Book read: Six Easy Pieces : The Fundamentals of Physics Explained by Richard P Feynman

A book I had previously read a few years ago but have taken the time to re-read. It is taken from Feynman's famous lecture series in the 1960s and seeks to distill the essence of physics in such a way to provide a starting point for a future generation if all current knowledge was lost.

It's an interesting read, the book is divided up as follows:

Atoms in Motion
Basic Physics
The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences
Conservation of Energy
The Theory of Gravitation
Quantum Behaviour

Each chapter can be read in isolation, the most thought provoking is the final one on quantum behaviour. This lays out the electron detector experiment by building up a series of thought experiments that give some insight into the wave/particle nature at the atomic level.

I was not a great physics student at college, I would like to think I could have been better if some of these ideas had be presented - maybe not as the core subject but as a summary of current thinking. The original reason for Feynman's lecture series was such a complaint about undergraduate physics stifling or hiding the true frontiers of the subject.