Should I Read The Feynman Lectures?

[dRic2]

Hi, last year I've decided to re-study physics starting from the very basis in my spare time. It is taking some time but it has been pretty fun and useful. I'm an engineering undergrad and the most advanced physics class I had was an introduction to QM, but right know I'm more focused on Classical Mechanics and Thermodynamics. I was planning to read the Feynman Lectures, but I am not very sure whether to start now or to wait until I've revised all my competences. I've read some extracts from the Lectures and it seemed to me that they would be more appreciated to someone who's already confident with the subject. What do you think?

Ric

 

[barek]

Hi, I'm only a first year undergrad (UK) and everyone has different tastes in textbooks but one thing with the Feynman Lectures is that they don't have any problems to do. There's a set of accompanying exercises you can purchase but I haven't read them so can't comment on how good they are.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465060714/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Morin's Introduction to Classical Mechanics has loads of exercises and worked examples which could be useful.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521876222/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[dRic2]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I'm not new to physics (I've been studying it for the past three years at university), but, as engineer, the approach I used was very "practical". Now I want to restudy what I've learned in the past with a more "theoretical" approach so I'm not looking for a book with exercises but 'I'm looking for a book with "explanations". I think the Feynman Lectures serve my cause but I don't know if they are too hard for me right know.

 

[dRic2]

Anyway the book you suggested for classical mechanics seems a very nice book, thanks for the advice!

 

[bluemoon112]

Kleppner and Kolenkow's An Introduction to Mechanics is comparable to Morin. I used this book for my first mechanics class and liked the problems. It should be pretty straightforward as long as you're comfortable with calculus. Some of the stuff on special relativity is a bit outdated though (e.g. relativistic mass).

The Feynman Lectures are available for free on Caltech's website. I'd say they're better for gaining intuition on subjects you're already somewhat familiar with rather than as a first reference (which you aren't using it for). Then again I'm pretty sure enough students have successfully used it as such.
http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu

 

[dRic2]

I'd say they're better for gaining intuition on subjects you're already somewhat familiar with

That's exactly what I'm looking for!

 

[Chris Riccard]

I skimmed the Feynman lectures and the way I see it is first you read a textbook like haliday and resnik or university physics then you use the Feynman lectures as a supplement to expand your knowledge along with books like the physics of music and color and the like. books like the Feynman lectures are ment to show you how to think and see through the authors eyes if you need more I'd get a supplement classical mechanics book along with a starter e&m book like Purcell, then dive into a waves book before countinuing your journey. ultimately I don't know where I'm going to stop but I will go heavy into optics and photonics, lasers and infernometry then more electrodynamics, atomics, solid state physics, thermal physics, nuclear physics, semiconductor physics, special and general relativity.

I guess when I have the free time to start really studying it'll be landu & lifshitz set, qft, quantum mechanics extras and particle physics.

what I don't want to learn is astrophysics or much more theoretical physics, no string theory or multidimensional math physics weirdness, no black holes or much cosmo stuff, I really don't have a taste for it.

I'm the dumbest guy here when it comes to physics so take my post with a grain of salt, it's still taking me time to get all the facts straight before really diving in.

 

[vanhees71]

The Feynman lectures are a must-read, and be it just for the fun of having an author writing up the standard theory-course curriculum in a really new way (although the books are about 50 years old, they are more modern than many modern textbooks, e.g., on E&M). The only drawback is the use of the relativistic mass, but nevertheless it's also a better intro to relativistic E&M than e.g., Purcell.

 

[dRic2]

I'm definitely going to read them someday, but I was wondering if I would be able to understand them with an engineering background or if I should consult some other books first

 

[jtbell]

If you have an engineering background, you've taken a calculus-based introductory physics course at university or high school, right? That's the type of course Feynman was teaching when he originally gave those lectures. It was at Caltech, where students tend to be a bit brighter than at most other universities. Also, it doesn't have exercises, which were apparently provided separately in the original course. Therefore it's not commonly recommended as a primary textbook for most students. But as a supplement or a refresher for concepts, it's great. I've used it for that purpose since I was an undergraduate.

 

[gibberingmouther]

I'm working through Young and Freedman's "University Physics". I think it's a great textbook. I use the internet to supplement working through this textbook. I try to work through all the derivations for the formulas used and to understand why the formulas are true algebraically or also graphically/intuitively. The textbook explains things pretty well, but the supplementary internet readings (usually for a missing derivation/explanation) are critical as well.

I think if you understand the subject matter, that's enough. It shouldn't matter that much whose explanations you work through.

 

[Daverz]

I don't think you need to wait, you can probably get a lot of enjoyment and insight out of reading Feynman now.

 

[dRic2]

I don't think you need to wait, you can probably get a lot of enjoyment and insight out of reading Feynman now.

Yeah, I started, but read only 10 chapters because I'm very busy right now. I never thought it would be so mind-blowing tough