Six Easy Pieces Critical Analysis - Research Paper Example

Book Review: Six Easy Pieces Richard P. Feynman, the great physicist was born on 1918 and died on 1988. He has largely been referred to as the most creative scientist who spread the knowledge in the period following the Second World War. In his lifetime, Feynman made a wide array of achievements ranging from the creation of an atomic bomb in the days of the Second World War to his unmatched contributions in the exploration of quantum electrodynamics because of which, Feynman received the Nobel Prize in the year 1965. Feynman maintained a scintillating method of mentorship throughout his career which was the reason why he enjoyed the status of a legend equally among the professors and the students of Physics. Chapters of the book Six Easy Pieces are based on the lectures by Feynman delivered in the years 1961 and 1962 to the undergraduate students of Caltech. The series of lectures delivered at the California Institute of Technology in those years brought a complete revolution in the mentorship of the concepts of Physics all over the globe. With this book, students are able to get the same original flavor of the mid-20th century lectures in the 21st century. Feynman has named the book Six Easy Pieces so that it directly gives a hint for the six easiest chapters covering the work of the great late physicist. These chapters are specifically written to meet the needs of a non-scientist reader. The book Six Easy Pieces is meant for people that want to have basic knowledge of the laws of physics. Physics is one of the most important and yet, tiresome subjects for a lot of students. Students’ disinterest in physics can be attributed to the lack of authors’ ability to present the concepts in an enjoyable manner. This realization led Feynman to write a book that would be way off the way followed by the authors of conventional physics books. In this book, the author has explained the concepts of physics in six parts. Atoms in Motion, which is the first section of the book explains the basic atomic theory. In order to explain it, the author makes a pictorial presentation of the phenomenon that takes place when water comes to the boil, steam forms, and the hot particles escape the surface of water. In the concluding part of the first section, the author has talked about the known complexity of the organic matter’s molecules. Section that follows the Atoms in Motion section is titled Basic Physics. Physics has been interpreted as a game of chess in which the player happens to be God. According to the author, some of the rules of this game can be learnt by observing the game being played continuously even if we are not equipped with a preliminary understanding of the underlying concepts, rules and regulations of the game, though it is beyond the tendency of a human being to identify the reason behind a move that God makes. The author explains this matter by referring to the example of a bishop who always remains in the red square, but once, he is find in the white square thus making the audience wonder how that can be. In reality, the bishop in the red square was captured along with the queening of a pawn upon a white square that was later transformed into a bishop. This explains the behavior of physics in which, phenomena normally remain the same but whenever something happens out of the routine, it raises a curiosity among the scientists who tend to think if or not that was a queened pawn. In the same section, the author discusses the perceptions about physics and its laws in the time before the year 1920. The audience is introduced to the concepts of quantum physics, particles and nuclei. This is followed by a brief account of the chart formulated with the elementary particles which have been identified so far. The author has compiled the chart is the same manner as Mendeleyev had formulated the periodic table. The third section explores the relation of physics with other fields of science. An in-depth analysis of the matter suggests that physics is linked with almost all fields of science ranging from psychology to chemistry. Realization of the fact that physics is intrinsically related to almost all fields of science was both surprising and interesting for me. Conservation of energy has been introduced after the first three sections. In this section, the author has discussed law and the reason of its working. Again, this has been done with the help of a very fine and easily understandable example. The author refers to the example of a kid who has 28 building blocks which happen to be indestructible. This means that the kid needs to have those 28 building blocks with him all the time. If the kid is locked up in a room with the blocks throughout the day, the number of blocks will remain the same when the room is opened in the night. One night, when the room is opened, we find that one block is missing. We doubt that the kid must have thrown that piece of block out of the window, so we also lock the window. Then one day we find the kid locked up with 30 blocks. We tend to believe that the kid’s friend who had come the other day to see him must have left his two blocks in the kid’s room. So we take two blocks and give them to the friend. Then we find him with only 25 blocks one day, but we notice that the level of dirty water in the bathroom has risen. We immerse 28 blocks in the water and read the level and measure the drop in the level of water when 1 block is removed. The fundamental point that the author has tried to make with this example is the fact that energy may change forms but can never vanish. The total number would always be 28 provided that we are aware of the equations of the various forms of energy that add up to reveal the constant. The theory of gravitation has been discussed in the fifth section of the book. In this section, the author has first presented equation of the gravity force. This is followed by the discussion of Kepler’s laws. The author has tried to explain the orbit with the help of the example of a gun that shoots a bullet. The author discusses and also proves with suitable examples how the horizontal and vertical motions are entirely different in nature. In the concluding part of this section, the author has introduced Einstein’s theory of gravity and has made a brief discussion about the way light is bent upon its contact with big things in the universe like sun. Quantum behavior makes the last section of the book. This section is quite wild in nature. The way microscopic movements in objects take place has been explained in this section. Without an experience and interaction with things on a microscopic level, it becomes quite difficult to understand these movements. There is a lot of difference between the way things work in the macroscopic world and in the microscopic world. The author experiments with bullets and waves as well as with electrons in an attempt to show the behavior of microscopic particles. Finally, the relation of the principle of Heinsberg Uncertainty with the electron experiment is discussed. One of the primary elements according to which a book is evaluated for its inclusion in the curriculum is the suitability of presentation and its consistency with the taste of the audience that the curriculum is being designed for. The book is very suitable for inclusion into the curriculum of children studying science and particularly Physics in the high school because the concepts in the boom have been illustrated with the help of examples from everyday life. Children of high school find it easy to recount and recapitulate the concepts thus gained by remembering their relation with events of daily occurrence. Making use of his unmatched wit-making skills, Feynman has discussed the concepts in each of the six chapters without the use of any technical jargon or equations. No wonder, the clarity of expression Feynman maintained while discussing the complex theories of Physics and the unique examples from everyday life he came up with in the book is what makes this writer one of the most capable mentors in the whole world. I found this a really great book. The concepts of physics are generally difficult for the high school students to understand, but the magic Feynman has done in this book makes the concepts resemble sweets that the children can be fed and relished with. The best thing I like about this book is that it has made something as bland and boring as physics colorful and enjoyable. The reader feels like a doctor dissecting objects to see what is happening inside. Having read this book, a reader gains objective understanding of the basic concepts of physics and becomes curious to learn more about them…What more could an author want? References: Feynman, R. P. 1994. Six easy pieces. Reading, MA: Helix Books. Read More