have you ever thought to yourself 'i wish i could have sat in on a lecture given by einstein or newton or some other big name'?
well, you can, of course... stephen hawking is still around - a few years back he was in toronto and a friend of mine was bound and determined to see him talk at convocation hall at the st. george campus of the university of toronto... i passed on the opportunity because, well, he's just not my preferred 'flavour' of physicist - i'm really more of a feynman fan... also because i'm not really inclined to get so excited about a person that i have to see them give a talk in real life...
even if i were, i'm never going to get to see richard feynman give a lecture in real life because, like einstein and newton, he's dead - but his lectures on quantum electro-dynamics live on in book and apparently also in
video form... now i read one of his books, "QED: The Strange Theory Of Light And Matter", back when i was a teenager in highschool and it was a good book, not just because it explained a great deal without being overly complicated but also because feynman himself seemed an engaging personality... in fact, i believe i've marked the book down as one of my favourites in my profile here...
anyways, the videos seem to be a video version of the same lectures that the book presents, only in the videos feynman does have a tie to look at (however it's a solid colour so you still can't count on it to keep your interest)... also, it's a much more visceral experience to watch him talk and draw diagrams, to see him crack jokes, and there's a Q&A portion at the end the videos where he answers questions from the audience (he gave these particular videotaped lectures in new zealand)...
hmmm... maybe i would have gone to see him talk, i don't know... definitely some good viewing, though...
[via MAKE]
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