Six Easy Pieces
"It was Feynman's outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics. From 1961 to 1963, Feynman delivered a series of lectures at the California Institute of Technology that revolutionized the teaching of physics around the world. 'Six Not-So-Easy Pieces', taken from these famous 'Lectures on Physics' represent some the most stimulating material from the series. In these classic lessons, Feynman introduces the general reader to the following topics: atoms, basic physics, energy, gravitation, quantum mechanics, and the relationship of physics to other topics..."--P. [4] of cover.
Stats for nerds
14recommend
23mentions
23people
2009–2026years
61% recommend39% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Feynman’s Six Easy Pieces: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5553.Six_Easy_Pieces
- just start with the Feynman undergraduate lectures (listed). The easy-mode of that is "Six Easy Pieces" (read it on kindle) which are the easiest 6 lectures.
At some point you'll need math, I recommend https://www.amazon.com/No-bullshit-guide-linear-algebra/dp/0... (I actually started here), and for calculus, "No BS Guide to Math/Physics" by the same author. These books both include a review of high school math (i.e. trig) which i needed. For DiffEq I currently recommend Logan's "A First Course in Differential Equations", this is where I am now and I found this the most gentle after trying several textbooks recommended from r/math. Context: I am an adult with an engineering degree from 20 yrs ago.
- > Curious what your thoughts are on exposing more people to theoretical physics sans popsci buzzword articles?
It's a great thing to try to do; I try to do it myself as a contributor to Physics Forums [1], for example.
I'm not sure how much good books like The Trouble With Physics actually do as far as exposing more people to physics sans popsci, because, while they might point out issues with how speculative research in physics is done, they don't actually teach any physics.
I personally would recommend Feynman's books for the layman, such as QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter or The Character of Physical Law, or Six Easy Pieces (followed by Six Not So Easy Pieces), as ways for people to get at least some exposure to physics without popsci buzzwords. IMO even those books are limited, because you can't really understand physics without actually doing the math and solving some actual problems. But they're still way better than popsci articles (or, for that matter, popsci books like those of Brian Greene or Michio Kaku).
- Six Easy Pieces was one of my favorite books as a kid.
- I've gifted copies of Six Easy Pieces [0] to numerous people now, it's the only book I can say that for.
[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5553.Six_Easy_Pieces
- My personal favorite:
- Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory
Other great books:
- The Theory Of Everything
- The Quark and the Jaguar
- Six Easy Pieces
Related
Six not-so-easy pieces
5 recommend · 6
Quantum electrodynamics
5 recommend · 6
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
69 recommend · 156
QED
60 recommend · 118
Perfectly reasonable deviations from the beaten track
4 recommend · 6
Lectures on physics
14 recommend · 36
