What is Lectures: Definition and 342 Discussions

A lecture (from the French lecture, meaning reading) is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history, background, theories, and equations. A politician's speech, a minister's sermon, or even a business person’s sales presentation may be similar in form to a lecture. Usually the lecturer will stand at the front of the room and recite information relevant to the lecture's content.
Though lectures are much criticised as a teaching method, universities have not yet found practical alternative teaching methods for the large majority of their courses. Critics point out that lecturing is mainly a one-way method of communication that does not involve significant audience participation but relies upon passive learning. Therefore, lecturing is often contrasted to active learning. Lectures delivered by talented speakers can be highly stimulating; at the very least, lectures have survived in academia as a quick, cheap, and efficient way of introducing large numbers of students to a particular field of study.
Lectures have a significant role outside the classroom, as well. Academic and scientific awards routinely include a lecture as part of the honor, and academic conferences often center on "keynote addresses", i.e., lectures. The public lecture has a long history in the sciences and in social movements. Union halls, for instance, historically have hosted numerous free and public lectures on a wide variety of matters. Similarly, churches, community centers, libraries, museums, and other organizations have hosted lectures in furtherance of their missions or their constituents' interests. Lectures represent a continuation of oral tradition in contrast to textual communication in books and other media. Lectures may be considered a type of grey literature.

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  1. T

    Feynman lectures question where he explains math in terms of nuts

    Feynman lectures question where he explains math in terms of nuts. Feynman has a few lectures where he explained math numbers with Mayan counting as an example. I am not looking for that example. The example I am looking for is where he just uses nuts to give examples of math, add...
  2. hagopbul

    The order of a video play list

    Hello all: As reviewing physics in my spare time , a scientific lecture series caught my eyes , by Dr. Steve brunton on his YouTube channel but had few questions Is the lecture series in correct order ? Second question what is the name of the book that he is using ? Best Regards H
  3. H

    Prof. Mattuck's Lecture 20: A Divine Power of Speech & Laplace's Elegance

    Lecture 20 by Prof. Mattuck is simply great. I don’t think there can be any better communication than that, it seemed as if what was in his mind simply got teleported in to mine, and that’s why, it seems now, Aristotle gave so much importance (and almost considered it as a divine power) to the...
  4. paulimerci

    Intro Physics Where can I find The Feynman Lectures on Physics at a discount?

    Hello everyone, I'm looking for The Feynman Lectures on Physics including Feynman's Tips on Physics: The Definitive and Extended Edition (2nd edition, 2005) for a discounted price. Any suggestions where I might look for one?
  5. H

    Calculus Following Prof. Mattuck's lectures on Ordinary Differential Equations....

    I'm learning Differential Equations from Prof. Mattuck's lectures. The lectures are absolutely incredible. But there are a few topics in Tenenbaum's book and my syllabus which he doesn't seem to teach (I have reached upto lecture 14, but in future lectures too the following topics are not...
  6. anm_ol

    Relativity Free Books & Lectures on Special Theory of Relativity

    I recently viewed some online free lecture series on Special theory of Relativity. I think I have an understanding of the basics so far, but would like some books for problems on special relativity. (Preferably solutions or at least answer keys included). It would be a great help if they...
  7. TGV320

    Courses Question about studying Thermodynamics via the MIT online lectures

    Hello, Following previous advice for self studying, I am now looking at the physics curriculum of MIT through this link. http://catalog.mit.edu/subjects/8/ But at first I didn't find a course for thermodynamics, for the Phys I/II/III courses of the list don't provide it. Then I found that...
  8. Conn_coord

    I Lectures on the Varying fine structure constant

    A University of Oxford and Cambridge Collaboration in 2014 produced a series of lectures "Cosmology and the constants of nature". John K Webb spoke on the topic of variations in the values of fundamental constants. Latest developments here. Who else is doing similar research?
  9. C

    Studying About Richard Feynman lectures

    I was wondering if anyone else had trouble with reading Richard Feynman's lectures on physics. I think he's a good man and had fundamental contributions to science, but has anyone noticed that it is sometimes hard to follow what he is saying? I was reading his chapter about psuedo forces and...
  10. codelieb

    Classical FLP Original Course Handouts at The Feynman Lectures Website

    Hello, everyone. The first large collection of FLP-related content posted at The Feynman Lectures Website was 744 pages of FLP classroom handouts (including laboratory guidelines, descriptions of experiments, homework, quizzes and exams, lecture summaries and outlines) donated by one of...
  11. MichaelBack12

    Zangwill Modern Electrodynamics Lectures?

