Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motions of Planets Around the Sun

(Paperback)

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Physical Properties

Description

Richard Feynman's fame rests to a large extent on his picaresque exploits, but he was also a theoretical physicist of some significance. The discovery of the notes for his major lecture on the motion of planets around the sun, presented in this book, allows readers an insight into the workings of his mind. The book relates how the notes came to be lost, and how they came to be found again and reconstructed. The lecture concerns the fact that, when a planet or any other body arcs through space under the influence of gravity, it traces out a specific set of mathematical curves. Feynman considers why nature chooses to trace out in the sky those - and only those - elegant geometrical constructions.

Reviews

The Goodsteins have gone a long way towards making a tough piece of geometry accessible... The result is fascinating -- John Gribbin * The Times *
Feynman was singular in being both one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the century...[and] one of the most entertaining and illuminating teachers of science... Collectors of Feynman memorabilia, historians of science and all who enjoy watching a great mind at work will be thankful that the lost lecture has been found -- Frank Close * Observer *
Feynman was a brilliant thinker and one of the finest scientists ever * The Times *

Author Bio

Winner of the Nobel Prize for physics, the late Richard Feynman taught for many years at the California Institute of Technology. He is best known to a wide readership as the author of Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think. Dr. David Goodstein is Vice Provost and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Judith Goldstein, registrar and archivist at Caltech, is author of Millikan's School- A History of the California Institute of Technology.