Showing papers by "Richard Phillips Feynman published in 1996"

Feynman Lectures on Computation

Abstract: From the Publisher: From 1983 to 1986, the legendary physicist and teacher Richard Feynman gave a course at Caltech called "Potentialities and Limitations of Computing Machines." Although the lectures are over ten years old, most of the material is timeless and presents a "Feynmanesque" overview of many standard and some not-so-standard topics in computer science. These include compatibility, Turing machines (or as Feynman said, "Mr. Turing's machines"), information theory, Shannon's Theorem, reversible computation, the thermodynamics of computation, the quantum limits to computation, and the physics of VLSI devices. Taken together, these lectures represent a unique exploration of the fundamental limitations of digital computers. Feynman's philosophy of learning and discovery comes through strongly in these lectures. He constantly points out the benefits of playing around with concepts and working out solutions to problems on your own - before looking at the back of the book for the answers. As Feynman says in the lectures: "If you keep proving stuff that others have done, getting confidence, increasing the complexities of your solutions - for the fun of it - then one day you'll turn around and discover that nobody actually did that one! And that's the way to become a computer scientist."

Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun

Abstract: The great theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winnder, Richard Feynman, left an indelible imprint on scientific thought. On 14 March 1964 he delivered a remarkable lecture which, until now, was believed to be lost. His lecture was about a single fact, though by no means a small one. When a planet or a comet or any other body arcs through space under the influence of gravity, it traces out one of a very special set of mathematical curves, known as the conic sections. But why does nature choose to describe those, and only those, elegant geometrical constructions ? In this book Feynman's lost lecture has been reconstructed and explained in meticulous, accessible detail, together with a history of ideas of the planets' motions. It can be enjoyed by the specialist and nonspecialist alike and provides us all with an invaluable insight into the mind of one of this century's greatest scientists.