I've just finished reading "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman!" (There are lots of reviews on that link)
It is a very funny series of anecdotes by of all people, a Nobel Prize winning physicist. He worked on the atom bomb at Los Alamos. (This last bit is not funny but he does give some interesting views on the subject.) He's dead now but I wish I could have met him and had a chat. He'd either have liked me because I asked questions and wasn't full of b/s or else he'd have not bothered with me because I can be a right pain and full of b/s!
The reason I was reading him was because a dear friend had recommended him because of his learning/teaching styles. And you know what, it has been a great confidence booster reading him. At long last I know I was right and my education was wrong. Feynman is no doubt a totally brilliant brain and yet, he poked fun at the establishment because they would tie themselves up into intellectual knots. At one point he was on a government board to help choose the maths books for schools and he really put in the effort, unlike the other reviewers, and showed what a lot of twaddle was being published. I think it is no different now.
My biggest problem with maths at school was why we would use this or that formula and I have to say I couldn't get over that lack of understanding. Sure I could do the problems, and make the maths add up but I never understood about co-sines and tangents and I now think it is not because I'm stupid (I wasn't then!) but because my need to understand "why" was never satisfied.
He was all for explaining why we learn certain things and the practical applications to the point that there is no reason to learn anything unless you think about it and learn the whys and wherefores.
Aside from feeling good about by myself by reading this book, I had such a good laugh. He was not what one would expect from a Physics Professor. He'd spend his evenings in strip clubs and would tout his new found drawing skills to brothels! All with the blessings of one of his wives.
Look through your bookshelves or check your local library.
Original Comments:
P.S. Found your blog through BlogExplosion.
You'll pick it up and read it now, won't you? Especially if you have children! It is a read you can pick up and put down as the "stories" are in bites - which is useful for our busy lives.
I didn't know Feynman was portrayed in QED and will look out for that now.
Good ole BlogExplosion! :-)
Thanks for letting me know what you thought. It is such a great book. I wish I had read it earlier in my life. As it is, it has been on our book shelf for years as it was Mr Doris' before we married but I just never realised.... our book cover is different to the one pictured but it goes to show to not judge a book by it's cover! LOL
Michele sent me - I'm glad she did :-)
Michele sent me!
The US Post Office has a commemorative stamp out just this week. My husband wrote about it on his weblog here
http://www.decrepitoldfool.com/index.php/weblog/comments/341/
I rather enjoyed his contribution to the Challenger disaster investigation.
Weird, isn't it, how the world can be so small?
What is doubly weird is that I saw your pic on another blog where we had both posted a comment and I felt inclined to go visit your blog but didn't because I was distracted by something else in the blogging world!
Glad you have posted I'm visiting your site now and commenting over there shortly :-)
I have totally mixed up in my head which stories are in which book but they are both wonderful.