A great triumph of twentieth-century physics, the theory of quantum mechanics, is now nearly 40 years old, yet we have generally been giving our students their introductory course in physics (for many students, their last) with hardly more than a casual allusion to this central part of our knowledge of the physical world. We should do better by them. These lectures are an attempt to present them with the basic and essential ideas of the quantum mechanics in a way that would, hopefully, be comprehensible. The approach you will find here is novel, particularly at the level of a sophomore course, and was considered very much an experiment. After seeing how easily some of the students take to it, however, I believe that the experiment was a success. There is, of course, room for improvement, and it will come with more experience in the classroom. What you will find here is a record of that first experiment. .

In the two-year sequence of the Feynman Lectures on Physics which were given from September 1961 through May 1963 for the introductory physics course at Caltech, the concepts of quantum physics were brought in whenever they were necessary for an understanding of the phenomena being described. In addition, the last twelve lectures of the second year were given over to a more coherent introduction to some of the concepts of quantum mechanics. It became clear as the lectures drew to a close, however, that not enough time had been left for the quantum mechanics. As the material was prepared, it was continually discovered that other important and interesting topics could be treated with the elementary tools that had been developed. There was also a fear that the too brief treatment of the Schrodinger wave function which had been included in the twelfth lecture would not provide a sufficient bridge to the more conventional treatments of many books the students might hope to read. It was therefore decided to extend the series with seven additional lectures; they were given to the sophomore class in May of 1964. These lectures rounded out and extended somewhat the material developed in the earlier lectures.

费恩曼（R．P．Feynman）1918年生于布鲁克林区，1942年在普林斯顿获得博士学位。第二次世界大战期间在洛斯阿拉莫斯，尽管当时他还很年轻，但已在曼哈顿计划中发挥了重要作用。以后，他在康奈尔大学和加利福尼亚理工学院任教。1965年，因他在量子电动力学方面的工作和朝永振一郎及施温格（J．Schwinger）同获诺贝尔物理学奖。

费因曼博士获得诺贝尔奖是由于成功地解决了量子电动力学理论问题，他也创立了说是液氦中起流动性现象的数学理论。此后，他和盖尔曼（M.Gell-Mann）在B衰变等弱相互作用领域内做出了奠基性的工作。在以后的几年里，他在夸克理论的发展中起了关键性的作用，提出了他的高能质子碰撞过程的部分子模型。

除了这些成就之外，费恩曼博士将新的基本计算技术及记号法引时物理学，首先是无处不在的费恩曼图，在近代科学历史中，它比任何其他数学形式描述都更大地改变了对基本物理过程形成概念及进行计算的方法。

费恩曼是一位卓越的教育家。在他区得的许多奖项中，他对1972年获得的奥斯特教学奖章特别感到自豪。在1963年第一次出版的《费恩曼物理学讲义》被《科学叛国人》杂志的一位评论员描写为“咬不动但富于营养并且津津有味。25年后它仍是教师和最好的初学学生的指导书”。为了使外行的公众增加对物理学的了解，费恩曼博士写了《物理定律和量子电动力学的性质：光和物质的奇特理论》。他还是许多高级出版物的作者，这些都成为研究人员和学生的经典参考书和教科书。

费恩曼是一个活跃的公众人物。他在挑战者号调查委员会里的工作是从所周知的，特别是他的著名的O型环对寒冷的敏感性的演示，这是一个优美的实验，除了一杯冰水以外其他什么也不需要。费恩曼博士1960年在加利福尼亚州课程促进会中的工作却很少人知道，他在会上抨击了教材的平庸。

仅仅罗列费恩曼的科学和教育成就并没有恰当抓信这个人的本质。即使是他 最最技术性的出版物的读者都知识道，费恩曼活跃的多面的人格在他所有的工作中都闪闪发光。除了作为物理学家，在各种不同的场合下他变成不同的人物：有进是无线电修理工，有时是锁具收藏家，艺术家、舞蹈家、邦戈（bongo）鼓手，甚至玛雅象形文字的解释者。对他的世界人们永远好奇，他是一个典型的经验主义者。

费恩曼于1998年2月15日在洛杉矶逝世。