You appear to be parroting the nonsense from Collier's "I hate Feynman" videos. Feynman gave the FLP lectures at Caltech, which were recorded and photographed, but at that time there was no intention of making them into a book. Leighton and Sands (with the help of some secretaries and grad. students) transcribed these lectures, and then lightly edited them, for use by Caltech students as study notes. These fell into the hands of publishers a couple years later, and they were the ones who proposed turning them into a book. I am now the Editor of those books. To say Feynman "didn't write" FLP may be true in the most literal sense that he did not set pen to paper, but the content is his, as you can easily verify by going to The Feynman Lectures Website, where you can listen to the recordings and see the photos of the original lectures and compare them to the book - they are the same, except for very minor changes that would be required to make any spoken lecture readable.
Let me begin by saying that I am a friend of Ralph Leighton, whom I have known for 27 years. I am also a friend of Feynman's children, and several of Feynman's friends and colleagues. Now I will tell you this: Collier is a liar. The books "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think" were made the same way that The Feynman Lectures on Physics was made: Feynman was recorded, and the recordings were transcribed and (lightly) edited for readability. It is true for ALL of Feynman's books (also Stephen Hawking's many books, and those of some other authors) that he did not put pen to paper himself, but what is written came from him, and are not the inventions of Ralph Leighton, nor does Leighton claim authorship to them. It is another lie of Collier that the stories in Feynman's autobiographical books are "either made up or greatly exaggerated," for which Collier provides no evidence whatsoever, and for which there are witnesses who claim the contrary - this is something Collier just "made up", because, apparently her goal in making several pejorative videos about Feynman is to defame him, for her own personal reasons. Yes it is true that Ralph Leighton is Robert Leighton's son, and Robert Leighton, who is one of Feynman's coauthors in The Feynman Lectures on Physics, was a great physicist, best known for establishing the field of microwave astronomy. But why would Ralph mention his father in Feynman's autobiographical books, when Robert Leighton is not a character in any of the stories Feynman tells in those books? What kind of criticism is that to make of Ralph? This is another example of how Collier is merely trying to smear the names of Feynman and the people associated with him. Note that Collier also says in her videos that The Feynman Lectures on Physics (the subject of this discussion) is "not worth reading," which puts her at odds with almost everyone who reads it - it is, in fact, one of the most (if not THE most) popular physics books ever written, and many great physicists sing its praises. Once again, this is Collier just dissing Feynman and his works. Collier is a Feynman-hating liar who fully deserves to be ignored.
I don't know what "notes" you are referring to, but if you mean the chapters of The Feynman Lectures on Physics, the recordings and photos of Feynman's 2-year Caltech course on Introductory Physics were the source material from which they were made. When these edited versions of Feynman's lectures were created there was no intention of publishing the lecture recordings or photos - indeed there was no intention of publishing them as a book! You can find all the recordings and lecture photos, as well as Feynman's lecture notes and other materials related to The Feynman Lectures on Physics at www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu.
Hello _wire_. I tried to find the "quotations" you have attributed to The Feynman Lectures on Physics. I looked in Volume I chapters 37 and 38 (which are the same as Volume III chapters 1 and 2) and I could not find them, neither in those chapters nor in the recordings of the original lectures they are based on (for which I made transcripts using the Parakeet STT), so I am wondering where you got these quotations. Could you enlighten us in that regard?
Feynman's introductory physics course also entailed a lot of problem-solving and labs, in addition to the lectures that are the basis for The Feynman Lectures on Physics. If you go to The Feynman Lectures Website (www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu) and you take a look at the "Original Course Handouts" you can see the homework sets, quizzes and tests his students took (which are not for the feint of heart - many of the problems are quite difficult), and also the labs they did. For those reading the book now, there is also a supplemental volume (sold separately), "Exercises for The Feynman Lectures on Physics" which includes most of the problems given to Feynman's students, and many from later years given to students whose textbook was The Feynman Lectures on Physics.
You have to bear in mind that the lectures in The Feynman Lectures on Physics were only one third of an introductory physics course, the other parts being recitation sections (in which homework problems, quizzes and tests were given and discussed), and labs. Lecture attendance was optional - many people prefer reading to listening - but the recitation sections and labs were mandatory, because they were considered much more important. Nobody learns physics from just reading lectures.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics was used as the textbook for Caltech's introductory physics course for nearly two decades, and it is still used in some universities. I learned physics from it and have met many Caltech alumni who used it as their textbook, all of whom felt they learned a great deal more than "intuition" from it. So I am guessing you've never actually tried to learn something from it if you feel that way.
Yuo. Collier claims Robert Leighton wrote The Feynman Lectures on Physics, but all he did was edit Feynman's lectures in Volume I, as she (or you) could ascertain by listening to the lecture recordings and reading along with the text, both of which are available online (free) at The Feynman Lectures Website, https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu. Collier completely fails to mention Matthew Sands who edited Volumes II and III. So Collier is full of it. And not only with regard to FLP. She claims, for example, that Feynman's stories in Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman and What Do You Care What Other People Think are lies which is itself a lie (for which she offers no proof - because there is none) and that Ralph Leighton, who edited those books, by admiring Feynman as a physicist, was intentionally insulting his father Robert Leighton, which is complete bullsh*t, as I can tell you for a fact because I know them personally. Collier, in fact, defames Feynman and Leighton, not only in this video, but in others, and that is to attract views from ignoramuses, through hate-mongering. Let me mention also that Collier is just some poorly paid junior postdoc who makes money from her YouTube videos. And let me also mention that Feynman is greatly admired, as a physcist, a teacher, and as a human being, by millions of people, including many great physicists, physics teachers, and physics students. Finally, in closing I will mention that Feynman's books, including his autographical books (edited by Ralph Leighton) and The Feynman Lectures on Physics (edited by Robert Leighton and Matthew Sands) are best sellers, have been for a long time, and will continue to be, despite hate-mongering YouTubers like Collier, and the idiots who parrot them.
If you watch the video she explicitly says that the Feynman lectures were written by Feynman, the actual lectures, but were edited into book form by the other guy. She says exactly that, so she is not lying about that.
Your other claims that she is lying are backed up with as little factual information as her assertions, but having read about the man i would seriously consider that a great many of his stories are seriously exaggerated for effect. Again, she states that stories about the challenger hearings and his wife and various other occurrences for which we have evidence are completely factual. But it is rather obvious, dick being a rather hammy storyteller, that many fun details in his stories could have been tweaked to make them fun, and are kinda strange when you imagine what the other side of the conversation must've been like.
I don't blame you if you did not watch the video because it was long, but i will blame you for lying in this chat. I understand, i worshiped Feynman for a very long time but we have to understand that the man is not the legend.
I agree, Collier's videos are usually light on facts and nuance and seem to stroke the rage of her viewers. There are many who knew Feynman as a person, attended his lectures, etc. who are still alive today and could have been consulted if she were serious about her journalism.
