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Books - where to start with Feynman?

currently i am reading "Surely Your Are Joking Mr Feynman?" and am really enjoying it although it is a bit on the light side.

I am in y12 and am really interested in physics and want to do physics at Oxford so need to get cracking with the extension reading...

Where would you recommend starting with Feynman? I have heard people mention "Six Easy Pieces" and "QED"

Which of these is best to start with? or any other Feynman books you would recommend?

And broadening beyone Feynman, can anyone recommend any good physics books, at a suitable level which are interesting and a good read (not too dry)?

Reply 1

fisherman

QED is good. I think it could do with more physicsy explanations, but it is good. I had to read it 3 or 4 times to understand everything though.

Reply 2

JimWalker1990

the character of physical law is a cracker, but because its transcripts of his lectures it takes a couple of runs through to see whats being said. still a good read

also for physics at oxford having a look at some Brian Greene books might be helpful, they're really good aswell

:smile:

Reply 3

Scipio90

IMO character of physical law isn't great, and the "lost lecture:motion of planets" one is awful, mainly because of the editing (ie stuff in the text like "x/2 = y therefore x=y" (easy enough to do in a spoken lecture) then a footnote saying "this is wrong, actually x = 2y". If it's wrong, then edit the lecture to say so!), but also because it includes a chapter which is basically the editor's attempt to explain Feynman's already fairly clear explaination.

I haven't read QED, but the videos of the lectures it was based on are good.

If you're looking to do a physics degree, don't bother with 6 easy pieces, get the first volume of the full lectures. Some of it requires a bit of effort to get, but it's very rewarding.

Reply 4

QuantumTheory

Start with Six Easy Pieces.
I'm reading it to my mum at the moment, and it's defiantly the most beginner friendly.
As well as tremendous fun.
Then move onto QED, imho :smile:

Oh, and congrats, Feynman's awesome!

Hmm, well, if you've done the quantum bits in your syllabus then maybe you could start with QED, but, to be honest, I've learned quite a bit from Six Easy Pieces, and I read lots of Physics books :smile:

Reply 5

MC REN

Novikov's River of Time is excellent

Reply 6

Mr Nonsense

thank you very much everyone... almost finished "surely you are joking?" and going to read "six easy pieces" and then "qed"
apparantly "six harder pieces" is really quite difficult and beyond the maths of a y12 further mathematician?? is that right?

Reply 7

alan910_2

The first book that I read in physics was 'Quantum: A guide for the Perplexed' by Jim Al-Khallili.

If you have any interest in quantum or partical physics, that's where to start.

Don't read anything written by Marcus Chown or Lee Smolin, not concise enough for people our age. Simon Singh is good although he is more mathematics...