The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume I

I found it interesting how radically different his teaching premise is from the current U.S. public school approach. From the preface:

I thought to address them to the most intelligent in the class and to make sure, if possible, that even the most intelligent student was unable to completely encompass everything that was in the lectures.

Original email from this morning to give some color:

Dear Feynman Lectures Forum Members,

Have you ever wished there was a high-quality up-to-date version of The Feynman Lectures on Physics available online? One that could be read with a browser so you could study FLP on your smartphone, tablet, notebook or desktop computer, whenever you felt like it? For free? Well, now there is, and you are among the first to hear about it!

A few words about the free HTML edition of FLP (New Millennium Edition)

It was an idea conceived many years ago, when through FL website correspondence I became aware of the many eager young minds who could benefit from reading FLP, who want to read it, but for economic or other reasons have no access to it, while at the same time I was becoming aware of the growing popularity of horrid scanned copies of old editions of FLP circulating on file-sharing and torrent websites. A free high-quality online edition was my proposed solution to both problems. All concerned agreed on the potential pedagogical benefits, but also had to be convinced that book sales would not be harmed. The conversion from LaTeX to HTML was expensive: we raised considerable funds, but ran out before finishing Volumes II and III, so we are only posting Volume I initially. (I am working on finishing Volumes II and III myself, as time permits, and will start posting chapters in the not-too-distant future, if all goes as planned.)

When you read our HTML edition you will notice a floating menu in the top right corner with Twitter, Facebook, and email buttons (to tell your friends about it!), navigation buttons ('last chapter,' 'table of contents', and 'next chapter'), a "contact us" button (that sends email to me), and a "Buy" button that links to a page of advertising for our books and ebooks, with links to retailers' web pages. To support our effort in producing and maintaining the HTML edition, and to help us keep it free, I would appreciate it very much if you would take some time to explore the retailer's pages through the links on our "Buy" page.

Enough said!

You can access the free HTML edition of FLP either by going to the home page of www.feynmanlectures.info and clicking on "Read," or you can go directly to it at either of two servers:

www.feynmanlectures.info/flp or www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu

(So what's the difference between the servers? I maintain the site at feynmanlectures.info, so changes are reflected there immediately. On the other hand, feynmanlectures.caltech.edu is generally faster and more responsive. The entire edition is mirrored from feynmanlectures.info to feynmanlectures.caltech.edu every day, so the latter is current within 24 hours.)

- hope you enjoy the new edition! If you like it, please tell your friends.

Best regards,

Mike Gottlieb Editor, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, New Millennium Edition

P.S. If you've received this email more than once, I apologize. We're having some problems with our mail servers this morning!

The whole universe is a hot, dense place.

If I recall the introduction correctly, the lectures were kindof a failed pedagogical experiment because of this - it worked well for the best students, but the mediocre/worse students did a fair amount worse than in previous years. I don't think Caltech continued to teach the first two years in the Feynman style after this.

But regardless, the lecture series is a wonderful overview on the actual physics, even if it doesn't work that well as a straight textbook.

Nope, it's just another way around: a vast, cold emptiness.