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

This is a lot of fun -- if. If you are pretty good at mathematical games and have a love for all things Feynman. What makes it work is the CD with Feynman giving the lecture. He goes at the speed of light, but he is always amazing, even when you have no idea what he just said! I can't imagine what it was like for the young folks trying to make sense out of what was going on. But, I bet he inspired them for the rest of their careers. He still does that to people today. If you want a sample of the Feynman magic this is a tough place to start. But do find a way to start.

The book first walks you through the works of Copernicus, Galileo, Brahe and Kepler. Then it gives a brief account of Feynman's life and his work. Then, through numerous diagrams, the authors clearly explain Feynman's ingenious proof of the law of ellipses. Finally, the book presents Feynman's lecture "The Motion of Planets Around the Sun".It is amazing how Feynman, starting on the lines of Newton, and then not being able to follow Newton's reasoning, devised a different but elegant proof of the law of ellipses.

Not only did Feynman come up with his own geometric proof that the motion of the planets is eliptical, he presents it with a simple to understand step by step demonstration.Feynman's genious is obvious, but the best part of the CD is the Q-A portion at the end. Truly a genious, truly a teacher. A wonderful book/cd combination.For those with a more technical background, I recommend listening to the cd several times to see if you can follow, then go to the book. The proof will leap off the pages.Even for those without a technical background, Feynman is a joy to listen to.

This is a facinating book and audio CD package. I was captivated by the first section of the book, wherein Dr. Goodstein relates his-own work on following Professor Feynman's lecture material. The second section of the book is a transcription of the lecture, and it was interesting to follow the text while listening to the Professor's familiar New York accent on the companion CD(complete with his humor). It was easy to see why he was so popular a lecturer.

The heart and soul of this book is a proof of Keplars laws. There are really *three* proofs: Isaac Newton's, Richard Feynmans, and the authors distillation of them. It's hard to imagine a mathematical proof making a fascinating science book, but this one does. Not only did I get to the end of the book understanding the proof (which I found astonishing), but the characters of Feynman, Newton, and Keplar came out. I gained a much deeper understanding of the most fundamental scientific revolution of the age