Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher (Helix Book) |...

Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher (Helix Book) | Richard P. Feynman, Matthew L. Sands | Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics By Its Most Brillant Teacher

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Six Easy Pieces: E...

	Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher (Helix Book) Richard P. Feynman, Matthew L. Sands Perseus Books Group, 1996 - 146 pages average customer review:based on 52 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Designed for non-scientists, Six Easy Pieces is an unparalleled introduction to the world of physics by one of the greatest teachers of all time.. }Richard P. Feynman (19181988) was widely recognized as the most creative physicist of the postWorld War II period. His career was extraordinarily expansive. From his contributions to the development of the atomic bomb a Los Alamos during World War II to his work in quantum electrodynamics, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1965, Feynman was celebrated for his brilliant and irreverent approach to physics.It was Feynmans outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics. From 19611963, Feynman, at the California Institute of Technology, delivered a series of lectures that revolutionized the teaching of physics around the world. Six Easy Pieces, taken from the famous Lectures on Physics, represents the most accessible material from this series. In these six chapters, Feynman introduces the general reader to the following topics: atoms, basic physics, the relationship of physics to other topics, energy, gravitation, and quantum force. With his dazzling and inimitable wit, Feynman presents each discussion without equations or technical jargon.Readers will remember howusing ice water and rubberFeynman demonstrated with stunning simplicity to a nationally televised audience the physics of the 1986 Challenger disaster. It is precisely this abilitythe clear and direct illustration of complex theoriesthat made Richard Feynman one of the most distinguished educators in the world. Filled with wonderful examples and clever illustrations, Six Easy Pieces is the ideal introduction to the fundamentals of physics by one of the most admired and accessible scientists of our time. }

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A worthy read

Although it is a transcribed version of a spoken lecture, Feynman's eloquence and enthusiasm nonethless makes it's way onto the page, decades after he spoke these words. His articulation of the basic concepts of physics is truely remarkable and I whole-heartedly recommend this book for those beginning their studies in physics and those beginning their teaching career physics. This is, in particular, a good book for the struggling student, as well as for the struggling teacher.

Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics By Its Most Brillant Teacher

Like most of Dr. Feynman's other books, this one provides someone with a short but understandable account of a variety of important subjects in physics. His descriptions of physics are entertaining and reveal his particular way of approaching the subject. To really understand any subject, it is helpful, I feel, to understand the way the people who have made important contributions to the subject think about the subject. It is also important to know the pursuit of an understanding is within one's reach and is fun. Dr. Feynman does not dissapoint the reader in these respects. It would have been fun to have been a colleague of his.

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Good, but perhaps a bit too easy and a bit unfocused.

The intention of this review is to give the reader enough information to decide whether or not to read this book. That Feynman was perhaps the foremost physicist of the middle of the 20th century goes without saying. He was also a great educator and popularize of the most complex ideas of classical and modern physics. All well and good, but what about this book?

In short -- I enjoyed this book, but thought that it was a bit unfocused. This was due to the fact that the book was taken from his three-volume lecture series on physics, which was prepared from his lectures to undergraduates of Cal Tech in the early 60's. The editors chose what they considered to be the six easiest lectures and put them in a single small volume, as contrasted to the three much larger volumes that make up the whole series of lectures. The lectures included in the book were not consecutive lectures from the whole series, so there was a bit of a continuity problem with the flow of the text. Also, because so much has been left out from the complete lecture series, the subjects that are covered are done so in a very fragmentary manner. Read this book to get a flavor for Feynman as a teacher, but not to get a complete picture of any of the subjects that are covered. While I liked the book, I liked Feynman's "The Character of Physical Law" even more. It was also based on a series of lectures (covering some of the same material), but all of the lectures in that series were provided and as a result the book was more focused and self contained. I recommend both books, but if you only want to read one, I would recommend "The Character of Physical Law". Both give a flavor of Feynman's teaching style and they are making me consider buying the full three volume lecture series, even though the list price for the three books (plus a volume on problem solving) is almost $200.

