5 ms·

Is there any benefit to a layman working their way through this? Or is it only relevant to studying/passing an exam?

• pvg 5y ago
  It's a classic and highly regarded physics course although these days there are many options to choose from. It's not for median laypeople, though - the original audience was CalTech undergrads so there's a fair bit of mathematical (and, realistically, physics) pre-req.
  • ravel-bar-foo 5y ago
    I read somewhere (probably another HN comment) that most of the undergrads dropped the course, but Feynman didn't know because they were replaced by grad students.
    • jonjacky 5y ago
      This can't be right. You couldn't drop the course. Two years of physics in the freshman and sophomore years, taught from the Feynman Lectures, was a requirement for all Caltech undergrads, including those in humanities majors like economics, history and even English -- there were a few. The whole two year physics sequence - the lectures where your entire class attended together, always in the same room, three times a week for two years, the homework sets, the sections, the weekly take-home quizzes - were a shared rite of passage, a central part of the Caltech experience for every student. It was difficult for some of us, but we had to persevere - it wasn't optional. A classmate called it 'intellectual boot camp'.
      • ravel-bar-foo 5y ago
        Oh. I didn't know that. Thanks for clearing that up. The comment I read (or my memory) must have been wrong, then.