3 ms·
> Then why didn't Feynman simply say so? When introducing complex or rather unfamiliar concepts -particularly ones that run contrary to their understanding of
by simoncion 11y ago
> Then why didn't Feynman simply say so?
When introducing complex or rather unfamiliar concepts -particularly ones that run contrary to their understanding of things-, people tend to remember stories and analogies better than simple, short, declarative sentences.
Many non-technical people either never knew or had forgotten that the real answer to even the most straightforward "why" question can be mind-crushingly complex.
- Gibbon1 11y agoI just remember taking thermodynamics for the first time. It was very hard to wrap me small brain around it. I also remember reading Feynman's short intro to quantum mechanics to dummies, and again it was hard to wrap my brain around it. Brass tax some subjects the human brain doesn't grasp very easily based on common education, experience and perception. Understanding some subjects requires a lot of odd rewiring of the old monkey brain. So yeah, Feynman's explanation seems legit, there is no lay explanation for magnets. He'd have to teach you quantum mechanics, at least enough to explain what's happening when you hold two magnets together. And it's not like he's unwilling, since teaching that it part of the way he made a living, it's just he can't do that in less than six months. And then, you wouldn't be a lay person.