From: Greg H. Leitich <ghl>
Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2000 11:17:18 -0600

Jill When is the Feynman bio. coming out? (My background includes two degrees in electrical engineering, so I've taken more than my share of physics classes).

Other than his work on quantum electrodynamics and the helium problem, I didn't really know anything about Feynman until I read his two auto-biographies in high school (Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman & What Do You Care what Other People Think?). He came through in those books as a witty, somewhat irreverent, but always questioning individual.

Since then (after having suffered through hours of lectures that sucked the very life out of relativity and quantum mechanics), I've come to appreciate him as much as a teacher as for his theoretical work: I've seen certain tapes of some his Caltech undergrad lectures and also read many of the transcripts (when I gave up on my assiged text). What comes through is a man who clearly loves his subject and excelled at teaching it - most of the time trying to get the students to understand the underlying phenomena, and then how the equations explain them, rather than introducing the math first. As a consequence, some of the more diffcult concepts actually come through - making physics fun (and relatively easy) - rather than the horrendously difficult bore it's made out to be.

So, my vote is that there SHOULD BE a market - particularly in the schools - but I don't see Barnes & Noble picking it up.

Greg Leitich
Received on Wed 01 Nov 2000 11:17:18 AM CST