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Comment by mbucc | Hacker News Reader

I found it interesting how radically different his teaching premise is from the current U.S. public school approach. From the preface:

I thought to address them to the most intelligent in the class and to make sure, if possible, that even the most intelligent student was unable to completely encompass everything that was in the lectures.

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If I recall the introduction correctly, the lectures were kindof a failed pedagogical experiment because of this - it worked well for the best students, but the mediocre/worse students did a fair amount worse than in previous years. I don't think Caltech continued to teach the first two years in the Feynman style after this.

But regardless, the lecture series is a wonderful overview on the actual physics, even if it doesn't work that well as a straight textbook.

These lectures are awesome if you have already encountered the material and want to start over from scratch really internalizing it this time. If you use them as a first-time learner you are likely to be pretty confused.

Failed experiment or no, it's probably the single most influential set of undergraduate physics classes ever taught. Grad students attened these classes too, and nearly everyone in the field has a copy of these lectures sitting on the shelf.

They're not a singular reference, but they're really good. His rachet and pawl lecture is timeless.

As a family friend once said to me, when I was a student (I studied physics before switching to Computer Science): "The Feynman Lectures are wonderful. While you are actually physically reading them, you feel as if you understand."

But what if there's a student in the class more intelligent than Feynman... oh wait.

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