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The Feynman Lectures on Physics now free

253 points by stillmotion 7y ago

leblancfg 7y ago
This is huge! Highly recommend reading along to the audio if you can find it.
imranq 7y ago
Old but always immensely valuable .. Feynman is a huge scientific hero of mine
m4r35n357 7y ago
Note: Web access only, no downloads.
- gigatexal 7y ago
  Curl can do recursive downloads downloading everything and following links...
  - ColanR 7y ago
    And they can also be found on the High Seas...
selimthegrim 7y ago
Is this since 2013?
andreaorru 7y ago
Is it just me or all the images are broken?
- zczc 7y ago
  Works for me (Firefox and Chrome). The footnote on the page says: "This HTML5-based edition features LaTeX equations rendered by MathJax JavaScript, and scalable vector graphic (SVG) figures. Your browser must support javascript and permit scripts from mathjax.org. LocalStorage must be enabled"
  - andreaorru 7y ago
    Thanks. Guess my privacy settings are a bit on the paranoid side ;)
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
gnufx 7y ago
This is some years old, in case that's not clear, and "free" as in readable online at no charge. There was an interesting account of the production process somewhere, but I can't find a reference to it.
underyx 7y ago
Is this a nice way to finally catch up on physics for someone who never got much of it in high school? Or would Khan Academy still be preferable?
- Synaesthesia 7y ago
  Feel free to read them as they’re quite fun but you will realize you need a great deal of maths and basics so yeah Khan Academy for those.
- lupire 7y ago
  No. Feynman Lectures was an experimental set of lecture notes (not a textbook!) for presentation to elite Caltech students (who already studied a lot of physics in high school) who would find an introduction to physics far too easy and boring, and Feynman himself was pessimistic about how effective the course was. It's famous for being Feynman, not for being a great textbook.
  - underyx 7y ago
    Thank you! I completely missed this context.
  - tim333 7y ago
    It's great in many ways but mostly too hard for someone who dropped out in high school.
  - urmish 7y ago
    Can you suggest some good ones? From what I've seen in math texts, good books usually deal with one area (e.g. introductory real analysis) instead of covering multiple topics.
  - stared 7y ago
    > It's famous for being Feynman, not for being a great textbook. I beg to differ. I know no general course in physics which is close enough to the Feynman lectures on physics. And I've learned about Feynman from lectures, not the other way. (Arguably, he is famous thanks to his explanations skills.) And anecdotally, virtually all people I know that participated in physics olympiad adore this textbook. (At least - Volumes I and II; III is interesting as supplementary material, but I recommend other core materials for quantum mechanics, vide: https://p.migdal.pl/2016/08/15/quantum-mechanics-for-high-school-students.html#textbooks https://p.migdal.pl/2016/08/15/quantum-mechanics-for-high-sc...).
DoctorOetker 7y ago
when will the feynman lectures expire? I think they are great, but it would be nice if it had more references to sources.
taneq 7y ago
> However, we want to be clear that this edition is only free to read online, and this posting does not transfer any right to download all or any portion of The Feynman Lectures on Physics for any purpose. I'm not entirely sure how to read this in my web browser without it being downloaded in the process.
- gnu8 7y ago
  They mean keep a local copy. Likely that was written by someone who uses the word download for all computer related operations. I didn't have any intention to make a local copy but I am going to now, just to spite their ludicrous prohibition.
  - ddingus 7y ago
    It is a longer term cache. :D
pdsouza 7y ago
This has been free for quite a while already. I've been referencing this online edition since at least 2014.
michelpp 7y ago
It would be nice to get the audio released free as well. While not as useful as the books for actual learning (at least half of the audio is Feynman drawing furiously on a chalkboard and booming "and then this leads to this...") much of the beginning parts of each lecture are dedicated to well spoken overviews and ideas, and to hear them from Feynman himself is quite amazing. I've only been able to find some of the audio files for sale on Audible and on some rare bootleg torrents.
- HNLurker2 7y ago
  Let's use deep learning to remake Feynman voice!
l0b0 7y ago
Tried to access on HTTPS, only to get https://scriptshadow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/canary-in-the-coal-mine.jpgw595.jpeg?w=240 https://scriptshadow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/canary-i... on a page by itself. WTF?