In more detail -- The lectures covered in this small book are:
--- Atoms in motion - Very general overview of atoms, molecules and their relation to vapor pressure, melting and solidification. Very general and very elementary. Well suited for a high school student.
--- Basic Physics - Very general overview of the scientific method, classical and modern physics. Also very general and suitable for a high school student.
--- The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences - Here, in my opinion, Feynman digresses quite a bit, throwing in a bit of chemistry (including the Krebs cycle) and a bit of biology (including DNA). This chapter is suitable for an advanced high school student or undergraduate college student.
--- Conservation of Energy - These last three chapters start the meat of the book, focusing of basic physics topics. The conservation of energy is taught from a simple analogy of the conservation of children's blocks. He follows the same approach he used to describe the first law of thermodynamics; using the concept of reversible machines being the most efficient possible to derive the law of conservation of energy. If one assumes the law of the conservation of energy one can prove that a reversible machine will be as efficient as possible, so both are statements of the same thing. I knew this approach from a study of thermodynamics and while not stated as such, Feynman allowed me to see that the concepts of reversibility and the conservation law are not only the same thing but that they are much more general than just applying to thermodynamics This alone was worth the price of the book. It illustrates the power of his teaching style.
--- The Theory of Gravitation - I was disappointed with this chapter. Instead of following Newton's thinking he states Newton's law of gravitation at the beginning of the chapter and then mentioned that it came directly for Keppler's second and third law. I was hoping for more. This chapter illustrates the difficulty in choosing just a chapter from a larger work. These ideas are developed more completely in the complete lecture series (there is also a separate book containing Feynman's lost lecture on this subject). On the plus side, there was an excellent discussion of why there are two tides pre day, not just one. Feynman, corrects the off stated idea that the second tide is due to the moon pulling on the earth. Again, in my opinion, this discussion is also worth the price of the book.
--- Quantum Behavior - This is taught from the standpoint of the two-slit interference experiment with photons and electrons. This touches the heart of quantum behavior, but just touches it. Again there is much, much more in the complete set of lectures.

All in all -- Some of the lectures were a bit too easy. The choice of only 6 easy lectures from a three-volume set of lectures made the text somewhat unfocused. Some of the lectures were very incomplete, but they are all pure Feynman. (The unfocused and incomplete nature of the text was due to the fact the this book is only a fragment of a much larger work.) Feynman makes physics exciting (or at least interesting) and provides information to readers of all backgrounds. I recommend this book to high school students, first year college students and teachers. Those with a more advanced physics background may find this book a bit too basic, but they may see new ways of looking at things. I also recommend Feynman's "The Character of Physical Law", which covers some of the same material, but in a somewhat more focused manner. In fact I liked it more than this book. I gave it five stars and this book only four.

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Interesting historical perspective

This is the kind of book to pick up from the library out of curiosity, as opposed to buying it. I am a big Feynman fan and wanted to see what he said all those years ago about these basic topics, as opposed to wanting to learn much from the content. If you are pretty informed about basic physics, then you won't find much you didn't know. Feynman's approach to the problem is certainly interesting, and he manages to given six different overview chapters with almost no mathematics. He also offered some insights that I had either never thought of or had long forgotten.

One nice benefit is how often Feynman says, "we don't know this yet" or equivalent, and to compare that to the reality 40+ years later. For several items, we of course still don't know. He could have covered much of basic physics without wandering into the "don't know" explanations, but that wouldn't have been Feynman then, would it?

I can also understand why many of the Cal Tech freshman didn't appreciate the lectures and attendance faded, according to the introduction. The work of actual problem solving techniques with gravity and the other topics was offloaded to the sections with other staff.

The book is short and not difficult to read, so it may be worth a look. I'd rank it back of various other books by Feynman as far as pleasure for the casual reader who is not himself or herself a teacher.

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Reads very quickly

I have heard of Feynman's collection of physics lectures for a long time and had intended reading them "one of these days" but never seemed to get to it. When a couple of friends and I formed a book club to discuss science and other types of expository prose, and one of them suggested this book, I decided "this is the day."

In reading Six Easy Pieces, I had a distinct sympathy with Feynman's undergraduate students. The man's mind must have run at the speed of light, ideas just firing off like gunshots. For a decade that had only reel to reel tape recorders, and big ones at that, the only resort for the student taking notes would have to have been a strong skill at shorthand.

I had expected a more difficult and thorough book, but the author presents a very simple, almost too brief, analysis of basic physics in this volume, which is a section of a larger text based on his lectures. In it he illustrates the close association, even a basic underpinning, of other sciences by physics. He notes relationships with earth sciences, particularly geology, with astronomy/cosmology, biology, and chemistry in particular. What he doesn't do is go into very great detail on how these areas relate to one another, his discussion of chemistry being the most thorough of them.

The book is very short, and the author spends much of it on the history and relationships of physics as a science. It is more like a general introduction written to preface material presented later in the course. He does a nice job of explaining the issue of particle/wave duality in electromagnetic and other waves in the final chapter of the book, which also suggests that the bulk of the book is "introductory" in nature and that more is to come later.

Athough the author presents some equations and graphs, those who are math-shy needn't be daunted; they are straight forward and helpful in understanding the points the author makes. Furthermore, Feynman's narative style goes very rapidly. He jumps from topic to topic, intercalating brief stories and amusing comments to put his message across in an entertaining manner, rather than in a ponderous discussion or chalk boards full of formulae.

Although the reader who has no physics background may enjoy learning something of the field through this book, I suspect those with a science background may find one of the more recent books on the subject more informative.

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