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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
AUDIO LECTURES OF Q.M. - NOT A REVIEW OF THE PRINTED BOOK!, October 2, 2001
This is a review of the AUDIO BOOK ON TAPE - despite Amazon's placement of this review on the printed book web-page.
Here's what you get:
Six hours of Feynman lecturing (in his characteristic idiosyncratic demeanor) to freshman & sophomore undergraduate students at Caltech during the first few years of 1960. I was born about 30 miles away from the CALTECH campus in the same year he was giving some of these lectures.
It is decidedly pleasant to listen to the obvious delight this brilliant man has for teaching. For example, his voice rises and falls in tempo, volume and pitch whenever gets enthusiastic about the wonderful knowledge he knows he is passing on to you, the student. Once in a while he chuckles at his own occasional mistakes and inside jokes. Sometimes he takes great pains to apologize for the incomprehensibility of historically "Old School" conventions in scientific notation & units. This will lead you to believe in his sincere sympathy for being on the receiving side of this detailed, if not convoluted, sea of information. Once in a while he will make an admission that he doesn't know it all - a humble trait I find charming. Nonetheless, his enthusiasm is contagious and you will feel blessed to have heard his original approach to such literally wonderful subjects.
Back to what it is that you get in these recorded audio lectures. The audio volume contains six cassettes, each of which is one classroom hour long. There is absolutely no audio editing of the background noise however the publisher announces the date, lecture title, and where each chapter subsection begins. It is interesting to hear the background noise of the students when they file in and out of the lecture hall and towards the end of each lecture. You also hear bells in the hallway signaling the end of the class or possibly the lunch break. The students enthusiastically demonstrate their appreciation of Professor Feynman's efforts by applauding him at the end of each lecture. Of course Professor Feynman makes use of the chalkboard which you wont have the advantage of seeing but you could keep a copy of the printed lectures on hand to get whatever visuals you need from the transcribed illustrated diagrams which were published (I have done this and it's handy). Mostly I just listen to these tapes (I have a collection of over 60 taped lectures) on my one hour a day commute each day, over and over again. It's like I'm always in school with the great genius of Feynman every day!
Well anyhow, I thought that you'd like to see how these audio lectures correlate to the printed "Lectures on Physics" by audiocassette to volume & chapter in each book:Cassette 1 = Volume I Chapter 2 Basic Physics - Sept. 29, 1963 (this lecture can be found in "Six Easy Pieces")
Section 2.1. Introduction
Section 2.2. Physics before 1920
Section 2.3. Quantum Physics (this is an interesting section - one of my favorites)
Section 2.4. Nuclei and particles Cassette 2 = Volume III Chapter 1 Quantum Behavior - April 3, 1962 (this lecture can be found in "Six Easy Pieces" as well in Volume 10)
Section 1.1. Atomic mechanics
Section 1.2. An experiment with bullets
Section 1.3. An experiment with waves
Section 1.4. An experiment with electrons
Section 1.5. The interference of electrons waves
Section 1.6. Watching the electrons
Section 1.7. First principles in quantum mechanics
Section 1.8. The uncertainty principle Cassette 3 = Volume III Chapter 2 The Relation of Wave and Particle Viewpoints - April 6, 1962 (this lecture can be found in Volume 10 of this series)
Section 2.1. Probability and wave amplitudes
Section 2.2. Measurement of position and momentum
Section 2.3. Crystal diffraction
Section 2.4. The size of an atom
Section 2.5. Energy levels
Section 2.3. Philosophical implications Cassette 4 = Volume III Chapter 3 Probability Amplitudes - April 11, 1963
Section 3.1. The laws for combining amplitudes
Section 3.2. The two slit interference pattern
Section 3.3. Scattering from a crystal
Section 3.4. Identical particles Cassette 5 = Volume III Chapter 5 Spin One - April 18, 1963
Section 5.1. Filtering atoms with a Stern-Gerlach apparatus
Section 5.2. Experiments with filtered atoms
Section 5.3. Stern-Gerlach filters in series
Section 5.4. Base states
Section 5.5. Interfering amplitudes
Section 5.6. The machinery of quantum mechanics
Section 5.7. Transforming to a different base Cassette 6 = Volume III Chapter 6 Spin One-Half - April 22, 1963
Section 6.1. Transforming amplitudes
Section 6.2. Transforming to a rotated coordinate system
Section 6.3. Rotations about the z-axis
Section 6.4. Rotations of 180 and 90 degrees about y
Section 6.5. Rotations about x
Section 6.6. Arbitrary rotations Check out my 'Listmania Lists' and 'Shared Purchases' by clicking on the "IndiAndy (see more about me)" link above. I've put together a handy list of all audio (and some video) Feynman...
I hope you enjoy your Feynman experience! Regards,
IndiAndy
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by Richard P. Feynman
by Richard P. Feynman
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