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Feynman Lectures on Gravitation (Penguin Press Science)
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Product Description
The "Feynman Lectures on Gravitation" are based on notes prepared during a course on gravitational physics that Richard Feynman taught at Caltech during the 1962-63 academic year. For several years prior to these lectures, Feynman taught about the fundamental problems in gravitational physics, yet he published very little. These lectures represent a record of his viewpoint and some of his insights into gravitation and its application to cosmology, superstars, wormholes, and gravitational waves at that particular time. The lectures also contain a number of digressions and asides on the foundations of physics and other issues.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #547636 in Books
- Published on: 1999-08-26
- Original language: English
- Binding: Paperback
- 272 pages
Customer Reviews
Surely You're NOT joking, Mr Feynamn
I tend to think that this book is not a good place for a beginning student (like me) to learn the modern geometrical formulation of general relativity. But the "notes" are pervaded of Feynman's spirit, they contain a number of fascinating digressions and..well, if you already know Feynman's behaviour through his books, you can't lose this!
General relativity as a quantum gauge field theory.
Feynman gave a series of lectures on gravitation at a graduate seminar at Caltech in 1962. The lectures were recorded and transcribed by Morinigo and Wagner. A very readable introduction on quantum gravity was added by the editor, Brian Hatfield (whose book on quantum field theory and strings, I also recommend.) This is the only book I've seen which develops GR from a quantum field theory point of view. Feynman's lectures show that the GR field equations result from the requirement of gauge invariance under Lorentz transformations for a massless spin-2 field (i.e graviton). This is a more fundamental approach than the usual differential geometric framework and shows what the equivalence principle really means in terms of fundamental symmetries. Highly recommended for a modern field theory viewpoint of GR.
