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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...).
vmilner 7y ago
https://theoreticalminimum.com/ https://theoreticalminimum.com/ might be a better bet, though assumes some familiarity with calculus.
- HNLurker2 7y ago
  Tangential https://youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY https://youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY

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...).

vmilner 7y ago

https://theoreticalminimum.com/ https://theoreticalminimum.com/ might be a better bet, though assumes some familiarity with calculus.

HNLurker2 7y ago
Tangential https://youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY https://youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY