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The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1961-1964)

feynmanlectures.caltech.edu

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Re: The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1961-1964)

#71

Post by CaptainNegative »

colmmacc wrote: post #3

Lesser known but possibly more relevant to most HN readers are Feynman's lectures on computation - https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Gentoomen%20Library/Extra/Richard... . There's some really great explanations in there of computability, information theory, entropy, thermodynamics, and more. Very little of it is now out-dated.

I feel like the section on primality testing with Fermat's test should at least make a shout out to Carmichael numbers and that for some inputs the probability you get a false positive result is 1.

Re: The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1961-1964)

#72

Post by h33t-l4x0r »

traes wrote: post #21
DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy invented the path integral in his PhD thesis. He invented Feynman diagrams and figured out how to do finite calculations in quantum electrodynamics. Unless you're a perfect human being, please, cut him just a tiny bit of slack.

I understand not watching a 3 hour video before leaving a comment, but this is a disrespectful reaction to a very well thought out video by a professional physicist giving a nuanced opinion about Feynman's legacy. She acknowledges many times in the video that Feynman was a great physicist who deserved his Nobel prize. The central topic of the video is dissecting his public image and the many books published under his…

His wife accused him of choking her when she interrupted his science. She also accused him of playing the bongos too loud.

This was during divorce testimony. She got the house and he got the bongos.

Re: The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1961-1964)

#76

Post by pstuart »

shanemhansen wrote: post #43
delichon wrote: post #11

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars—mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is 'mere.' I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination—stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern—of which I am a part—perhaps my stuff was belched from some forgotten star, as one is belc…

I've thought of this quote a bunch and I came up with my own addon. "Some people think that the magic of something wondrous is diminished when it's understood. I feel bad for those people." -- Shanemhansen

"Magic is the inducement of awe." -- pstuart

Re: The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1961-1964)

#77

Post by another_twist »

pm90 wrote: post #5

I have the print version and have been working through them slowly. Funnily enough I didn’t find it very useful when I had physics classes in school/uni since most of those classes were just memorizing equations and solving problems. But now that there is no exams pressure, it makes for such wonderful reading! I think its not just an introduction to physics but to the scientific method itself. Its first principles ap…

Self study is the best study. Out of all the bloatedness of modern education, one thing that doesnt bother me is the high cost of textbooks. High quality books and a habit of studying yourself enables you to learn high skill disciplines on the cheap.

For me, I am currently slogging through Lazlo Lovasz's combinatorics book and another one on Monte Carlo method. Dont know why but its just a good way to pass the time while staying away from the internet and its attention hogging.

Re: The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1961-1964)

#80

Post by DiogenesKynikos »

traes wrote: post #21
DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy invented the path integral in his PhD thesis. He invented Feynman diagrams and figured out how to do finite calculations in quantum electrodynamics. Unless you're a perfect human being, please, cut him just a tiny bit of slack.

I understand not watching a 3 hour video before leaving a comment, but this is a disrespectful reaction to a very well thought out video by a professional physicist giving a nuanced opinion about Feynman's legacy. She acknowledges many times in the video that Feynman was a great physicist who deserved his Nobel prize. The central topic of the video is dissecting his public image and the many books published under his…

I've watched large sections of this video before, because it gets posted often. It's a 2-year-old video.

Based on that viewing, I think the author has a chip on her shoulder about Feynman, and is dismissive about his teaching and books, and is set on convicting him of being a very naughty boy.

One of the things that stand out from the video: The speaker says that Feynman didn't write the Feynman lectures. Wrong. He wrote and delivered the lectures. If you go to Caltech's Feynman lectures website, they even have audio of him delivering the lectures [0] and photographs of the chalk board [1]. How could someone make a 3-hour-long video about Feynman and not even know this?

Feynman was an immensely gifted physicist and one of the most (maybe the most) engaging and innovative physics teachers of the last century. You can criticize him for embellishing stories about himself, but those stories are incredibly entertaining and quirky, which is why so many people like them. He was a big personality, and it comes out in his stories. He wasn't a perfect person, but no one is, and there has been a movement in the last few years to try to demonize him (mostly unsuccessfully, given Feynman's continued popularity).

Finally, if one makes a video with a title like, "the sham legacy of Richard Feynman," one can't complain about getting pushback.

0. https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/recordings.html

1. https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_01.html

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