The Feynman Lectures

Now, anyone with internet access and a web browser can enjoy reading a high quality up-to-date copy of Feynman's legendary lectures.

This edition has been designed for ease of reading on devices of any size or shape; text, figures and equations can all be zoomed without degradation.

Volume I mainly mechanics, radiation, and heat

Volume II mainly electromagnetism and matter

Volume III quantum mechanics

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Lecture Photos 1961-62 1314 flp lecture photos

Lecture Photos 1962-64 1729 flp lecture photos

Feynman's Notes 611 pages of flp lecture notes

Original Course Handouts 1961-63 744 pages of flp student handouts

Key events during the energy expansions of evolution

(i) Life emerges; epoch of geochemistry begins. (ii) Anoxygenic photosynthesis: start of energy epoch 2, sunlight. (iii) Emergence of cyanobacteria. (iv) Great Oxidation Event: energy epoch 3, oxygen. (v) Probable eukaryotic fossils appear. (vi) Fossils of red algae appear. (vii) Start of energy epoch 4, flesh. (viii) Vascular plants colonize land; fire appears on Earth. Finally, the burning logs indicate the start of energy epoch 5, fire. The dates of (i)–(iii) are highly uncertain. For (i) I have taken the earliest date for which there is evidence consistent with life20. For (ii) I have taken the earliest date for which there is evidence consistent with photosynthesis18,19,21. For (iii), I have marked the date currently supported by fossil evidence for the presence of cyanobacteria (see main text, ‘Cyanobacteria and the oxygenation of the air’). Tick marks represent intervals of 25 million years. Figure drawn by F. Zsolnai.

Waves

PhET interactive simulations

Gravity And Orbits

Plinko Probability

Atomic Interactions

Arithmetic	Bending Light	Charges And Fields
Function Builder	Hooke's Law	Isotopes and Atomic Mass
Neuron	Rutherford Scattering	Trig Tour

Time-resolved 2-million-year-old supernova activity discovered in Earth’s microfossil record

Massive stars, which terminate their evolution in a cataclysmic explosion called a type-II supernova, are the nuclear engines of galactic nucleosynthesis. Among the elemental species known to be produced in these stars, the radioisotope 60Fe stands out: This radioisotope has no natural, terrestrial production mechanisms; thus, a detection of 60Fe atoms within terrestrial reservoirs is proof for the direct deposition of supernova material within our solar system. We report, in this work, the direct detection of live 60Fe atoms in biologically produced nanocrystals of magnetite, which we selectively extracted from two Pacific Ocean sediment cores. We find that the arrival of supernova material on Earth coincides with the lower Pleistocene boundary (2.7 Ma) and that it terminates around 1.7 Ma (details).

Gravitational waves and The Theory of Relativity

AN IDIOT'S GUIDE TO...

The Theory of Relativity

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein explained that what we perceive as the force of gravity in fact arises from the curvature of space and time.

He found that space and time were actually interwoven into a single continuum known as space-time.

As he worked out the equations for this general theory of relativity, Einstein realised that massive objects caused a distortion within this continuum.

Imagine a large body in the centre of a trampoline. The body would press down into the fabric, causing it to dimple. If a marble was then rolled around the edge, it would spiral inward toward the body, pulled in much the same way that the gravity of a planet pulls at rocks in space. 

He proposed that objects such as the sun and the Earth work in a similar way. In the presence of matter and energy they can evolve, stretch and warp, forming ridges, mountains and valleys that cause things moving through to zigzag and curve. 

Einstein determined that massive objects (like the Earth) cause a distortion in space-time which is felt as gravity.