The main reason the Definitive and New Millennium editions of FLP were created was to correct errors. From 2005 to 2010, my colleagues and I corrected 280 errors in the Definitive Edition (200 in the first printing, and 80 in the 4th printing). Unfortunately, the (former) publisher refused to make further corrections because of the expense. So, my colleagues and I created an entirely new (LaTeX) manuscript for FLP (which took us about 5 more years), in which we corrected an additional 885 errors and made other improvements - better typography, accurately drawn figures, much improved indexes, and a symbol table (but no "added junk" :-). All the errors we corrected were reported by concerned readers and can be found listed at the Feynman Lectures Website, http://www.feynmanlectures.info" . The New Millennium edition is the first edition of FLP to be printed from our new manuscript.
In addition to the 3 original volumes of FLP, the Definitive Edition includes the book "Feynman's Tips on Physics, a problem-solving supplement to The Feynman Lectures on
Physics," (TIPS), by Feynman, Gottlieb and Leighton. This book includes 4 previously unpublished lectures that Feynman gave in the original FLP course (three lectures on problem solving, and one on applications of dynamical systems, focusing mainly on inertial guidance), an historical memoir by FLP co-author Matthew Sands, and about 80 physics exercises (with answers).
We are currently working on a new edition of TIPS, expanded with about 1000 physics exercises from the original FLP course (with answers, and some example solutions), covering all the subject matter discussed in FLP. We hope to publish this expanded edition of TIPS in June 2011. Unlike the previous edition, whose exercises only (barely) covered the topics discussed in FLP Vol I, chapters 1-20, the new edition of TIPS will, in a sense "complete" FLP, as the authors originally conceived of it: a textbook, with exercises sufficient to teach (or self-study) a 2-year introductory physics course.
If you are reading FLP only occasionally, in bits and pieces, for pleasure, for fun, or as a reference, I would recommend FLP-DE, just because it includes the original edition of TIPS. If, on the other hand, you are _studying physics_ from FLP - by which I mean you are planning to read all or most of it, follow all the arguments, examples, calculations, etc. carefully and in detail, and work on exercises pertaining to what you read (which is the only way to really absorb the material) then I recommend that you buy the New Millennium edition, which has fewer errors in it, and wait until June to buy the new edition of TIPS, which will have all the exercises you need.
Mike Gottlieb
Editor, The Feynman Lectures on Physics
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http://www.feynmanlectures.info" .
