The Feynman Lectures on Physics (3 Volume Set)

Book Preface

This book is based upon a course of lectures in introductory physics given by Prof. R. P. Feynman at the California Institute of Technology during the academic year 1961-62; it covers the first year of the two-year introductory course taken by all Caltech freshmen and sophomores, and was followed in 1962-63 by a similar series covering the second year. The lectures constitute a major part of a fundamental revision of the introductory course, carried out over a four-year period.

The need for a basic revision arose both from the rapid development of physics in recent decades and from the fact that entering freshmen have shown a steady increase in mathematical ability as a result of improvements in high school mathematics course content. We hoped to take advantage of this improved mathematical background, and also to introduce enough modern subject matter to make the course challenging, interesting, and more representative of present-day physics. In order to generate a variety of ideas on what material to include and how to present it, a substantial number of the physics faculty were encouraged to offer their ideas in the form of topical outlines for a revised course. Several of these were presented and were thoroughly and critically discussed. It was agreed almost at once that a basic revision of the course could not be accomplished either by merely adopting a different textbook, or even by writing one ab initio, but that the new course should be centered about a set of lectures, to be presented at the rate of two or three per week; the appropriate text material would then be produced as a secondary operation as the course developed, and suitable laboratory experiments would also be arranged to fit the lecture material. Accordingly, a rough outline of the course was established, but this was recognized as being incomplete, tentative, and subject to considerable modification by whoever was to bear the responsibility for actually preparing the lectures.

Concerning the mechanism by which the course would finally be brought to life, several plans were considered. These plans were mostly rather similar, involving a cooperative effort by N staff members who would share the total burden symmetrically and equally: each man would take responsibility for 1/N of the material, deliver the lectures, and write text material for his part. However, the unavailability of sufficient staff, and the difficulty of maintaining a uniform point of view because of differences in personality and philosophy of individual participants, made such plans seem unworkable.

The realization that we actually possessed the means to create not just a new and different physics course, but possibly a unique one, came as a happy inspiration to Professor Sands. He suggested that Professor R. P. Feynman prepare and deliver the lectures, and that these be tape-recorded. When transcribed and edited, they would then become the textbook for the new course. This is essentially the plan that was adopted.

It was expected that the necessary editing would be minor, mainly consisting of supplying figures, and checking punctuation and grammar; it was to be done by one or two graduate students on a part-time basis. Unfortunately, this expectation was short-lived. It was, in fact, a major editorial operation to transform the verbatim transcript into readable form, even without the reorganization or revision of The subject matter that was sometimes required. Furthermore, it was not a job for a technical editor or for a graduate student, but one that required the close attention of a professional physicist for from ten to twenty hours per lecture!

The difficulty of the editorial task, together with the need to place the material in the hands of the students as soon as possible, set a strict limit upon the amount of “polishing” of the material that could be accomplished, and thus we were forced to aim toward a preliminary but technically correct product that could be used immediately, rather than one that might be considered final or finished. Because of an urgent need for more copies for our students, and a heartening interest on the part of instructors and students at several other institutions, we decided to publish the material in its preliminary form rather than wait for a further major revision which might never occur. We have no illusions as to the completeness, smoothness, or logical organization of the material; in fact, we plan several minor modifications in the course in the immediate future, and we hope that it will not become static in form or content.