. More two-state systems
Chapter 12. The hyperfine splitting in hydrogen
Chapter 13. Propagation in a crystal lattice
Chapter 14. Semiconductors
Chapter 15. The independent particle approximation
Chapter 16. The dependence of amplitudes on position
Chapter 17. Symmetry and conservation laws
Chapter 18. Angular momentum
Chapter 19. The hydrogen atom and the periodic table
Chapter 20. Operators
Chapter 21. The Schrödinger equation in a classical context: a seminar on superconductivity

Abbreviated editions

"Six Easy Pieces grew out of the need to bring to as wide an audience as possible a substantial yet non-technical physics primer based on the science of Richard Feynman.... General readers are fortunate that Feynman chose to present certain key topics in largely qualitative terms without formal mathematics...."

Six Easy Pieces (1994)

Chapters

Atoms in motion
Basic Physics
The relation of physics to other sciences
Conservation of energy
The theory of gravitation
Quantum behavior

Six Not So Easy Pieces (1998)

Chapters

Quotations

Feynman once commented, about these three volumes: "[This set of books] has views which are very close to my own."

External Links

Official web site with Feynman's exercise problems and errata
The Douglas Robb Memorial Lectures Free-to-view videos provided by the Vega Science Trust.

Publishing information

The Feynman Lectures on Physics (with Leighton and Sands). 3 volumes 1964, 1966. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 63-20717
:* ISBN 0-201-02115-3 (1970 paperback three-volume set)
:* ISBN 0-201-50064-7 (1989 commemorative hardcover three-volume set)
:* ISBN 0-8053-9045-6 (2006 the definitive edition (2nd printing); hardcover)
Feynman's Tips On Physics: A Problem-Solving Supplement to the Feynman Lectures on Physics (hardcover) ISBN 0-8053-9063-4
Six Easy Pieces (hardcover book with original Feynman audio on CDs) ISBN 0-201-40896-1
Six Easy Pieces (paperback book) ISBN 0-201-40825-2
Six Not-So-Easy Pieces (paperback book with original Feynman audio on CDs) ISBN 0-201-32841-0
Six Not-So-Easy Pieces (paperback book) ISBN 0-201-32842-9
Exercises for the Feynman Lectures (paperback book) ISBN 2-356-48789-1 from the Caltech Bookstore

Richard Phillips Feynman

Richard Feynman, dust jacket photo for
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
Born May 11 1918
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Robert B. Leighton (September 10, 1919–March 9, 1997) was an American physicist who spent his professional career at the California Institute of Technology. His bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. degrees were all from Caltech; he joined the faculty in 1949.
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Mathematics (colloquially, maths or math) is the body of knowledge centered on such concepts as quantity, structure, space, and change, and also the academic discipline that studies them. Benjamin Peirce called it "the science that draws necessary conclusions".
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Electromagnetism is the physics of the electromagnetic field: a field which exerts a force on particles that possess the property of electric charge, and is in turn affected by the presence and motion of those particles.
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Classical mechanics (commonly confused with Newtonian mechanics, which is a subfield thereof) is used for describing the motion of macroscopic objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, as well as astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies.
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quantum mechanics is the study of the relationship between energy quanta (radiation) and matter, in particular that between valence shell electrons and photons. Quantum mechanics is a fundamental branch of physics with wide applications in both experimental and theoretical physics.
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California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech)^[1] is a private, coeducational research university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. Caltech maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering.
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For other uses, see Mechanic (disambiguation).

Mechanics (Greek Μηχανική
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Radiation as used in physics, is energy in the form of waves or moving subatomic particles. Radiation can be classified as ionizing or non-ionizing radiation, depending on its effect on atomic matter.
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matter is commonly defined as the substance of which physical objects are composed, not counting the contribution of various energy or force-fields, which are not usually considered to be matter per se (though they may contribute to the mass of objects).
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π due to reflection at the interface of a denser medium)

Quantum version of experiment

By the 1920s, various other experiments (such as the photoelectric effect) had demonstrated that light interacts with matter only in discrete, "quantum"-sized packets called photons.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
1957 1958 1959 - 1960 - 1961 1962 1963

Year 1960 (MCMLX
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Richard Phillips Feynman

Richard Feynman, dust jacket photo for
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
Born May 11 1918
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Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. QED was developed by a number of physicists, beginning in the late 1920s.^[1]
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
1962 1963 1964 - 1965 - 1966 1967 1968

Year 1965 (MCMLXV
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In probability theory, Kolmogorov's zero-one law, named in honor of Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, specifies that a certain type of event, called a tail event, will either almost surely happen or almost surely not happen; that is, the probability of such an event occurring
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Physics is the science of matter^[1] and its motion^[2]^[3], as well as space and time^[4]^[5] —the science that deals with concepts such as force, energy, mass, and charge.
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Science (from the Latin scientia, 'knowledge'), in the broadest sense, refers to any systematic knowledge or practice.^[1] Examples of the broader use included political science and computer science, which are not incorrectly named, but rather named according to
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conservation of energy states that the total amount of energy in any closed system remains constant but can be recreated, although it may change forms, e.g. friction turns kinetic energy into thermal energy.
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time.

One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence, and time itself is something that can be measured.
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Distance is a numerical description of how far apart objects are at any given moment in time. In physics or everyday discussion, distance may refer to a physical length, a period of time, or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two counties over").
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Probability is the likelihood that something is the case or will happen. Probability theory is used extensively in areas such as statistics, mathematics, science and philosophy to draw conclusions about the likelihood of potential events and the underlying mechanics of
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The word theory has a number of distinct meanings in different fields of knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion.

In common usage, people often use the word theory to signify a conjecture, an opinion, or a speculation.
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Gravitation is a natural phenomenon by which all objects with mass attract each other. In everyday life, gravitation is most familiar as the agency that endows objects with weight.
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