Richard Feynman's Math Books

These are some of the math books that Richard Feynman used to self-study mathematics. Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.

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[byronwilliams]

Either way it must also be noted that Feynman also won the Putnman math competition while in Uni, anyone that has sat this exam knows how difficult it is. While in highschool Feynman won the new York city math competition by such a large margin that the officials encouraged Feynman's parents to send him to an Ivy league school despite the Jewish quotas.

[docnelson]

You have a great website-thank you. As someone who failed early but ended up getting to university after self-study and eventually gained a PhD in Space Physics as a mature student, I can endorse some of these wonderful texts you mention in your wonderful channel-Like you, I have a acquired a large library of maths and physics texts for their sheer interest. Now I'm retired from a career that involved meteorology, physics and mathematics, I teach myself General Relativity, QFT and String theory-keep up the good work!

[exxzxxe]

I worked at Thinking Machines, where Richard Feynman was a consultant. Danny Hillis (founder of Thinking Machines, where Marvin Minsky- a key role in the progression of AI, was on the board) told me Feynman played a major role in the design of the 32-dimensional router (connecting the 65K processors). He also told me about Feynman's IQ score- that he was told by Feynman's sister who also has a PhD. Her IQ score was higher. The way to view this is: an IQ score on an IQ test is nothing more than testing one's ability to take that kind of test. Many of the high IQ self-promoters take these tests over and over to the extent they have seen all or most all of the questions. How many of them have invented anything- shown any exceptional creativity like Richard Feynman or Danny Hillis? Not one I am aware of.

[jbbentley]

Brilliant mind and a real comedian/ entertainer when you listen to his lectures. Some of his interviews are online and worth the watch.

[douglasstrother]

Richard Feynman had Mr. Bader as well.

"When I was in high school, my physics teacher—whose name was Mr. Bader—called me down one day after physics class and said, ‘You look bored; I want to tell you something interesting.’ Then he told me something which I found absolutely fascinating, and have, since then, always found fascinating. Every time the subject comes up, I work on it. In fact, when I began to prepare this lecture I found myself making more analyses on the thing. Instead of worrying about the lecture, I got involved in a new problem. The subject is this—the principle of least action." from "The Feynman Lectures on Physics", Vol.II, Chapter 19.

[mannydossantos]

Feynman, apart from his brilliance, was a great communicator of physics. The Math Sorcerer is on the path of doing much the same with math. Without a doubt, Feynman is one of the all time favorite physics scientists. Thank you for the info on Feynman's books... much appreciated.

[physicshypernova]

Nice! I remember watching one of his interviews and he mentioned this series and how he was excited to get the calculus book.

[byronwilliams]

As far as I can tell, the IQ tests of the era that were administered during Feynman's days also took into consideration your facility with language arts. His skill in the language arts weren't as advanced. I believe this is mentioned in Genius: The life and times of Richard Feynman by James Gleick. Hope this helps.

[InAMinMaths]

Sorry if it’s already been mentioned but he also read a book called Calculus Made Easy by S Thompson. His friend Ralph Leighton refers to it in the foreword of the Strange Theory of Light and Matter. Unfortunately for me he didn’t say the name or the title but said it began with ‘What one fool can do, anyone can’ and I then searched for this a year (this was pre-Google). I found it eventually by opening books at random in libraries and it helped me understand calculus very well (although it’s not perfect).

[Sorobai]

It must be really amazing to have you as a teacher either you are a practical man or not thanks for sharing this

[rudyj]

Small correction: the Advanced Calculus Book states that it is NOT a 'course one's in analysis

[terencemeikle]

That Woods book looks really lipsmacking. Beautiful layout and print quality, and the contents perfect for a re-cap of stuff learnt earlier - unlike many, more recently published, and (I would say) inexplicably famous and oft recommended tomes I could mention.

[johncillis]

I like your math book reviews. I still have my college trig book. Though I was a liberal arts major, I was able to challenge my college algebra courses and wanted to take trig because I loved the way trig is applied. Though I had never taken college calculus, I was able to tutor students in it--by phone, because they shared the textbook used in my college and took calculus from my Trig teacher.

My trig teacher did not assign homework. He said he respected us in college as adults, and as such, we could choose which problems to study and he suggested we'd keep a journal so if we got stuck on a problem, he could help.

We had two semi-finals and two finals, and I got perfect grades on all four of them. My teacher handed them back to me, with red ribbons, embarrassing me in front of the students, some of which I went to grammar school with. I majored in liberal arts with the goal of teaching one day, and even in the early 80's when work was hard to find out of college, I found work in '81 and worked non-stop until early retirement in '15, just teaching sometimes since.

Trig identities just came natural to me--like Good Will Hunting, I could 'just play'.

Calculus came natural to me, as did Chemistry for College Majors, because I found balancing chem equations easier than algebra, because again like trig it was applied mathematics.

Years later I wrote a program called Spirapaint!, still used today and found on a few websites. I wrote it as a free tool, like the old Spirograph toy, that could be used to teach high school students or even grammar school students how trig and calculus can be combined to make amazing patterns via a computer. It's fifteen years old, and there are also online websites that have similar tools.

While writing it I wanted to use some special algorithms and I contacted an MIT and also a Stanford professor for their suggestions, since my program creates patterns the old toy cannot and no website can. I used Visual Basic to write it, and though I am a systems and part time school professor, my colleagues at the last software company I worked for played with it during their lunch breaks, since they worked on a CAD program used in retail store.


Richard's work is that of a mega-genius. 🏆

[BishopIsJustHappyToBeHere]

When I first started college I went to the Engineering Library on campus to find a physics textbook and ended up finding Calculus for the Practical Man. I thought it was such an interesting title that I checked it out and looked it over a little before classes started. Inside you can find a "proof" (idk of the airquotes are necessary) of the continuously compounded interest formula. I was only a freshman so it blew my mind but it absolutely excited me about math books along with this channel.

[umangbhatt]

I can't counter argue what Feynman suggested but I will say that for Trigo nothing is compared to S.L.Loney [It is one of the most favorite book of Ramanujan.]

[temperedwell]

I don"t think anyone knows for sure, but I seriously doubt that Feynman, of all people, cared if a book contained answers to problems. He prided himself on finding his own ways of solving problems and certainly knew if he had arrived at the correct answer without having to check at the back of the book.

[ernststravoblofeld]

I've got the Calculus for the Common Man book. I bought it mistaking it for the Sylvanus Thompson book. They are both very good.

[algorithminc.]

Enjoyed this. Sincere thanks. Your effective point of teaching one's self is well taken. I attempt to get everyone to understand this, but I come across many that don't have the confindence for one reason or another - or are affected by that "just getting started" inertia. Really great channel. Cheers

[channelnumber]

I found a copy of Calculus for the Practical man at a used book store's bookfair a couple of months ago, for 2$. Same edition you have. I couldn't believe my luck. Such a good price for what has been a really good read.

[brianmccormick]

Loved his physics course books and he was very proud of his work.