253 points by stillmotion 7y ago

leblancfg 7y ago

This is huge! Highly recommend reading along to the audio if you can find it.

imranq 7y ago

Old but always immensely valuable .. Feynman is a huge scientific hero of mine

m4r35n357 7y ago

Note: Web access only, no downloads.

gigatexal 7y ago
Curl can do recursive downloads downloading everything and following links...
- ColanR 7y ago
  And they can also be found on the High Seas...

selimthegrim 7y ago

Is this since 2013?

andreaorru 7y ago

Is it just me or all the images are broken?

zczc 7y ago
Works for me (Firefox and Chrome). The footnote on the page says: "This HTML5-based edition features LaTeX equations rendered by MathJax JavaScript, and scalable vector graphic (SVG) figures. Your browser must support javascript and permit scripts from mathjax.org. LocalStorage must be enabled"
- andreaorru 7y ago
  Thanks. Guess my privacy settings are a bit on the paranoid side ;)
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

gnufx 7y ago

This is some years old, in case that's not clear, and "free" as in readable online at no charge. There was an interesting account of the production process somewhere, but I can't find a reference to it.

underyx 7y ago

Is this a nice way to finally catch up on physics for someone who never got much of it in high school? Or would Khan Academy still be preferable?

Synaesthesia 7y ago
Feel free to read them as they’re quite fun but you will realize you need a great deal of maths and basics so yeah Khan Academy for those.
lupire 7y ago
No. Feynman Lectures was an experimental set of lecture notes (not a textbook!) for presentation to elite Caltech students (who already studied a lot of physics in high school) who would find an introduction to physics far too easy and boring, and Feynman himself was pessimistic about how effective the course was. It's famous for being Feynman, not for being a great textbook.
- underyx 7y ago
  Thank you! I completely missed this context.
- tim333 7y ago
  It's great in many ways but mostly too hard for someone who dropped out in high school.
- urmish 7y ago
  Can you suggest some good ones? From what I've seen in math texts, good books usually deal with one area (e.g. introductory real analysis) instead of covering multiple topics.
- stared 7y ago
  > It's famous for being Feynman, not for being a great textbook. I beg to differ. I know no general course in physics which is close enough to the Feynman lectures on physics. And I've learned about Feynman from lectures, not the other way. (Arguably, he is famous thanks to his explanations skills.) And anecdotally, virtually all people I know that participated in physics olympiad adore this textbook. (At least - Volumes I and II; III is interesting as supplementary material, but I recommend other core materials for quantum mechanics, vide: https://p.migdal.pl/2016/08/15/quantum-mechanics-for-high-school-students.html#textbooks https://p.migdal.pl/2016/08/15/quantum-mechanics-for-high-sc...).

DoctorOetker 7y ago

when will the feynman lectures expire? I think they are great, but it would be nice if it had more references to sources.

taneq 7y ago

> However, we want to be clear that this edition is only free to read online, and this posting does not transfer any right to download all or any portion of The Feynman Lectures on Physics for any purpose. I'm not entirely sure how to read this in my web browser without it being downloaded in the process.

gnu8 7y ago
They mean keep a local copy. Likely that was written by someone who uses the word download for all computer related operations. I didn't have any intention to make a local copy but I am going to now, just to spite their ludicrous prohibition.
- ddingus 7y ago
  It is a longer term cache. :D

pdsouza 7y ago

This has been free for quite a while already. I've been referencing this online edition since at least 2014.

michelpp 7y ago

It would be nice to get the audio released free as well. While not as useful as the books for actual learning (at least half of the audio is Feynman drawing furiously on a chalkboard and booming "and then this leads to this...") much of the beginning parts of each lecture are dedicated to well spoken overviews and ideas, and to hear them from Feynman himself is quite amazing. I've only been able to find some of the audio files for sale on Audible and on some rare bootleg torrents.

HNLurker2 7y ago
Let's use deep learning to remake Feynman voice!

l0b0 7y ago

Tried to access on HTTPS, only to get https://scriptshadow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/canary-in-the-coal-mine.jpgw595.jpeg?w=240 https://scriptshadow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/canary-i... on a page by itself. WTF?