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

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.