The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a physics
textbook based on some lectures by Richard
P. Feynman, a Nobel laureate who has sometimes
been called "The Great Explainer". The lectures
were presented before undergraduate students
at the California Institute of Technology
(Caltech), during 1961–1963. The book's
co-authors are Feynman, Robert B. Leighton,
and Matthew Sands.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics is perhaps
the most popular physics book ever written.
More than 1.5 million English-language copies
have been sold; probably even more copies
have been sold in a dozen foreign-language
editions. A 2013 review in Nature described
the book as having "simplicity, beauty, unity
... presented with enthusiasm and insight".
== Description ==
The textbook comprises three volumes. The
first volume focuses on mechanics, radiation,
and heat, including relativistic effects.
The second volume covers mainly electromagnetism
and matter. The third volume covers quantum
mechanics; for example, it shows how the double-slit
experiment demonstrates the essential features
of quantum mechanics. The book also includes
chapters on the relationship between mathematics
and physics, and the relationship of physics
to other sciences.
In 2013, Caltech in cooperation with The Feynman
Lectures Website made the book freely available,
on the web site.
== Background ==
By 1960, Richard Feynman’s 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 for which he was awarded
the 1965 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 for undergraduate
students. It was thought the courses were
burdened by an old-fashioned syllabus and
the exciting discoveries of recent years,
many of which had occurred at Caltech, were
not being taught 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. 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
The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Although
Feynman's most valuable technical contribution
to the field of physics may have been in the
field of quantum electrodynamics, the Feynman
Lectures were destined to become his most
widely-read work.
The Feynman Lectures are considered to be
one of the most sophisticated and comprehensive
college-level introductions to physics. Feynman
himself stated in his original preface that
he was “pessimistic” with regard to his
success in reaching all of his students. The
Feynman lectures were written “to maintain
the interest of very enthusiastic and rather
smart students coming out of high schools
and into Caltech”. Feynman was targeting
the lectures to students who, “at the end
of two years of our previous course, [were]
very discouraged because there were really
very few grand, new, modern ideas presented
to them”. As a result, some physics students
find the lectures more valuable after they
have obtained a good grasp of physics by studying
more-traditional texts, and the books are
sometimes seen as more helpful for teachers
than for students.While the two-year course
(1961–1963) was still underway, rumors of
it spread throughout the physics research
and teaching community. In a special preface
to the 1989 edition, David Goodstein and Gerry
Neugebauer claimed that as time went on, the
attendance of registered undergraduate students
dropped sharply but was matched by a compensating
increase in the number of faculty and graduate
students. Co-author Matthew Sands, in his
memoir accompanying the 2005 edition, contested
this claim. Goodstein and Neugebauer also
stated that, “it was [Feynman’s] peers
— scientists, physicists, and professors
— who would be the main beneficiaries of
his magnificent achievement, which was nothing
less than to see physics through the fresh
and dynamic perspective of Richard Feynman”,
and that his "gift was that he was an extraordinary
teacher of teachers".
Addison-Wesley published a collection of exercises
and problems to accompany The Feynman Lectures
on Physics. The problem sets were first used
in the 1962-1963 academic year, and were organized
by Robert B. Leighton. Some of the problems
are sophisticated and difficult enough to
require an understanding of advanced topics,
such as Kolmogorov's zero–one law. The original
set of books and supplements contained a number
of errors, some of which rendered problems
insoluble. Various errata were issued, which
are now available online.Addison–Wesley
also released in CD format all the audio tapes
of the lectures, over 103 hours with Richard
Feynman, after remastering the sound and clearing
the recordings. For the CD release, the order
of the lectures was rearranged from that of
the original texts. The publisher has released
a table showing the correspondence between
the books and the CDs.
In March 1964, Feynman appeared once again
before the freshman physics class as a lecturer,
but the notes for this particular guest lecture
were lost for a number of years. They were
finally located, restored, and made available
as Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets
Around the Sun.
In 2005, Michael A. Gottlieb and Ralph Leighton
co-authored Feynman's Tips on Physics, which
includes four of Feynman's freshman lectures
which had not been included in the main text
(three on problem solving, one on inertial
guidance), a memoir by Matthew Sands about
the origins of the Feynman Lectures on Physics,
and exercises (with answers) that were assigned
to students by Robert B. Leighton and Rochus
Vogt in recitation sections of the Feynman
Lectures course at Caltech. Also released
in 2005, was a "Definitive Edition" of the
lectures which included corrections to the
original text.
An account of the history of these famous
volumes is given by Sands in his memoir article
“Capturing the Wisdom of Feynman", and another
article "Memories of Feynman" by the physicist
T. A. Welton.In a September 13, 2013 email
to members of the Feynman Lectures online
forum, Gottlieb announced the launch of a
new website by Caltech and The Feynman Lectures
Website which offers "[A] free high-quality
online edition" of the lecture text. To provide
a device-independent reading experience, the
website takes advantage of modern web technologies
like HTML5, SVG, and MathJax to present text,
figures, and equations in any sizes while
maintaining the display quality.
== Contents ==
=== 
Volume I: 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.”
Chapters
=== 
Volume II: Mainly electromagnetism and matter
===
Chapters
=== 
Volume III: Quantum mechanics ===
Chapters
== Abbreviated editions ==
Six readily-accessible chapters were later
compiled into a book entitled Six Easy Pieces:
Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most
Brilliant Teacher. Six more chapters are in
the book Six Not So Easy Pieces: Einstein's
Relativity, Symmetry and Space-Time.
“Six Easy Pieces grew out of the need to
bring to as wide an audience as possible,
a substantial yet nontechnical 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:
Vectors
Symmetry in physical laws
The special theory of relativity
Relativistic energy and momentum
Space-time
Curved space
=== 
The Very Best of The Feynman Lectures (Audio,
2005) ===
Chapters:
The Theory of Gravitation (Vol. I, Chapter
7)
Curved Space (Vol. II, Chapter 42)
Electromagnetism (Vol. II, Chapter 1)
Probability (Vol. I, Chapter 6)
The Relation of Wave and Particle Viewpoints
(Vol. III, Chapter 2)
Superconductivity (Vol. III, Chapter 21)
== Publishing information ==
Feynman R, Leighton R, and Sands M. The Feynman
Lectures on Physics . 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 2-35648-789-1 (out of print)
Feynman R, Leighton R, and Sands M. "The Feynman
Lectures on Physics, Volume I" (online edition),
The Feynman Lectures Website, September 2013.
== See also ==
Berkeley Physics Course – another contemporaneously-developed
and influential college-level physics series
The Character of Physical Law – a condensed
series of Feynman lectures for scientists
and non-scientists
Project Tuva
