“It’s interesting that some people find science very easy, while others find it boring and difficult,” he says. Richard Feynman At the beginning of the 1983 BBC series It’s fun to imagine. “One of the things that makes this so difficult is that it requires a lot of imagination. It’s very hard to imagine what things are actually like, all the crazy things. ” True scientists believe that nothing is what it seems, and that no matter how much you zoom in or zoom out far enough, nothing behaves in a way that is consistent with our everyday experience. Accept that there is nothing. It is difficult to imagine even the necessary scale, such as an atom being equivalent to an apple, just as an apple is equivalent to the earth itself.
Despite being much admired for his talent as a physicist, Feynman also admitted that the amount he had to study proved incalculable, at least when examined outside of a specific context. . At the atomic level, he explains, “you’re just thinking about a little ball, but if you don’t try to think about exactly how small it is too often, it gets a little crazy.”
In astronomy, “the distances to these stars are so long that the same thing is true in reverse.” We all know what the term “light year” means, but we also use it as a measure of time. Unless I’m confusing it with a unit, can anyone actually imagine a galaxy 100,000 light years away, let alone 1 million light years away?
Feynman discusses these issues with his characteristic understanding and humor. It’s fun to imagine‘s nine segments cover physical phenomena ranging from fire and magnets to rubber bands and train wheels. Anyone who knows physics will understand that the vividness and conciseness with which he describes this matter is clearly off the top of his head, and the behavior of matter and energy and their relationship is simply understandable. Anyone can feel the joy he feels just by pouring their heart into it. To the world as we know it. I was also struck by how many mysteries remain, no matter how much joy I feel in understanding them. “The imagination of nature is much greater than that of man,” he says towards the end. “She never lets us relax.”
Related content:
A three-part exploration of Richard Feynman’s life and works Freakonomics Radio mini series
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
