All of Richard Feynman’s physics lectures are now available free online (2014)
sciencealert.com
sciencealert.com
However, we want to be clear that this edition is only free to read online, and this posting does not transfer any right to download all or any portion of The Feynman Lectures on Physics for any purpose. [1]
Do the content creators understand the basic mechanics of how web browsers work? If someone was to watch the cached video on their drive are they then breaking the policy stated?
Not sure if this is a flag I enabled, but Chrome allows you to view content from the cache.
Thanks for posting the lectures, I'll take a look.
There was also an interesting one about how he and some of the other physicists tracked the passage of time differently. Like one guy would imagine a little clock ticking, and could parallel process, whereas Feynman would say the seconds in his head, so he was fucked if he tried to do other shit at the same time.
One part that caught me by surprise was Feynman's praise for the quick decision to use the atomic bomb. That stood out as something in apparent disagreement with the character of his which I learned of, and I didn't know what it was about that that he respected.
Also, they didn't have the norm of a 70 year history of not nuking other countries over disagreements, and had been in a brutal war for years, so they probably though differently about the use of nukes.
I wasn't baiting an argument about the bombs, but I just don't want to let it slide by. That is with almost certainty a false claim. I know we don't admit in America that we are capable of producing and consuming propaganda, so it's exceptionally difficult to communicate that idea despite what facts & what leadership at the time said that is in the historical record. Something swept under the rug was that there were many senior military leaders who pleaded to not use the bombs on urban, civilian population centers, at the very least. Also contrary to popular belief, the Japanese leadership was actually desperately looking to find a way out of the war. It was over by that point. Hirohito had no way for his empire to survive, and he selfishly did not want to relinquish his role as emperor (he otherwise offered to surrender if he could).
Feynman wasn't a military general at the time and he likely had no way or time available of knowing the full consequences of use of the bomb.
My high school history textbook told me that the bombs saved lives. President Eisenhower said there was no reason to drop them. There are two sides to that story.
That's the way I remember it, and that's what I thought was so surprising. I remember him saying something close to 'you have all these people's lives on the line and are able to make that decision,' and respecting that ability to make that decision
Does that ring more of a bell? Maybe it's my memory instead, though I've read this book a few times now.
[After the first successful bomb test, all the scientists at Los Alamos were celebrating except one: Bob Wilson.]
> He said, "It's a terrible thing we made."
> I said, "But you started it. You got us into it."
> You see, what happened to me—what happened to the rest of us—is we started for a good reason, then you're working very hard to accomplish something and it's a pleasure, it's excitement. And you stop thinking, you know; you just stop. Bob Wilson was the only one who was thinking about it, at that moment.
> I returned to civilization shortly after that [...] and my first impression was a strange one. [...] I sat in a restaurant in New York, for example, and I looked out at the buildings and I began to think, you know, about how much the radius of the Hiroshima bomb damage was and so forth ... How far from here was 34th Street? ... All those buildings, all smashed—and so on. And I would go along and I would see people building a bridge, or they'd just be making a road, and I though they're crazy, they don't understand, they don't understand. Why are they making new things? It's so useless.
> But, fortunately, it's been useless for almost forty years now, hasn't it? So I've been wrong about it being useless making bridges and I'm glad those other people had the sense to go ahead.
The line "I'm glad those other people had the sense to go ahead" may be the one that seems to praise the decision to drop the bomb. But I think he's referring to the other people who went ahead and made bridges, when all seemed futile to him.
Even if just internally (e.g. film Complex Analysis 101 one year, that stuff doesn't change, and not need to lecture it again), but still give the assignments and personal feedback. Perhaps do a weekly new video'd 'feedback for everyone' for the course based on homework understanding. It certainly is not done in universities in the country I'm in.
It seems an ideal opportunity to do more with less.
The lectures are great though. Really engaging and creative, and they help you rethink some things you may have picked up in physics class.
The Cornell ones recorded by BBC and mentioned here exist in video form.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/tuva-richar...