Feynman
From Wiki
Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work on the theory of quantum electrodynamics. Feynman was known as the "Great Explainer" for his unparalleled ability to explain complex physics in laymen's terms.
I originally became aware of him through some internet posting somewhere probably brought to me by stumbleupon linking to a fascinating series of youtube videos with him (can't remember which, they're all fascinating.)
I did a little more reading about him and then downloaded a few audio books by and about Feynman, which were all fascinating, particularly the story of his time at Los Alamos working on the Manhattan project. As much as I would like to summarize any of his stories, my re-telling would not be able to do them justice.
Since the internet brought this to my attention, here's my contribution back to the internet: The most interesting Feynman videos I have found.
Contents |
BBC: Fun to Imagine (1983)
In this interview, Feynman colorfully explains a very interesting set of physical phenomenon such as fire, rubber bands, and magnets in the absolute simplest of terms to a general audience and then touches on larger questions such as the nature of human thought.
The director, Christopher Sykes
Sample - Part 2: Fire
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (1981)
Feynman shares his views on arts, humanities, cargo cult science, authority and honors and explains his resignation from the national academy of science.
Sample - Part 5: Feynman on "experts" and pseudoscience
The Douglas Robb Memorial Lectures (1979)
Feyman gave a guest lecture at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. The recordings have suffered some degradation and have occasional loss of audio or video but they are still well worth watching.
In this series of lectures, Feynman explains quantum electrodynamics, a set of laws that governs the interaction of electrons and photons and thereby explains everything that we detect with our five senses, or to paraphrase Feynman, the whole of physical law except for gravitation and radioactivity.
Although the subject matter is extremely complex, the lecture is intended for the layperson and Feynman does an excellent job of presenting it in an easy to understand fashion.
Part 1: Photons - Corpuscles of Light
Part 2: Fits of Reflection and Transmission - Quantum Behaviour
Part 3: Electrons and their Interactions
Source: The Vega Science Trust
Messenger Lectures (1964)
Feynman was selected for Cornell University's Messenger Lectures in 1964. Bill Gates recently bought the rights to these lectures and has made them available for free through Microsoft Research.
Gates said: “I think these Messenger Series lectures [Feynman] gives are the best science lectures I’ve ever seen." and it's very hard to disagree with this statement. There are a total of 7 lectures linked below:
