Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun [With CD] [Hardcover]

David Goodstein (Author), Judith Goodstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1996

Packaged with a CD that furnishes the complete text of the lecture, this fascinating look at the work of one of the most brilliant theoretical scientists of the twentieth century meticulously reconstructs a 1964 lecture on the mathematics of the elliptical motion of the planets around the sun.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Richard Feynman, the rock star of theoretical physics, has left an image that belies his nerdy side. Not many bongo-playing surfer beatniks would have spent hours of their spare time proving Newton's law of elliptical planetary motion using only plane geometry. But Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun shows that the great man did just that. Originally delivered to an introductory physics class at Caltech in 1963, this 76-minute CD and book set contains everything the math-savvy listener needs to savor the pleasures of applied math. Caltech physicist David L. Goodstein and archivist Judith R. Goodstein found the notes and tape amid another professor's papers and set to work making sense of them; unfortunately, photographs of the blackboard drawings didn't survive. The book briefly covers their find and recovery work, then presents the proof as reconstructed--crucial reading if one is to follow the lecture. There's nothing easy about it, as Feynman acknowledges in the lecture:

I am going to give what I will call an elementary demonstration. "Elementary" means that very little is required to know ahead of time in order to understand it, except to have an infinite amount of intelligence.

He means, instead, that he is strictly using geometrical methods to reach his destination, which explains why it was so difficult to reconstruct without his diagrams. His charming Brooklyn accent and good humor show through in this lecture, even if the material is quite a bit drier than his fans might expect. Still, those interested in adding a new dimension to their understanding of this brilliant scientist--and those with a deep interest in Newtonian physics--will find The Motion of Planets Around the Sun a rare and unexpected treat. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Isaac Newton, in his Principia Mathematica (1687), proved Johannes Kepler's law explaining why planets travel in elliptical orbits around the Sun. In 1964, theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, the bestselling author and Nobel Prize winner, set forth his own proof of Kepler's law, using only plane geometry. Feynman's difficult proof, presented in an introductory lecture to Caltech undergraduates, never made it into the classic multivolume Feynman Lectures on Physics, published between 1963 and 1965, but California Institute of Technology archivist Judith Goodstein unearthed the transcript of Feynman's 1964 lecture, published here along with explanatory commentary and historical background, plus 25 photographs and 150 diagrams. Caltech physics professor David Goodstein, Feynman's friend and colleague until the latter's death in 1988, provides a warm reminiscence and does a good job of explaining how quantum physics and relativity supplanted Newtonian science.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 191 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393039188
• ISBN-13: 978-0393039184
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #206,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rigorous 16th and 17th century natural philosophy, January 5, 2001

By 

S. C. Flowers "S.C." (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun (Paperback)

This book/CD combo is a great historical presentation of the physics of Galileo and Newton's time. David and Judith Goodstein use fascinating historical notes, reminiscent of 'The Mechanical Universe', to prepare the reader for the Feynman lecture.

The lecture itself deals with Newton's geometric proofs of orbital motions of the planets written in the 'Principia'. This geometrical way of presenting the concepts is HARD for the contemporary reader who is used to calculus based analysis of the problem. However, thanks to D. and J. Goodstein's efforts the reader is by then well prepared for the onslaught of congruent triangles. Of particular interest during the lecture is Feynman's eventual departure from Newton's work since even he 'couldn't follow Newton's argument due to its use of obscure conic section properties' which were quite in vogue in the 17th century.

This book/CD combo is easily more advanced than Feynman's 'The Character of Physical Law' and so not recommended for the average non-technical reader. Lastly, be advised that the reader is strongly advised in the book to read the preparation for the lecture prior to listening to the lecture, else the reader will be thoroughly confused.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars authors create a labour of love for Feynman, July 21, 2002

By 

"alvee" (Corvallis, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun (Paperback)

This book is a labour of love by Judith and David Goodstein for their friend Richard Feynman. I really enjoyed the revelations of the human side of the great physicist, especially the 20 page reminiscene by David Goodstein (a fellow physicist at cal tech) and Feynman's sometimes gruff answers to questions after the lecture. A different view of the human side of Feynman than what you read in "Surely, you're joking". I found the technical side of the book even more rewarding (see next paragraph) but be warned: this is pretty intense geometry and logic - I have a hard time imagining anyone without at least a couple years of post secondary math or physics or engineering following all the arguments.

But if you have the background and patience, it's some pretty cool stuff. Like many folks, I learned planetary dynamics using calculus, not geometry, and so this was my first exposure to the elegant relationship between velocity diagrams and orbits. While Feynman's lecture is somewhat unorganized and not entirely clear, the book does a great job filling in the blanks. There are certainly some rough spots (way too much time on the initial simple properties of ellipses, the argument connecting Kepler's third law to the law of gravitation is not clear, and more) but anyone with sufficient background willing to invest a few hours will be able to get past these minor problems. I kind of like how the pace accelerates to a ridiculous level by the end, leaving you to pretty much work out all the hard details of Rutherford's law of scattering for yourself.

Listen to the lecture, scratch your head wondering "what the heck was that", then read the book and study the arguments, then listen again and feel enlightened.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a beautiful book..., October 23, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun [With CD] (Hardcover)

The heart and soul of this book is a proof of Keplars laws. There are really *three* proofs: Isaac Newton's, Richard Feynmans, and the authors distillation of them. It's hard to imagine a mathematical proof making a fascinating science book, but this one does. Not only did I get to the end of the book understanding the proof (which I found astonishing), but the characters of Feynman, Newton, and Keplar came out. I gained a much deeper understanding of the most fundamental scientific revolution of the age