Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman

 

Reading Richard Feynman gives me the feeling that I can understand a little bit of the mystery and beauty of science.  I thought I would read the short introductory paperback before deciding whether I should attempt the three-volume Feynman Lectures on Physics.

After reading QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, I wanted to read more of Feynman and again have that feeling I could really comprehend modern physics. It is like riding in a strong tailwind on a bicycle.  I am zipping along above 25mph and can think for a moment I am really that strong, at least until I turn into the wind and feel merely human again. 

Feynman give me a science high.    

In the first lecture, Atoms in Motion, he says, 

    Each piece, or part, of the whole of nature is is always merely an approximation to the complete truth, or the complete truth so far as we know it. In fact, everything we know is only some kind of approximation, because we know that we do not know all the laws as yet. Therefore, things must be learned only to be unlearned again, or, more likely, to be corrected.

On page 2, I know what science is. Two pages later the section titled Matter is made of atoms begins:

If in some cataclysm, all of the scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creature, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis (or the atomic fact whichever you wish to call it) that all things are made of atoms--little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling each other upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied.

Entertaining and brilliant.  The rest of the book bubbles with insights, elucidating basic physics, showing the connections of all the sciences to each other, then a chapter on energy in its many forms, followed by gravity--the weakest force, ending with quantum mechanics. 

I am going to read another Feynman book this week.