#71 overall
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
Caltech
5 recommenders · 5 threads · recommended in 4 years, 2015–2022 · score 7.1
The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a three-volume undergraduate physics course from Caltech, based on Richard Feynman's 1960s lectures, covering mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and more. It is freely available online as well as in print.
Commenters call it an amazing introduction to undergraduate physics and say it sparks enthusiasm for the subject, though one notes it is better for inspiration than as a primary teaching text.
Science & Engineeringintermediatefreevideo lectures#physics#feynman#undergraduate#mechanics#electromagnetism#quantum mechanics
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20062026
I would strongly recommend Feynman's lectures as an amazing intro to undergrad physics.
http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
As a counterpoint, I am someone who did self-learn physics from Feynman's lectures as a teenager and I would highly recommend it to others to at least give it a try.
You have to appreciate just how much of a factor pure interest and enthusiasm for a subject is in learning it - and Feynman's lectures are just amazing for sparking that joy in physics. I discovered Feynman's lectures about two months into my first year of high school and it became my primary textbook. I just found the other texts too goddamned boring in comparison.
You might try Feynman's Lectures on Physics. They're available free online [0] or you can get a nicely bound boxed set.
[0] https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
A classic; but still a very recommended series are the Feynman Lectures on Physics: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
Mathematics books normally have an excellent signal to noise ratio. The difficulty is finding ones that are both important and not too difficult or specialized; textbooks are usually a good starting point.
I can recommend Feynman's lectures on physics and Bruno de Finetti's "Theory of Probability. A Critical Introductory Treatment".
Ignoring the moral question in the story, many people are satisfied by saying "haha funny, the cat is both dead and alive" and they just move on.
Reading Pratchett for almost 30 years, it has fueled quite an interested in quantum mechanics in me, he subtly introduces QM teasers in almost every book I read. Particularly Mort.
As I dropped out of highschool, I didnt have the luck to properly study physics, but in my 30s, I my existential crisis hit, as they say, a man dies twice, and the stupid half dead cat wouldn't leave me alone. And one night the omnipotent youtube algorithm recommended Susskind's lectures to me, then Feynman, Shankar, .. it just kept going. Now I watch and re-watch them but take screenshots and send them to claude when I am confused (which is still most of the time).
If you are a layman like me and just want to know what is up with the cat, I encourage you to watch Sean Carroll's lectures (dont miss the Q&A videos) and it will for sure allow you to ask at least better questions.
I love that cat so much.
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Sean Carroll: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI09kat_GeI&list=PLrxfgDEc2N...
Richard Feynman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kFOXP026eE&list=PLS3_1JNX8d... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAnnEiAjN6U&list=PLYZ3-8b-4z...
Leonard Susskind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyX8kQ-JzHI&list=PL6i60qoDQh...
Ramamurti Shankar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2eFv7ne_Q&list=PLF366409F5...
Barton Zwiebach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jANZxzetPaQ&list=PLUl4u3cNGP...
Carl Bender: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYNOGk3ZjFM&list=PL43B1963F2...
If you struggle with calculus, I found Herb Gross to be partucularly good
Herb Gross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFRWDuduuSw&list=PL3B08AE665...
Of course watch 3blue1brown, alphaphoenix, styropyro etc as well
It's unclear whether atomic-level data would be useful in these sorts of calculations - the input data isn't known to sufficient precision. For more, check out the last two paragraphs from the Feynman Lectures Vol III Chapter 2:
http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/III_02.html
A similar sort of mechanism led to the discover of chaotic behavior in weather models - checkpointing results at a precision slightly lower than the machine's internal precision caused simulations that were resumed from the checkpoint to deviate rapidly.
I never thought of Feynman in this way. At first those quotes on his view of router mechanics seems average at best, but the Danny Hills followups were really interesting and give me new light on Feynman's quotes. Thanks!
I learned a lot from his lectures even though I didn't go to Cal Tech (only UC Berkeley, but his lectures where still available).
EDIT: I've written Conway's Game of Life in at least 20 languages by now (including oddities like PostScript and C++ templates). I find it an excellent way to view a machine,
I think that still underestimates the effect the professor has on the students. There's nothing like a professor who is excited about the topic of his lectures. Take a look at some of Feynman's youtube lectures, and imagine hearing that stuff in person!
It's like the difference between listening to a CD and going to a concert.