Sunday, September 15, 2013

Feynman lectures

Volume 1 of the Feynman Lectures on Physics is online now.

Physicists widely admire them, and some teachers re-read sections because his exposition is so clear and clean: especially the first volume. It can help you keep your teaching focused on the main line and not distracted by details.

But I gather it doesn't seem to work so well as a first-year textbook. It is excellent for teaching you what you know, but is hard to climb into when you don't know much about the material.

I remember sitting through Statistical Mechanics, and everything seemed so clear and simple. Then I sat down for the exam: "Calculate the specific heat of copper." Brain freeze.

I think the textbooks that work for new learners stop frequently and make the student exercise what he's learning. You have to keep your eyes on the prize, and Feynman was very good at that, but I have to step through some of those details myself to anchor them--the lucid A through Z lecture doesn't seem to find a resting place.

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