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Freeman Dyson wrote this of Richard Feynman: "The reason Dick's physics was so hard for ordinary people to grasp was that he did not use equations. The usual wa
by ANH 16y ago
Freeman Dyson wrote this of Richard Feynman: "The reason Dick's physics was so hard for ordinary people to grasp was that he did not use equations. The usual way theoretical physics was done since the time of Newton was to begin by writing down some equations and then to work hard calculating solutions of the equations ... Dick just wrote down the solutions out of his head without ever writing down the equations. He had a physical picture of the way things happen, and the picture gave him the solutions directly with a minimum of calculation."
edit: That's from Dyson's autobiography 'Disturbing the Universe'.
- HSO 16y agoWhich is interesting and awesome but so not relevant for general public math education... ;-)
- zeynel1 16y ago"The usual way theoretical physics was done since the time of Newton was to begin by writing down some equations and then to work hard calculating solutions of the equations" I cannot believe that Freeman Dyson would claim such false notion that Newton worked with "equations." I checked the quote and http://books.google.com/books?id=RHzoMeU2bxsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=disturbing+the+universe&hl=en&ei=xuyUTcX_GsGa0QHSsoGKDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=newton&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=RHzoMeU2bxsC&printsec=f... it is true, the quote is in the book. I would think that Dyson would know that Newton did not write one single equation ever. He worked with proportions.