"The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out"

I was lucky enough to have several close friends who attended physicist Richard Feynman's lectures at Caltech while undergraduates there, luckier still to have gone with a group of them to an informal coffee meet-up hosted by Prof. Feynman one rainy afternoon.  Among those erudite few invitees, physics, engineering, mathematics majors, plus some grad students & post docs, this English major felt out of her depth & primarily watched & listened; my only real contribution to any discourse with the great man consisted of making Feynman chuckle by describing one of my Caltech friends enthusiasm for Niels Bohr's work- "Joe thinks Niels Bohr is a really cool head, Dr. Feynman!"  (excuse offered- I seem to remember all of us talking that way "back in the day."  Ahem.)  

It was only much later when I went into teaching that I realized how useful watching/listening to Richard Feynman during that coffee had been.  A gift from an old friend of some videotapes of Feynman's Caltech lectures reinforced my opinion that here was the teaching style I wanted to emulate.  The old show business saw seemed applicable- if you're going to steal, make sure to steal from the best. It's no exaggeration to say that Dr. Feynman's at times whimsical, other times exacting method of imparting information, stirring debate, making his own wonderment at discovery/learning an integral part of the students' learning process, has informed every day I've stepped into a classroom, be it grammar, high school, or community college.    

I know many who read here are undoubtedly familiar with Richard Feynman's life & work.  For all who know of him & for those who'd like to, here is a link to the superb BBC interview with Prof. Feynman, The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out (part 1 of 5 available on youtube)

- Maureen Lang

Comments

[JFF]

The Joe you mentioned wouldn't happen to be Joe Piantadosi the sound transfer engineer we both know would it? What a brain and a nice guy to boot.

[Maureen Lang]

This is how old we are getting- that would be Joe's younger brother's son, his nephew. The Joe Piantadosi I knew from Caltech days was doing post doc work there & is somewhat older than us, actually.

FYI all:

There are many other extraordinary Feynman vids available on youtube. A four part one well worth watching is "Feynman: Take The World From Another Point of View"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsgBtOVzHKI

[rjj]

Thanks, ML for posting these. Would have liked it if he had not Charlie_Rosed (a verb) Fred Hoyle in the last two segments. Here are the lectures in a playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C877329B7A

One thing leads to another on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT Wish I had found this twenty years ago. Might then have the tools to find things out instead of merely finding things. OTOH scavenging has its rewards.

[rjj]

oops. not lectures, interviews.

[doug]

Feynman's almost childlike pleasure of dicovery shines through in his "red bible," the classic three part "Lectures on Physics." The introduction features him hard at play .. on the bongos.

Great days.

[Will]

the interplay and one show man up ship b/n feynman & murray gell-man (sp?) (the coiner of terms such as quark, charm, strange, color, & such) is described in a NYT article.

i have to find the link and post it.

gell-man was also a Nobel winner.

[Will]

The Jaguar and the Fox from the Atlantic Monthly Online by George Johnson—Part One

sorry the html code is not taking

[Maureen Lang]

Got your Gell-Mann/Feynman article link right here, Will:

The Jaguar and The Fox
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/07/johnson.htm