The Character of Physical Law [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Richard Phillips Feynman (Author), Jeff Riggenback (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1969

In this popular classic, Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman offers an overview of selected physical laws and gathers their common features into one broad principle. He maintains at the outset that the importance of a physical law is not 'how clever we are to have found it out, but how clever nature is to pay attention to it.' After establishing what is most remarkable in nature, Professor Feynman develops his own analysis of the process and future of scientific discovery. This audiobook has special value as a demonstration of the mind in action, in this case, one of the most pre-eminent and imaginative minds of modern physics. Feynman's enlightened approach, his wit, and his enthusiasm make this a memorable exposition of the scientist's craft.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Fascinating...an insight into the thought processes of a great physicist." Times Literary Supplement

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) was one of this century's most brilliant theoretical physicists and original thinkers. Books by Feynman in Penguin include QED (1990 - 58,000 copies), Six Easy Pieces (1998 - 27,000 copies), and Six Not-so-Easy Pieces (1999 - 10,000 copies). --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Audio Scholar; abridged edition edition (January 1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879557436
• ISBN-13: 978-1879557437
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,653,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Feynman Delivers, September 11, 2003

By 

Paul A. Jackson "Paul Jackson" (Fairfax Station, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Character of Physical Law (Messenger Lectures, 1964) (Paperback)

This is yet another book that attempts to convey the essence of physics to common people. After explaining exactly why it can't be done, arguing that you'll never get it, Feynman goes right ahead and does it anyway.

For each topic, you get a feel for his goal in covering a topic. He explains gravity, yes, to explain gravity, but also because by explaining it he can also convey what essential properties gravity has that other laws have.

He also explains the difference between fundamental laws and the consequences of those laws. That the individual laws are reversible, but that probability is responsible for the arrow of time. He spends a lot of time showing the difficult relationship between the basic laws (which are reversible) and the irreversibility of events. Both are characteristics of the physical universe but the latter is not a fundamental law. The latter is a logical outcome of them.

So there's a hierarchy, which goes; fundamental laws like gravity at the ground level, consequences of them like irreversibility and surface tension at one level up, organic chemistry further up, then eventually concepts like tree, frog, man, pain, beauty, good and evil - each at a higher level, but based upon the levels below them, and difficult to fully predict using only the laws of the lower levels. The levels can be extended up and down. Below gravity is the unification theory of everything. Above good and evil are love, politics, etc.

And then he asks, of the extremes on this hierarchy, the fundamental laws and the most abstract concepts, which is closest to God? After asking for patience with his religious reference, he spends little time before revealing his belief that the question is flawed. To understand God is to understand how the levels interrelate; how the fundamental laws were "chosen" so that they would lead to the unfolding of all the beautiful complexity that we see around us.

Is this what you want to learn? Why else do we read these books than to attempt to gain a bit more insight into the eternal questions. Most authors that tackle the nature of the universe have a theological axe to grind (the need for God or not) and can't hide it. This book did more on this topic, with fewer pages, while offending me the least because of any theological bias (either way), than anything I've read before.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I read this book maybe once a month, January 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Character of Physical Law (Modern Library) (Hardcover)

Every time I return to this book I pick up on more of Feynman's explanations. From almost beginning to understand angular momentum, to getting a feel for gravity, and how many laws have been integrated. For a novice at physics but with a keen interest this book gives an excellent background and, for me, is a joy to read each time, I can almost hear Feynman making his lectures and sharing jokes with his students. Each time I come away from reading this book I find myself pondering more about various aspects of physics and get a clearer idea of other books to buy to continue my current hobby of understanding the way the universe works just a little better (hopefully anyway :)

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The beauty of physical laws, September 8, 2002

By 

Esther Nebenzahl - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Character of Physical Law (Modern Library) (Hardcover)

One the greatest theoretical physicists and popular lecturer, Feynman expresses his view on the puzzles, controversies, and problems at the core of physical theory. He uses as an example the law of gravitation to show that despite the simplicity of physical laws, they are not exact, there is always a mystery, always a place where there is further work to be done, so "scientists must stick their heads out." And what is most remarkable is not what scientists have been able to discover, but what nature has taught us. Feynman stresses the importance of mathematics as the key to any system of scientific laws (mathematics is more than just a language, it is language plus logic). This is a series of lecturers to be read preferably by those individuals who have a solid background in physics, otherwise you may find your neurons will not know in which direction they should fire! As Paul Davis rightly says: "theoretical physics is one the hardest of human endeavors, combining as it does subtle and abstract concepts that normally defy visualizations with a technical complexity that is impossible to master in its entirety." Feynman did have the genius to deal with it!