What fraction of physics bestsellers are Feynman?

Click For Summary
SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the representation of Richard Feynman's works within Amazon's top 100 bestselling physics books. It highlights that Feynman's books, including 'Classic Feynman', are present but often ranked lower than other popular science titles, such as those by Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene. The inclusion of unrelated works, like Virginia Woolf's 'The Waves', raises questions about the criteria for bestseller rankings. Overall, the conversation reveals a surprising distribution of physics bestsellers and the challenges of finding relevant literature in a crowded category.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of Amazon's bestseller ranking system
  • Familiarity with popular science literature
  • Knowledge of Richard Feynman's contributions to physics
  • Awareness of notable authors in the physics genre, such as Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the criteria used by Amazon for bestseller rankings
  • Explore Richard Feynman's major works and their impact on physics education
  • Investigate the influence of popular science books on public understanding of physics
  • Analyze the trends in physics literature sales over the past decade
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for physics enthusiasts, educators, authors in the science genre, and anyone interested in the dynamics of bestseller lists in the context of scientific literature.

marcus
Science Advisor
Homework Helper
Gold Member
Dearly Missed
Messages
24,752
Reaction score
795
Amazon has a list of 100 bestseller books in physics category. this includes popularizations, biographies, textbooks, Carl Sagan, Brian Greene, intelligent design, iffy-physics-of-the-supernatural, physics cartoons and comedy, ANYTHING if it has a connection with physics*. So the competition is quite stiff.

What fraction of the top 100 bestsellers turn out to be books by or about Feynman? What would you guess? you can check here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/14545/ref=pd_ts_b_ldr/102-1454980-4598542&tag=pfamazon01-20

just by scanning down the list. Maybe you won't be surprised. It might be just what you expect. But it surprised me.*they even include a novel by Virginia Woolf called "The Waves" because it has waves in the title.
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
That certainly was a surprise to me!

Edit: On second thought, that didn't surprise me as I had checked only the first page. It seems that all his famous books are included in that(The book 'Classic Feynman' puts together the more famous ones). Of course, they certainly shouldn't be that far down, especially below books on crackpottery.
 
Last edited:
This is pretty interesting. Although I'm not surprised that there were that many of the 'classic' popular science books such as The Elegant Universe and the ones authored by Stephen Hawking. But then again, since when as search engines only provided relevant results?
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
3K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
4K
  • · Replies 12 ·
Replies
12
Views
3K
  • · Replies 37 ·
2
Replies
37
Views
11K
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
4K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
4K
  • · Replies 523 ·
18
Replies
523
Views
309K
  • · Replies 12 ·
Replies
12
Views
6K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
3K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
3K