I recently started reading the book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" about the physicist (and former fellow resident of Far Rockaway, NY) Richard Feynman. I highly recommend reading this book (which you can access in PDF through the link above), and I have a feeling you'll start seeing occasional "Richard Feynman"-labeled posts on this blog. Here's a video to start things off:
Thursday, July 9, 2009
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7 comments:
Aliens and the Soccer Ball
My thoughts exactly.
I don't understand his comment at 2:13, that in chess the rules become more complicated as you go along. I would have thought that it's similar to physics in that manner- as you understand more and more about the rules and how they play out, a masterful strategy starts to appear much simpler.
Yehuda,
First of all, I think he is discussing the rules of chess, not the strategy. In chess, there is a system of simple rules, but there are also "exceptions" to those rules which make things more complicated. Take the example of castling. Normally, you can only move one piece each turn, and the pieces cannot pass "through" each other in their line of motion, and the king can only move one space - yet, castling is an exception to all three of these rules. Physics doesn't seem to be that way. On the surface, something might look like an exception to a law of physics, but upon investigation, the scientist will discover that what appeared to be a contradiction or an anomaly really points to a more underlying principle, and this principles simplifies things because it unifies the phenomena. In Chess, there is no greater unified theory of King motion which naturally explains the maneuver of castling. Castling is simply an exception to the rule, and adds complexity to the game.
(Incidentally, I notice that the video is jerky on my computer when I play it from the blog, but it runs smoothly on YouTube itself. Does the same thing happen for you?)
Ah, that makes more sense.
Nope, it plays smoothly on both.
I think that the difference between chess and physics highlights the greatness and wisdom of god's creation compared to creations of man.
As more parts are added to a man made system, the system will always get more complex with more rules.
With God's creation, there always remains a simplicity regardless of how many parts are in the system.
Matt, When you're done with "Surely You're Joking" I would suggest both "What do you care what other people think" (which a follow up to "Surely your joking") and also "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out". Some stories are repeated but they are excellent books as well.
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