Christopher Sykes
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2011–2013
7:07 · 747K views · Nov 15, 2008
A clip from the 1983 BBC series Fun to Imagine in which Richard Feynman explains heat as the jiggling of atoms and how we perceive it as hot and cold.
Recommended as a short, joyful example of Feynman's accessible way of explaining physics, which a transcript cannot capture.
4 comments from Hacker News
I am a big time Feynman fan, sure we've had our share of great thinkers and awe inspiring intellects, but Feynman is just the perfect combination of that and a likable character that remains human for the rest of us. Einstein was also like that in many ways but he was the child of another time and while he was always humane and simple, Feynman was much more likable, full of funny and witty anecdotes that connect with people. Also if you have not seen Feynman lecturing on Physics then you haven't seen a great educator, see [1] and [2], just plain wonderful. [1] this video [2] [LINK]
If you haven't watched these "Fun to imagine" with Feynman videos from YouTube, I really recommend them. You just can't capture his joy and passion with a transcript. "Fun to Imagine" playlist: this video
If you haven't seen it before you should search YouTube for Feynman Fun to Imagine. I am extremely impressed with how accessible his explanations are, and I would have loved to see what he could have done with the given restriction. Probably not as well as he did without it but probably better than most could do with it. edit: this video
There's also a small series of Feynman that has been put on Youtube called "fun to imagine." They are short and most of them are very good: this video