Feynman’s Lost Lecture: The Motions of Planets Around the Sun

On 14 March 1964 Richard Feynman, one of the greatest scientific thinkers of the 20th Century, delivered a lecture entitled ‘The Motion of the Planets Around the Sun’. For thirty years this remarkable lecture was believed to be lost. But now Feynman’s work has been reconstructed and explained in meticulous, accessible detail, together with a history of ideas of the planets’ motions. The result is a vital and absorbing account of one of the fundamental puzzles of science, and an invaluable insight into Feynman’s charismatic brilliance.

Review

The Goodsteins have gone a long way towards making a tough piece of geometry accessible… The result is fascinating — John Gribbin ― The Times

Feynman was singular in being both one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the century…[and] one of the most entertaining and illuminating teachers of science… Collectors of Feynman memorabilia, historians of science and all who enjoy watching a great mind at work will be thankful that the lost lecture has been found — Frank Close ― Observer

Feynman was a brilliant thinker and one of the finest scientists ever ― The Times

About the Author

Winner of the Nobel Prize for physics, the late Richard Feynman taught for many years at the California Institute of Technology. He is best known to a wide readership as the author of Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think.

Dr. David Goodstein is Vice Provost and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Judith Goldstein, registrar and archivist at Caltech, is author of Millikan’s School: A History of the California Institute of Technology.