QED by Richard Feynman
Published 1985 · 192 pages · 40,000 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Science & Nature
How hard is QED to read?
QED scores 28 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 30 out of 100
- Physics vocabulary, but Feynman avoids jargon and uses everyday language wherever possible.
- Sentence structure: 25 out of 100
- Abstraction: 45 out of 100
- Quantum theory is inherently abstract, but Feynman grounds it in visual, physical intuitions.
- Information density: 52 out of 100
- Compressed. Four lectures carry an entire theory. Every paragraph introduces new ideas.
- Narrative indirection: 80 out of 100
- Sequential buildup from simple phenomena to complete theory.
- Symbolic density: 20 out of 100
- Arrows as probability amplitudes. Paths as reality. Diagrams as physics.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Feynman's characteristic humor: nature is absurd and we must accept it.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- QED works perfectly but why it works remains mysterious. Feynman embraces the mystery.
- Structural complexity: 20 out of 100
- Four lectures in sequence. Each builds on the previous one.
How QED is regarded
QED holds a literary regard score of 63 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.