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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)

#101

Post by ontouchstart »

another_twist wrote: post #77
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 w…

I got a kindle Scribe which can load PDF, HTML and text files via iPhone Kindle App and read offline.

Since most pre-1925 books are out of copyright and free on https://gutenberg.org, ACM is open access (https://dl.acm.org/) and we have open https://arxiv.org/, it is the golden age for readers seeking original content.

We don’t need bots to read for us. We can live in the mind of human writers.

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

#102

Post by TwoFerMaggie »

jcranmer wrote: post #64
chadcmulligan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

misogynistic behaviors were cultural at the time, I agree they're abhorrent but people are embedded in their culture. The same is said of Hitchcock, (as an example) and his behaviour was unacceptable by todays standards. We've come some way from that but still a way to go. From the about the authors in the OP's link "Feynman was a remarkably effective educator. Of all his numerous awards, he was especially proud of t…

> misogynistic behaviors were cultural at the time, I agree they're abhorrent but people are embedded in their culture. Moral relativism is a thing, but I think a more useful way to think of it rather than just saying "misogyny was a thing back then, should we care he was a misogynist then?" is to ask "if he were to have lived and worked in the 2000s, would he associate with Epstein?" And to be honest… Feynman does s…

> would he associate with Epstein?

This is from Lawrence Krauss[0]'s email to Epstein[1]:

> ps. I have decided that Feynman would have done what I did... and I am therefore content.. no matter what... :)

> On Apr 6, 2011, at 3:56 PM, Jeffrey Epstein wrote:

> what evidence? no real sex.. where is she getting her so called facts

Krauss's letter is obviously horrible in its implications. What's interesting to me is his interpretation of what Feynman would have done. Is it his delusional justification of what he'd done with Epstein, or is it based on a certain reputation of Feynman in the science community?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Krauss [1] https://www.epstein.media/files/house_oversight_030915/

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

#103

Post by xorphex »

iberator wrote: post #100
xorphex wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean this part? "I adopted the attitude that those bar girls are all bitches, that they aren't worth anything, and all they're in there for is to get you to buy them a drink, and they're not going to give you a goddamn thing; I'm not going to be a gentleman to such worthless bitches, and so on." Great advice! Not misogynistic at all!

There is a whole chapter about it, and it's not mysogonic. He addressed the problem of females who simply eat and drink for free EXPLOITING stupid dudes as the default mode of partying. That's why he is hostile to them with I highly recommend reading it. It's not worse than calling someone who exploits drunk women as 'dickhead'. Lastly the word 'bitch' used here is an important part of the particular story where he u…

I have read the whole chapter, and my criticism is not based on taking a single quote out of context. Your framing reduces women in that environment to a single stereotype ("girls exploiting men for drinks"), and the suggested response is to adopt deliberate hostility and disrespect as a strategy; it is generalizing an entire group and justifying contempt toward them. The "lesson" explicitly encourages treating interactions as transactional and frames social interaction primarily as a negotiation for sex. Whether or not some individuals behave opportunistically, promoting that mindset as a general rule is ethically questionable.

Most importantly, the outcome does not validate the approach as healthy behaviour and even Feynman himself makes it clear at the end that the method was effective in a narrow sense but not enjoyable or aligned with how he ultimately wanted to interact with people. That distancing is important context: it suggests the episode was more an observation about social dynamics than a recommendation for how people should behave.

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

#104

Post by jesuslop »

dgfl wrote: post #34
jesuslop wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, he also talks about quantum computing (a first?): p. 191, "We now go on to consider how such a computer can also be built using the laws of quantum mechanics. We are going to write a Hamiltonian, for a system of interacting parts, which will behave in the same way as a large system in serving as a universal computer." p. 196: "In general, in quantum mechanics, the outgoing state at time t is eⁱᴴᵗ Ψᵢₙ whe…

Feynman is indeed often quoted among the first people to propose the idea of a quantum computer! This talk he gave in ‘81 is among the earliest discussion of why a quantum universe requires a quantum computer to be simulated [1]: > Can a quantum system be probabilisticaUy simulated by a classical (probabilistic, I'd assume) universal computer? In other words, a computer which will give the same probabilities as the q…

IBM (atoms) [1989]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_%28atoms%29

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

#105

Post by [deleted] »

h33t-l4x0r wrote: post #72
traes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#106

Post by srean »

chadrs wrote: post #13

"the sham legacy of Richard Feynman" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc

His wife allegedly secretly reported him to the FBI as a potential spy, communist, security risk, fraud. It was an anonymous letter.

Given how different this wife's (second wife) description of Feynman compared to others is, that there are no record of complaints from first wife, the way her younger sister describes him, it could well be an earlier repeat of the now familiar Johnny Depp story, where it's not initially clear who the abusive person here is.

The marriage was certainly not a happy one and some people turn vindictive, turn to smearing characters. Especially if the person has narcissistic tendencies.

[Who Smeared Feynman] https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/07/11/smeared-richard-f...

Submitted at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46974999

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

#107

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

ShamLegacyTldr wrote: post #67
chadrs wrote: post #13

"the sham legacy of Richard Feynman" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc

Let's be clear about this video; the "sham legacy" is the commercialization/exploitation of Feynman's legacy after he died. Feynman was not a charlatan. Collier doesn't claim he is. She talks about the very real contributions he made. Her criticism is largely about the way people scraped together any scrap of paper he had jotted down a note on and turned it into a thin book, "Feynman on XYZ topic". But yes, he does c…

It should be knee-jerk dismissed because the submission topic is the textbooks, not the man, and it's derailed discussion into a tangent about his personal shortcomings. Not exactly in the spirit of intellectual curiosity HN tries to foster.

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

#108

Post by jcranmer »

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #89
jcranmer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> misogynistic behaviors were cultural at the time, I agree they're abhorrent but people are embedded in their culture. Moral relativism is a thing, but I think a more useful way to think of it rather than just saying "misogyny was a thing back then, should we care he was a misogynist then?" is to ask "if he were to have lived and worked in the 2000s, would he associate with Epstein?" And to be honest… Feynman does s…

> That's the real strong vibe I get from Surely You're Joking. He's the kind of person who wants to be seen as someone who gets up to wacky hijinks, to be seen as "cool," and he specifically interprets "cool" in a way that's misogynistic even at a time (when he was dictating the stories that led to Surely You're Joking) when misogyny was starting to become a professional hindrance. In my experience, everyone who says…

It's been decades since I read Surely You're Joking, and I've completely forgotten about that chapter. It plays no part in my conscious recollection of the book.

The episode that really stuck in my mind was the episode about his competition with the abacus-user, who was better at math, which essentially ends with him giving up trying to explain how he could mental math a cube root faster, because the abacus-user was just someone who couldn't understand a math explanation.

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

#110

Post by srean »

h33t-l4x0r wrote: post #72
traes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> She got the house and he got the bongos.

Both were likely happy with that outcome

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46975068

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