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Title: Genius : The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick ISBN: 0-679-74704-4 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 02 November, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.91 (32 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Real Genius!
Comment: Richard Feynman is certainly one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century,one who belongs to the small group of the chosen few(Einstein,Bohr,Pauli ,among others)and one who fully deserves to be called a genius!His biography by James Gleick is nothing short of excellent:it is very well documented and very well written.For those who want to understand the role played by Feynman in the advancement of modern physics, and especially in the genesis of the theory of Quantum Electrodynamics,this book is a must!It also gives a thorough account of Feynman's life, which makes very good reading ,even if one is not interested in physics...
But a five- hundred- page book will always contain a few paragraphs which are not at the same level as the rest of the book!One such paragraph will be found at page 177,where the author wastes the reader's time in explaining Hans Bethe's mental calculation ability in the "squares-near-fifty trick".Apart from the fact that this sort of ability has nothing to do with genius and is within reach of any intelligent High School student,James Gleick explains it wrongly!He says that"...the difference between two successive squares is always an odd number,the sum of the numbers being squared.That fact,and the fact that 50 is half of 100,gave rise to the squares-near-fifty trick".In fact ,the trick is based on the "remarkable identity" (50+/-a)^2=2500+/-100*a+a^2.Nothing to do with the difference of two successive squares!
Fortunately,the book does not contain many passages like this one!
Rating: 5
Summary: A wonderful book about Feynman
Comment: This is by far the best biography about Richard
Feynman to date. All the others, even the ones
written after this book, pale in comparison.
It is wonderfully written. It lets you see and
feel Feynman not only as one of the giants in
20th century physics, but perhaps more
importantly, as a human, with his passion,
his idiosyncracies, and the same struggles
and pain he had to go through just like everyone
else.
Ironically, Gleick never met
Feynman, which goes to show how great a writer
he is. I never spoke to Feynman, but he was
invited to our freshman physics classes once
(at Caltech), shortly before he died.
I remember waking up the morning after he
died, found out about it, and was very much
saddened, and saw the banner "We love you Dick"
hung across the Milliken Library on the Caltech
campus. For readers who never met or saw
Feynman in person, this is truly a great
biography. I read it a few years ago, and I
still recommend it to my friends all the time.
-- Ed Lee, Santa Barbara.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent companion to Feynman's own writing
Comment: Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, Gleick
Q: "I read both of Feynman's autobiographies! Why would I need to read a biography?"
A: "Because it's awesome."
Gleick, firstly, goes far deeper into Feynman's life than Feynman did. Feynman didn't consider his books to be autobiographies; they were "Adventures of a curious character." They were a few hilarious events picked from his long, full life.
Gleick's book covers many of the hilarious aspects, but also covers the painful and formative aspects. Also curiously missing from Feynman's books were his science. Feynman wrote about his adventures, Gleick covered the adventures, the disasters, and the science.
Brilliant, enthralling reading. Highly recommending to anyone who enjoyed Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Which is, in turn, recommended to anyone who likes funny stories. It reads fast, BTW.)
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Title: Isaac Newton by JAMES GLEICK ISBN: 0375422331 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 13 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character by Edward Hutchings, Ralph Leighton, Richard Phillips Feynman ISBN: 0393316041 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick ISBN: 0140092501 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1988 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton, Richard Phillips Feynman ISBN: 0393320928 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher (Helix Book) by Paul Davies, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands, Richard Phillips Feynman ISBN: 0201408252 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: April, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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