Richard Feynman on the Challenger disaster (1986) [video] | Hacker News Reader

Richard Feynman on the Challenger disaster (1986) [video]

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I am always amazed how Richard Feynman can make such simple stories and comparisons to explain the situation/theory in "explain like I'm 5" style.

It seems that in every lecture or interview he gives he can explain the situation very fluently and in a way that literally, probably, a 5 year old could understand. The best one I saw is where R. Feynman explains how a computer works [1]. Even though I knew everything he told, I was astonished how intriguing and simple his way of presenting was.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA

Wasn't he the one who said that if you cannot explain something to a child you do not really understand it?

I think he was. I understood this way too late after my studies.

Now when I am learning something I always try to explain it in my mind (or write it down) to imaginary 'student'. It's so effective it's amazing. It lets me catch many knowledge 'holes' in my new studied topic. Whereas I used to just read the material (multiple times) and imagine that I know it. If somebody does not know what I am talking about just try to explain some topic you recently.

P.S. AFAIK, teaching is the best way to study/learn new topics.

This is some of the best advice available on HN.

Don't (just) read books. Put down the highlighter. Explain them. Get in front of a whiteboard and explain it to an imaginary audience. Imagine the questions you get back. Try to answer them. Sometimes you can do that nearly sentence by sentence, other times you have to do it section by section.

I was lucky enough to have a Feynman level (in terms of teaching) EE professor. I banged my head against modelling electron behavior in NPN junctions until I recognized that his teaching style was exactly how I needed to approach the material. From there on out everything became much easier.

A bit like rubber duck debugging.

Michael L. Jones discusses the teaching out loud technique in, The Overnight Student (1990)[1]. He says that in high school he was a B and C student, and in college his first semester GPA was 1.9. The next semester he failed every class. He was expelled. When allowed to re-enroll he again got all F's. A few years later he tried again with success. He credits teaching out loud as the technique that made him an A student.

[1] https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsd...

I find sometimes that people around me think I'm strange or crazy for getting excitable or long-winded while explaining or going through a story I've recently read that gave me some insight into something new and cool, to me.

I'm just realizing now that it's possible that those people don't have that same inner spark that I have. That same passion and drive to learn and understand. I really still feel like a kid in so many ways in life but even when I feel that twinge of embarrassment for geeking out on a topic too hard I will now and forever feel content in the fact that I'm always trying to teach that inner kid in me.

There's an expression that goes "to know is to be able to explain". Einstein had a saying to that effect, as did Feynman and ... Aristotle :)

Well, Aristotle likely had it backwards, thinking that explaining can pass for knowledge ;)

At the time of his death, the following 2 quotes were found on his blackboard:

"What I cannot create, I do not understand" and right beneath this "Know how to solve every problem that has been solved".

That second quote is very powerful. Often enough we proceed to higher usage of previous knowledge without understanding its foundations. Often enough, you really don't need to understand previous steps to make a leap to the next. That's simply progress. Taking the next logical step.

However, some have argued that with deriving foundational knowledge you attain a discipline and through this process the decisions you make about taking the next step are done completely differently. You sincerely evaluate whether to take that next step.

I think even Feynman would admit this is not the case, he had no simple way of explaining magnetism because it is inherently complicated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0r930Sn_8

Though, he had a point, that magnetism is difficult, he explained thoroughly and clearly where's the problem.

I do not know how R. Feynman's university lectures sound like, but his popular lectures seem to follow a pattern, of giving casual situation and using that situation to pull a listener, as well as himself, into explaining something with an analogy.

I liked that R. Feynman explained knowledge as 'a framework that allows something to be true', and not everything can be explained by using 'common knowledge framework' and you need to understand some more details.

The lectures that were put together into the Feynman Lectures on Physics were fabulous. I believe they actually originally thought the audio was lost, but later someone found a bunch of tape reels in storage. The audio is heavily distorted, but a lot of work was done to restore them. I highly recommend anyone with an interest in physics listen to them while reading along in the book. It feels close to actually being in class. He was an exceptionally good teacher.

>I do not know how R. Feynman's university lectures sound like

Enjoy. You might also find the audio in mp3/ogg/etc format.

  Video http://www.feynmanphysicslectures.com/
  YT https://www.youtube.com/user/FeynmanVideoLectures
  Another video source http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/
  Text http://www.feynmanlectures.info/
  Links to more stuff http://www.feynmanlectures.info/links.html

"QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter" is absolutely brilliant. Made my feel like I actually understood the subject.

The Appendix he refers to is here:

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/roger...

You can see that he effectively summarized some major points of it in this TV interview using only simple story about the kid and the mother.

But there's more! In his book "What Do You Care What Other People Think: Further Adventures of a Curious Character", the last 100 pages tells the story of how he served on the investigation commission. There's lots of interesting stuff.

* the commission was a little politiziced, led by a lawyer who was very concerned that it should just synthesize the conclusions of other agencies' investigations, whereas Feynman (and some other members) wanted to take a much more active role.

* Feynman _really_ hated the committee culture of slow meetings which don't produce much.

* The final report was very bland and careful not to say anything that would make the government look bad. Feynman threatened to resign and make a scene in order to get his appendix published without (too many) edits.

* The actual cause of the accident, the too cold O-rings, was perhaps leaked to the commission by a NASA insider, in a subtle way.

The book was published posthumously. I note that there is a (pirated) version available online.

It is my understanding too, and in my opinion a very important fact (if it is correct), that the cause of the accident had been known to the engineers who had to subtly and perhaps surreptitiously make it known to whoever had a political influence as well as understanding of the matter (Feynman in this case).

Engineering has an ethical responsibility to make management listen. Management has an ethical responsibility to listen to Engineering.

Is this any good BTW? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2421662

I liked it a lot. Would recommend to those interested in NASA or Feynman. Or fans of William Hurt.

It was OK. You have to take it for what it is, a dramatization and not a documentary.

Probably time for this xkcd again: https://xkcd.com/182/

...and a link to a classic book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surely_You%27re_Joking,_Mr._Fe...!

God I love listening to this man. He was such a concise and effective speaker.

That kind of old-school journalist. Sounds pretty cold doesn't he.

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