Do you remember the best teacher you ever had? Dick Feynman is better! Six easy pieces are six of his twenty two lectures from Caltech’s freshman lecture series.
If you don’t care for math, but really would like to UNDERSTAND classical and basic quantum physics this is the book that will do it. Feynman develops each subject, with aplomb.

The first chapter or “piece” transistions from the description of molecules, to their Brownian motion, then relating that to heat energy in gases, to pressure in a cylinder, to diffusion, to state changes (solid, liquid, gas) in such a smooth and logical progression that you preface each new insight with: “Of course”

Many people think that physics is hard, and that it takes a lot of work and math to understand the principles by which the universe works. Accessing this knowledge the normal way is tough. Feynman gives you the easiest way to see the way creation works.

Quantum theory – the world of atoms and subatomic particles is never seen by us in normal life. Unfortunately the subatomic world does not work like the Newtonian physics of bouncing balls, friction and smooth curves.

Nels Bohr’s original picture of atoms with electrons spinning in planetary orbits is not how it is. The Bohr model looks at the atom as though it follows Copernican rules of planetary motion – but the electron energies are quantized or discrete, so they cannot be shown as nice clear orbits, but more like a cloud where the Bohr orbits trace the average paths. Few, not even Carl Sagan could easily explain the experimental model that has probability clouds, where you can know either the location or the velocity of a particle, but not both, or the fact that an electron must be thought of as a particle, and a wave. (This reminds me of Chevy Chase and Jane Curtain with “Shimmer – its a Dessert Topping and a Floor Wax!”)

Quantum theory is just not very intuitive. Feynman, in his sixth piece makes the only clear, understandable, and accurate explanation of the quantum behavior of particles (or waves) that I have ever seen. He lets you get from – “You may say that, but I won’t believe it” to: “Oh, so that’s how it works”. Everyone who wants to get the most out of Vorpal.us and cannot say that they feel they understand physics, especially quantum physics should read this book. (nb: Required Reading)

Julian Barbour has written a clear and groundbreaking manifesto in The End of Time that states what may be the most profound insight since Aristotle. Time, according to Barbour, the reference by which all of Newtonian physics is measured is merely an illusion!

Newton proposed a universe of physics which contained a fixed reference coordinate system upon which physical existence plays out. The cartesian or polar playing field contains three fixed dimensions of space and one of time. In Newtonian physics, the world simply operates according to the rules of motion which he so clearly identified.

While most experiments conformed to Newton’s picture of physical reality, there were some experiments, like black body radiation, that did not work out according to plan. Just as Newton corrected and extended Aristotle’s views, Einstein, Bohr and the others corrected and extended Newton’s mechanics with quantum mechanics.

Just as Newton’s view ran into experimental problems, quantum theory runs into problems when trying to incorporate gravity into a grand theory. Barbour painstakingly develops his theory, and a method of visualizing the basic concepts that permit his theory to be understood. (more…)