Have anyone read "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman"??

Maxwells Demon

Have anyone read "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman"??

What did you think of it?

I only read about half and the the library wanted it back.. But I thought the first half was good, and a little bit funny too..

las3rjock

I would consider Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! to be one of the ten best books that I've ever read. It's both an entertaining read about one of physics' more interesting characters, and it mentions some interesting mathematical and physical concepts that aren't common knowledge (for example, "differentiating under the integral sign," which is covered in slightly more detail in Needham's Visual Complex Analysis; and the Eulerian wobble/nutation of a rotating body, which is problem 4.51 of Bender & Orszag Advanced Mathematical Methods for Scientists and Engineers.)

Maxwells Demon

Yeah, I agree.. What I like about it is that its easy to read.. You don't have to be a physics or mathematics professor to read it..

las3rjock do you know any other good books? Do you know "Nemesis - The death star" by physics professor at Berkeley Richard Muller.. That also a very good book..

I've heard that S. Hawkings book isn't very good though.. you know "a brief history of time"

MeJennifer

Well to each his own, but I cannot possibly agree with that thought.

While it is certainly entertaining, it is more like pulp nonfiction and most certainly not a book of literature.
But again we all have our opinions.

Furthermore Feynman writes in this book about throwing two atom bombs, which targeted civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as some cheerful event. I admire him for his math and physics skills and intuition but certainly not for these kind of things.

I think it is a pretty good organized popular science book.

neutrino

You probably don't even need to be a physics student to enjoy it. I know a few people who are as far from physics as the nearest quasar to the Sun, who enjoyed the book.

neutrino

Organised enough to confuse the newbie. ;) If the reader doesn't know much, or anything at all about physics, reading the first half or so would do. For clarity in popular science, I like John Gribbin.

las3rjock

You disagree that I consider Surely You're Joking to be one of the ten best books that I have ever read? (Notice how the statement is constructed to be true independent of anyone else's opinion of the book )

Seriously, though, I just happen to believe that not every book needs to be a One Hundred Years of Solitude or a Finnegan's Wake or a Principles of Mathematical Analysis. I think it's okay for a book to be a light, entertaining read, and if there's the possibility of learning about some interesting mathematics or physics as a side effect, that's even better.

MeJennifer

Not at all, why did you think I wrote "to each his own"?

I actually I do not disagree with what you say.
The book is definitely entertaining, except for the, IMHO heartless, sentiment towards using weapons of mass destruction.

Maxwells Demon

I've heard that Hawkings book is a bit hard to understand, and that it's the kind a book that makes you not wanna learn more physics.. The reason why many children don't like physics is because of the way many teachers approach it..

I need a book that sees physics in a fascinating and easy-to-understand way.. That means not explaining physics by equations but with words and with examples which you can relate to..

MeJennifer

Hawking's book does not include many equations as far as I remember. And the illustrated version is full of illustrations.

fasterthanjoao

There's also "A Briefer History of Time" if you don't feel like tackling the original. Hawking's book didn't break lots of popsci sales records for no reason

I'm a big fan of the genre and feel my duty to run off some of my favorites! Probably the best one I've read, certainly in the past few years, is Zero by Charles Seife, well written and thoroughly enjoyable. Similarly, Infinity by Brian Clegg.

Dr Michio Kaku's books are also generally quite good, though "Hyperspace" is perhaps worth avoiding for the non-physicist. And of course, Simon Singh's books are always popular, a knowledgeable man - good reads but something I feel just didn't quite connect. Books I recommend with a more technical flavor include: Lee Smolin (particularly Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, I haven't picked up his new one yet), Alan Guth's Inflationary Universe and naturally Brian Greene's books.

Last but not least! Time Travel in Einstein's Universe - Richard J. Gott was excellent, another one of my favorites - especially good at opening the mind; not least of all in the fact that it helps give an idea of just how little we actually know about anything.

usahockey

I just read the Feynman book a few weeks ago...it was very entertaining, covered a good amount of interesting topics (in a simple, non-technical approach), as well as discussed some of the history of the war and the atom bomb, as well as some other events that I didn't know so much about. I would definitely recommend it, although I agree it is not some great work of literature, but the stories are much more interesting to read, imo.

One thing I've heard is that all of the "principled" scientists left the atom bomb project once Germany was out of the war....it's interesting though that Feynman specifically uses some quote that he attributed to von neumann I think, that goes "you're not responsible for the world you're in", and then goes on to state that this become a motto of his to live by, and the start of his "active social irresponsibility".


BTW, have any of you read the co-authored book with Einstein called "The Evolution of Physics", and would you recommend it?

Maxwells Demon

fasterthanjoao, what's "Zero" about??

fasterthanjoao

The number. Covers everything from that fact that for hundreds of years, people denied that it existed, to the fact that it does - and the role it plays in destroying unification. It's good from the point of view that due to the nature of the subject, it requires covering plenty of generations and cultures - the thoughts of all different kinds of mathematicians and theologians.

Maxwells Demon

and "Infinity" is the same but for infinity or what?

fasterthanjoao

As good as. If i remember correctly, Infinity covers a bit more of the philosophical ground

Maxwells Demon

Which one do you prefer? Infinity or Zero?? And which one do you think I'd prefer, based on my earlier comments in this thread?