Feynman Lectures Simplified 1C: Special Relativity and the Physics of Light

Feynman Simplified gives mere mortals access to the fabled Feynman Lectures on Physics. As a Caltech undergraduate, I had the amazing opportunity to learn physics directly from the greatest scientist of our age. I absorbed all I could. His style and enthusiasm were as important as the facts and equations.

Feynman Simplified 1C covers about a quarter of Volume 1, the freshman course, of The Feynman Lectures on Physics. The topics we explore include:

Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity
•The Principle of Relativity
•What Motivated Special Relativity?
•The Lorentz Transformation
•Length Contraction & Time Dilation
•E=mc2 & Simultaneity
•Light Cones & Causality
•Paradoxes, Puzzles, & Philosophy

The Physics of Light, including:
•Geometric Optics
•The Principle of Least Time
•Interference & Diffraction
•Feynman Sum Over Histories
•Refraction & Polarization
•Electromagnetic Radiation
•Light Scattering
•Relativistic Effects on Light

This book assumes an understanding of the material in Feynman Simplified 1A: Basic Physics. It is however, largely independent of the material in Feynman Simplified 1B.