Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher

Top positive review

Doesn't get useful unti Chapter 4, after which it's great . . . but there's only six chapters.

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2018

This book consists of the first six chapters of Feynman's (pronounced Fine-man's) lectures on physics. The introduction and prefaces are all historically of interest. In the first chapter, he goes into a lot of discussion about atoms and, frankly, it seems more like a chemistry intro rather than one for physics. When he gets to Chapter 2, he talks about "basic physics" but most of the time is spent on quantum physics which might be a little overwhelming for someone new to physics. Kind of glosses over Isaac Newton and all those others and starts talking about leptons and such. Chapter 3--"The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences"--is of tangential interest but doesn't really get to the heart of anything. However, 69 pages in, he really gets going and becomes instructive. His explanation of conservation of energy is clear and sound, but his discussions of gravitation (Chapter 5) and quantum behavior (Chapter 6) are the best I've read and worth the price of the book. Note that Chapter 6 is essentially about the wave-particle nature of light and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

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Velvet

In one word: Terrible

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2019

Very simply put: if I had been a student and planned on taking classes with Feynman, I would have walked out of the room before the first lecture was over, never to return. I can't understand why Feynman was such a popular teacher. His style is very scattered. He starts with one concept and ends up in a completely different topic without warning, and not just once, but frequently. So, no logical and methodical development of any issue here. Not to mention that his style is rather childish: everything wiggles and jiggles..... really? My husband is a physics PhD. We both read the book and could not believe how scatterbrained this whole thing is.
By comparison, if one listens to a presentation by Leonard Susskind, one can be sure that he never strays from the subject at hand, and he will stay with it until he has exhausted it from all points of view, pertaining to the original question. That is academic excellency.
This goes into the trash. If Feynman was still alive, he'd get a letter from me about this.

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Fry Boy

Doesn't get useful unti Chapter 4, after which it's great . . . but there's only six chapters.

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2018

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64 people found this helpful

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Velvet

In one word: Terrible

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2019

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50 people found this helpful

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D. Hereford

A must read for all science buffs!

Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2019

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Superbly written yet easy to understand. A personal favorite and ever present reference. All sciences are dependent on physics, including geology, engineering, biology, and many more, including but not limited to psychology! Do yourself a favor and download this book. You may feel compelled to order the paper version for your library and those humans you know are worthy.

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AbrahamC

Now I know quantum mechanics!

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2020

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I was never mathematically inclined, and still get mild anxiety when confronted with formulas.

However, after reading Six Easy Pieces, I now understand the theories behind the science, and it’s pretty interesting stuff.

I definitely recommend this as part of any essential reading list, mainly for how it will expand the range and types of things you’ll know a bit about.

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Innis A. Lusk

Very good for the Physics reader who can't find the original Feynman books.

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2019

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What can I say. This is a smaller selection of the Feynman papers so it is a very good book for someone wanting to read just a few of the lectures. As a physics student myself, I find Feynman's lectures to generally be well thought out and coherent. Overall a good purchase as the original lecture books are very hard to find (or expensive).

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jonnijones

Amazing and surprisingly fun to read!

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2015

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I had checked this out of the library because I had heard about it from "somewhere". I enjoyed it but knew it wasn't something I would just casuallly read then put aside. So I bought my own copy and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much I went online to YouTube and watched his lectures. Awesome!

4 people found this helpful

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Charlie

Physics can be fun, no--seriously!

Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2013

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Emphasis on "essentials", and I needed a rudimentary approach. Also, think painless. The author's presentation was not boring and it was enlightening for this ordinary man. I enjoyed reading it and I could relate to the examples and analogies. Do yourself a favor and let Feynman teach you what you should already know. If you already know, the book is entertaining as well.

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K. Min

Great primer for anyone who loves science

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2013

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Feynman is my favorite physicist and though I've only taken a couple of physics classes, I am amazed by science and have been interested in it since I was a kid. I think this book is a great intro to some of the foundational principle of science and as a layman, I really enjoyed it and it gave me additional understanding of some of the core concepts.

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bill

Feynman six easy pieces

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2012

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Feynman was a genius, a polymath. He comes cl;ose to making these "easy" subjects understandable to the ordinary person who is not a genius. The charts in the Kindle edition are small and hard to read which is unavoidable considering the size of the Kindle screen. I will try it on my Kindle Fire. On the Fire a small part of the screen can be enlarged.

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Gabriel Sohn-Hunt

clarity in physics

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2022

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I loved the imagery and the similes towards nature and physics, rather than from a physics to nature standpoint. Valuable read even for those who know nothing of the subject.

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