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nical books, whose equations, fñgures and sometimes even text become pixellated
when one tries to enlarge them, the IHÃIEX manuscript of the Me Mllenniun
bdition makes 1Ý possible to create eBooks of the highest quality, in which all
--- Trang 7 ---
features on the page (except photographs) can be enlarged without bound and
retain their precise shapes and sharpness. And the nhønced Electronic Version,
with its audio and blackboard photos from Feynmans original lectures, and its
links to other resources, is an innovation that would have given Feynman great
pleasure.
IMorweertos oŸ Foggrtrtterrt "s Eoe£mr'os
These three volumes are a selEcontained pedagogical treatise. They are also a
historical record of Feynman's 1961-64 undergraduate physics lectures, a course
required of all Caltech freshmen and sophomores regardless of their majors.
Readers may wonder, as [ have, how Feynmans lectures impacted the students
who attended them. Eeynman, in his Preface to these volumes, offered a somewhat
negative view. “I don”t think I did very well by the students,” he wrote. Matthew
Sands, in his memoir in Feywman's Tips on Phụsics expressed a far more posifive
view. Out of curiosity, in spring 2005 I emailed or talked to a quasi-random set
oŸ 17 students (out of about 150) from Feynman's 1961-63 class—some who had
great dificulty with the class, and some who mastered it with ease; majors In
biology, chemistry, engineering, geology, mathematics and astronomy, as well as
in physics.
The intervening years might have glazed their memories with a euphoric tỉnt,
but about 80 percent recall Feynman'”s lectures as highlights of their college years.
“H was like going to church.” The lectures were “a transformational experience, ”
“the experience of a lifetime, probably the most important thing I got from
Caltech.” “[ was a biology major but Feynman's lectures stand out as a high
point in my undergraduate experience ... though I must admit I couldn't do
the homework at the time and I hardly turned any of it in” “[ was among the
least promising of students in this course, and Ï never missed a lecture.... Ï
remember and can still feel Eeynman's joy of discovery.... His lectures had an
... emotional impact that was probably lost in the printed Lectures.”
By contrast, several of the students have negative memories due largely to two
issues: (1) “You couldn't learn to work the homework problems by attending the
lectures. Feynman was too slick——=he knew tricks and what approximations could
be made, and had intuition based on experience and genius that a beginning
student does not possess.” Feynman and colleagues, aware of this aw ¡in the
course, addressed it in part with materials that have been incorporated into
teụwmans Tips on Phụsïcs: three problem-solving lectures by Feynman, and
--- Trang 8 ---
a set of exercises and answers assembled by Robert B. Leighton and Rochus
Vogt. (1) “The insecurity of not knowing what was likely to be discussed in
the next lecture, the lack of a text book or reference with any connection to
the lecture material, and consequent inability for us to read ahead, were very
frustrating.... I found the lectures exciting and understandable in the hall, but
they were Sanskrit outside [when T tried to reconstruct the details|” 'This problem,
of course, was solved by these three volumes, the printed version of The Feunman
Lectures on Phụsics. They became the textbook from which Caltech students
studied for many years thereafter, and they live on today as one of Feynman's
greatest legacies.
A HHistorg, o£ FErraÉ(
The Feunwman Lectures on Phụsics was produced very quickly by Feynman
and his co-authors, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands, working from
and expanding on tape recordings and blackboard photos of Feynman”s course
lecturesề (both of which are incorporated into the Enhưnccd Electronic Version
of this Weu Mllennium Edition). Given the hiph speed at which Feynman,
Leighton and Sands worked, it was inevitable that many errors crept into the first
edition. Feynman accumulated long lists of claimed errata over the subsequent
years—errata found by students and faculty at Caltech and by readers around
the world. In the 1960°s and early 70's, Feynman made time in his intense liíe
to check most but not all of the claimed errata for Volumes I and II, and insert
corrections into subsequent printings. But Feynman”s sense of duty never rose
high enough above the excitement of discovering new things to make him deal
with the errata in Volume III.† After his untimely death in 1988, lists of errata
for all three volumes were deposited in the Caltech Archives, and there they lay
forgotten.
In 2002 Ralph Leighton (son of the late Robert Leighton and compatriot of
Feynman) informed me of the old errata and a new long list compiled by Ralph”s
* Eor descriptions of the genesis of Feynman”s lectures and of these volumes, see Feynmans
Preface and the Forewords to each of the three volumes, and also Matt Sands" Memoir in
Feuwmanws Tips on Phụs¿cs, and the Special Preface to the Commemoradtiue Editöion of FLP,
written in 1989 by David Goodstein and Gerry Neugebauer, which also appears in the 2005
Deftnittue Edition.
† Im 1975, he started checking errata for Volume III but got distracted by other things and
never finished the task, so no corrections were made.
--- Trang 9 ---
triend Michael Gottlieb. Leighton proposed that Caltech produce a new edition
of The Feunman Lectures with all errata corrected, and publish it alongside a new
volume of auxiliary material, Feynwmans Tiips on Phụs¿cs, which he and Gottlieb
WCT€ DI€paring.
teynman was my hero and a close personal friend. When I saw the lists of
errata and the content of the proposed new volume, I quickly agreed to oversee
this project on behalf of Caltech (EFeynman”s long-time academic home, to which
he, Leighton and Sands had entrusted all rights and responsibilities for 75e
Feunman Lectures). After a year and a halŸ oŸ meticulous work by Gottlieb, and
careful serutiny by Dr. Michael Hartl (an outstanding Caltech postdoc who vetted
all errata plus the new volume), the 2005 Oefimitiue Edilion oƒƑ The Feuuman
Lectures on Phụsics was born, with about 200 errata corrected and accompanied
by teunwmans Tips on Phụsics by Feynman, Gottlieb and Leighton.
T thought that edition was goïng to be “Defnitive”. What I did no antic-
Ipate was the enthusiastic response of readers around the world to an appeal
trom Gottlieb to identify further errata, and submit them via a website that
Gottlieb created and continues to maintain, 7 he Feunwman Lectures Website,
www. eynmanlectures.info. In the fve years since then, 965 new errata have
been submitted and survived the meticulous scrutiny of Gottlieb, Hartl, and Nate
Bode (an outstanding Caltech physics graduate sbudent, who succeeded Hartl
as Caltech?s vetter of errata). Of these, 965 vetted errata, 80 were corrected in
the fourth printing of the Defimitiue Edition (August 2006) and the remaining
885 are correcbed in the first printing of this Neu Mllenmum Edition (332 in
volume I, 263 in volume II, and 200 in volume TIT). For details of the errata, see