    Summary:: Courses in electrodynamics Any online lectures or courses keyed to this book? Thanks very much
  12. P

    A Sidney Coleman's Lectures on Relativity: New Book by CUP

    In case you haven't heard, there is a new textbook on relativity to be published by Cambridge UP in 2022. It is compiled and edited by Coleman's three students Griffiths, Derbes, and Sohn who took Physics 210 relativity course at Harvard in the late 60's when Sidney was teaching it. The book...
  13. ergospherical

    Quantum Is Feynman's Statistical Mechanics Suitable for a First Introduction?

    I found this little book titled “Statistical Mechanics; A set of lectures” by Feynman in the library. I’m not taking Stat Mech until Easter so I’d just be reading for interest at this stage, although the content looks fairly involved. Is it suitable for a first introduction?
  14. ergospherical

    Applied Lectures on the geometric anatomy of theoretical physics

    I stumbled across this series of 28 lectures by Dr Frederic Schuller of the university of Twente whilst searching for lectures about Lie theory. Having watched through lectures 13 to 18, I think they are simply superb (of course I'm assuming the rest are of similar quality). I only wish he would...
  15. hackerbot4545

    Testing What are effective ways to predict exam questions from class lectures?

    What are effective ways to predict exam questions from class lectures in university exams? How do I understand the mindset of the lecturer & find out important topics/questions he may give in the exam? So I have semester exams nearby. The syllabus is huge & I don't have enough time to study...
  16. Dr. Courtney

    The Feynman Lectures: Physics Gift for Your Son

    When your son puts "The Feynman Lectures in Physics" on his gift list.
  17. rudransh verma

    B A Question about a Quote from the Feynman lectures

    “incidentally, to a good approximation we have another law, which says that the change in distance of a moving point is the velocity times the time interval, Deltas=vdeltat This statement is true only iF the Velocity is not changing during that time interval, and this condition is true only in...
  18. rudransh verma

    Intro Physics Exploring Potential Errors in Feynman Lectures on Physics: A Scientific Inquiry

    I was reading Motion chapter 8 in Vol 1 and I came across a line in speed topic which seemed confusing. So I checked with others and we concluded that its a mistake. Are there printing mistakes in this book? I will be surprised. Its pearson.
  19. ergospherical

    Human behavioural biology lectures

    I gotten randomly hooked on this lecture series by Prof Sapolsky, I thought I'd share in case anybody felt like giving them a watch or discussing some things you found interesting
  20. E

    I Opaque-wall-with-hole argument from Feynman lectures

    In Feynman lectures vol I, last part of chapter 31, there was this argument about electric field on the other side of the opaque wall with holes. The argument is attached below. I'm having a hard time understanding the claim in the red box. In particular, I failed to see how "fields arrive at...
  21. Glenn Rowe

    A Simple S matrix example in Coleman's lectures on QFT

    In Coleman's QFT lectures, I'm confused by equation 7.57. To give the background, Coleman is trying to calculate the scattering matrix (S matrix) for a situation in which the Hamiltonian is given by $$H=H_{0}+f\left(t,T,\Delta\right)H_{I}\left(t\right)$$ where ##H_{0}## is the free Hamiltonian...
  22. T

    Question on problem 2.16 (a) of the Feynman Lectures (two-mass pulley)

    My attempt was to calculate the acceleration of M2 as the acceleration of M2 if it were the only mass in the system, minus the component of M1's acceleration along the slope. And then I would divide the whole thing by 2 to get the acceleration for just one of the two masses@ a = 1/2 ( g -...
  23. codelieb

    Intro Physics Feynman Lectures on Physics Tape Recordings Online for Free Listening

    Hello, everyone. I've made a number of announcements in this Forum about publications at The Feynman Lectures Website, but this is one I've long anticipated and am particularly happy to make: You can now listen to the original tape recordings of Feynman's famous Caltech Introductory Physics...
  24. docnet

    I Learning GR with Leonard Susskind: Prerequisites Needed?

    I took differential geometry and introductory physics sequence in college, but not special relativity. How good are Leonard Susskind's lectures on YouTube for learning GR? Are there better sources to learn from?Thank you Edit: is learning SR a prerequisite for GR?
  25. codelieb

    Intro Physics Messenger Lectures at The Feynman Lectures Website

    Hello everyone, You can now watch Feynman's Messenger Lectures in Full HD video with a searchable autoscrolling transcript (and other cool features) at The Feynman Lectures Website. Here are some useful links: information about Feynman's Messenger Lectures with links to videos ...
  26. A

    Are the Feynman lectures on physics good?

    I've been reading a lot of stuff around physics as of late, and I was wondering if the "The Feynman Lectures on Physics: Volumes I, II, III." are a good thing to read? I'm asking as the price for these books aren't cheap, and I want to make sure they are worth the buy.
  27. R

    I Video lectures in Nuclear and Particle physics? (Undergraduate)

    Hi everyone, I was hoping the internet would be filled with video lectures since lots of universities have been forced to conduct online teaching. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. Therefore I was hoping that some of you know of some great video lectures for nuclear and particle...
  28. Hamiltonian

    Studying Watching video lectures along with solving problems in a book?

    I recently started studying electrodynamics from Griffiths and found It rather challenging. I was able to finish the first chapter on basic math, Although my concepts on things like greens/stokes theorem were quite shaky as I am finding it rather difficult to follow the derivation of said...
  29. Haorong Wu

    Relativity How are David Tong's Lectures on General Relativity?

    Hi. I have tried David Tong's note on QFT. I think it works well for me and lead me into QFT. Now I am confident to read Peskin's book. Now I am trying to learning GR. I planned to try David Tong's lectures on GR first and then read Sean Carroll's book. But I am not sure this plan now. I got...
  30. S

    Mosteller lectures - available online?

    The current Wikipedia article on statistician Charles Frederick Mosteller mentions he gave a series of televised lectures. Are these available anywhere online? quoted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Mosteller
  31. A

    Best aerodynamics video lectures

    Do you have some links of best aerodynamics video lectures?
  32. Ishika_96_sparkles

    I Feynman's Lectures volume III (Ch:8) -- Resolution of vector states

    In the section 8-2 dealing with resolving the state vectors, we learn that |\phi \rangle =\sum_i C_i | i \rangle and the dual vector is defined as \langle \chi | =\sum_j D^*_j \langle j |Then, the an inner product is defined as \langle \chi | \phi \rangle =\sum_{ij} D^*_j C_i \langle j | i...
  33. anuttarasammyak

    B Question about notation in the Feynman Lectures on Physics III 3-1

    I have a question on formula (3.1) and (3.2) in Feynman Lectures on Physics III 3-1, available online, https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/III_03.html <x|s> here can be interpreted also as inner product of bra <x| and ket |s>, following usual Dirac notation ? For example, ##<r_1|r_2>## in...
  34. MidgetDwarf

    Lectures That Follow Pugh: Real Mathematical Analysis

    Not sure if this is the correct forum. But are there any video lectures that follow the book Pugh: Real Mathematical Analysis? Thanks.
  35. physics4two

    Studying How do you approach lectures and learning the material?

    Hey everyone. I'd like to share some thoughts on a problem that I have because I think it would be interesting to hear how others peoples thoughts on the problem. I'm studying an intense physics/engineering program in terms of workload. Our main form of learning new material in school is...
  36. new90

    Heating an aluminum strut in a truss (Feyman Lectures of Physics 2.10)

    A)W goes downward because before AB gets heat up the system was in equilibrium hen after getting heat up the Force that AB produce makes the roller moves to the right and that makes the whole system go down B)I don't know what it means I know that this can mean the forces that the member Ab is...
  37. new90

    2.5 Exercises of Feyman lectures on Physics

    I think that the W should be 3kg to be in equilibrium but in the book it said that id 3/√(2 I don't why
  38. new90

    2.3 Exercises from the Feyman Lectures on Physics

    i don't know what's the answer but I think that the force needs to be gravity because is going down to the floor
  39. new90

    Exercises for Feyman Lectures on Physics

    Whats a effective target area?
  40. R

    B Another doubt I had while reading Feynman Lectures

    "The “stage” on which the universe goes is the three-dimensional space of geometry, as described by Euclid, and things change in a medium called time." -Feynman Lectures Do the 1st two lines mean that the thing in which everything moves around is the 3 dimensional space...am i interpreting it...
  41. sulhar

    Engineering Undergraduate textbooks and lectures

    Hi, so I'm a first year undergraduate in engineering science. I guess my main question is, are all undergrad textbooks purposely convoluted to scare us from our degrees? Let me explain. I enjoy my lectures, I feel like the notes are very useful, but whenever my tutors or lecturers refer us to...
  42. R

    B Can someone tell me if I got this line from the Feynman lectures right?

    'Mass is found to increase with velocity, but appreciable increases require velocities near that of light. A true law is: if an object moves with a speed of less than one hundred miles a second the mass is constant to within one part in a million. ' What does 'constant to within one part in a...
  43. S

    I Video lectures on lattices in mathematics

    Hi, I’m looking for video lectures on lattices in mathematics (or lattices in computer science) which might be related to number theory. Could anyone recommend some? Senmeis
  44. Trentium

    Any prerequisites for the exercises for Feynman's lectures?

    Summary:: I am mostly just being confused on the exercises for the feynman lectures on physics. So I've been reading feynman's lectures on physics, and I also attempted the problems on the "exercises for the feynman lectures on physics". However, I have gotten almost every single problem...
  45. hyksos

    I What happened to Susskind's Quantum Field Theory lectures at Stanford?

    Susskind eventually curated his Stanford lectures onto a website called the theoretical minimum. https://theoreticalminimum.com/ But the website has sort of fallen into disrepair. Years ago I remembered watching one of his 13-part lecture series on "Quantum Field Theory". The title of...
  46. codelieb

    Intro Physics Feynman Lectures on Physics Photos posted online

    Hello, Everyone. I'm happy to announce that the entire collection of (3043) photos taken of Richard Feynman giving his famous 1961-64 introductory physics lectures at Caltech (including his blackboards - original source material for the book, The Feynman Lectures on Physics [FLP]) have been...
  47. sponteous

    Carnot's Argument (Cryptic passage in Feynman Lectures v. 1)

    In chapter 44 of Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume I, which covers thermodynamics, we find this passage: Does anyone know what this argument of Carnot's is? I'm not sure exactly what it is that he is supposed to have derived without using the first law. The efficiency of a reversible...
  48. R

    Feynman Lectures vol.1 Chapter 4 Topic 4-2GravitationalPotentialEnergy

    Could anyone explain me in simple words what is being said in this topic from this book (great book and author btw)... i don't understand after it starts talking about perpetual motion and lifting and lowering of weights.please explain in simple words. okay someone said to add more details to my...
  49. S

    Feynman's Lectures on Physics: Find Chapters for Audio Lessons

    I just bought the audio and written books for Feynman's Lectures on Physics. Could someone tell me which chapter from the written books to refer to in each audio lesson?
  50. R

    MHB Math note-taking software for fast notes during lectures?

    Hello everyone, I want to find better math note taking software because I am a slow writer and my handwriting is very poor. It is difficult for me to keep up with professors when they are quickly jotting down equations in class. I will take Calculus 2 next semester and I am worried about how I...
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