Richard Feynman On Knowing Versus Understanding | TeachThought

Richard Feynman On Knowing Versus Understanding

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Who’s Richard Feynman?

Richard Feynman, born in 1918, was a theoretical physicist whose work in quantum mechanics earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.

In line with nobelprize.org, Feynman obtained his B.Sc. in 1939 on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise and studied “at Princeton College, the place he obtained his Ph.D. in 1942. “He was Analysis Assistant at Princeton (1940-1941), Professor of Theoretical Physics at Cornell College (1945-1950), Visiting Professor and thereafter appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics on the California Institute of Expertise (1950-1959).”

Feynman’s legendary intelligence–usually talked about alongside Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein–extends past idea and apply in science. Feynman was additionally famend for his capability to clarify complicated ideas with readability and humor. His progressive instructing strategies, characterised by wit and a deep understanding of elementary rules, encourage educators globally. Feynman’s legacy emphasizes the significance of curiosity, creativeness, and demanding considering.

The next is an excerpt from a lecture titled, ‘The Worth of Science,’ delivered in New York Metropolis in 1955 on the Nationwide Science Lecturers Affiliation assembly.

See additionally What Is The Feynman Approach?

“Newton’s concepts about area and time agreed with experiment very nicely, however in an effort to get the proper movement of the orbit of Mercury, which was a tiny, tiny distinction, the distinction within the character of the speculation wanted was monumental. The reason being that Newton’s legal guidelines had been so easy and so excellent, and so they produced particular outcomes. As a way to get one thing that will produce a barely completely different end result it needed to be utterly completely different. In stating a brand new legislation you can’t make imperfections on an ideal factor; it’s a must to have one other excellent factor. So the variations in philosophical concepts between Newton’s and Einstein’s theories of gravitation are monumental.

What are these philosophies? They’re actually tough methods to compute penalties shortly. A philosophy, which is usually referred to as an understanding of the legislation, is solely a method that an individual holds the legal guidelines in his thoughts in an effort to guess shortly at penalties. Some folks have stated, and it’s true in instances like Maxwell’s equations, ‘By no means thoughts the philosophy, by no means thoughts something of this sort, simply guess the equations. The issue is barely to compute the solutions in order that they agree with experiment, and it isn’t essential to have a philosophy, or argument, or phrases, in regards to the equation’.

That’s good within the sense that if you happen to solely guess the equation you aren’t prejudicing your self, and you’ll guess higher. On the opposite hand, possibly the philosophy lets you guess. It is extremely laborious to say. For these individuals who insist that the one factor that’s essential is that the speculation agrees with experiment, I want to think about a dialogue between a Mayan astronomer and his pupil. The Mayans had been capable of calculate with nice precision predictions, for instance, for eclipses and for the place of the moon within the sky, the place of Venus, and so on. It was all performed by arithmetic. They counted a sure quantity and subtracted some numbers, and so forth. There was no dialogue of what the moon was. There was no dialogue even of the concept that it went round. They simply calculated the time when there can be an eclipse, or when the moon would rise on the full, and so forth.

That’s good within the sense that if you happen to solely guess the equation you aren’t prejudicing your self, and you’ll guess higher. On the opposite hand, possibly the philosophy lets you guess. It is extremely laborious to say.

Feynman

Suppose {that a} younger man went to the astronomer and stated, ‘I’ve an concept. Possibly these issues are going round, and there are balls of one thing like rocks on the market, and we might calculate how they transfer in a totally completely different method from simply calculating what time they seem within the sky’. ‘Sure’, says the astronomer, ‘and the way precisely can you expect eclipses?’ He says, ‘I haven’t developed the factor very far but’. Then says the astronomer, ‘Nicely, we will calculate eclipses extra precisely than you possibly can along with your mannequin, so you will need to not pay any consideration to your concept as a result of clearly the mathematical scheme is best’.

There’s a very robust tendency, when somebody comes up with an concept and says, ‘Let’s suppose that the world is this manner’, for folks to say to him, ‘What would you get for the reply to such and such an issue?’ And he says, ‘I haven’t developed it far sufficient’. They usually say, ‘Nicely, we have now already developed it a lot additional, and we will get the solutions very precisely’.

So it’s a downside whether or not or to not fear about philosophies behind concepts. One other method of working, after all, is to guess new rules. In Einstein’s idea of gravitation he guessed, on prime of all the opposite rules, the precept that corresponded to the concept that the forces are at all times proportional to the lots. He guessed the precept that in case you are in an accelerating automobile you can’t distinguish that from being in a gravitational subject, and by including that precept to all the opposite rules, he was capable of deduce the proper legal guidelines of gravitation.

Some of the essential issues on this ‘guess – compute penalties – evaluate with experiment’ enterprise is to know when you’re proper. It’s attainable to know when you’re proper method forward of checking all the implications. You’ll be able to acknowledge fact by its magnificence and ease. It’s at all times simple when you will have made a guess, and performed two or three little calculations to be sure that it isn’t clearly mistaken, to know that it’s proper. Once you get it proper, it’s apparent that it’s proper – no less than when you have any expertise – as a result of often what occurs is that extra comes out than goes in. Your guess is, the truth is, that one thing may be very easy. For those who can’t see instantly that it’s mistaken, and it’s less complicated than it was earlier than, then it’s proper.

The inexperienced, and crackpots, and folks like that, make guesses which might be easy, however you possibly can instantly see that they’re mistaken, so that doesn’t depend. Others, the inexperienced college students, make guesses which might be very sophisticated, and it form of seems to be as if it’s all proper, however I do know it isn’t true as a result of the reality at all times seems to be less complicated than you thought. What we’d like is creativeness, however creativeness in a horrible strait-jacket. We now have to discover a new view of the world that has to agree with the whole lot that’s recognized, however disagree in its predictions someplace, in any other case it isn’t fascinating. And in that disagreement it should agree with nature.

Others, the inexperienced college students, make guesses which might be very sophisticated, and it form of seems to be as if it’s all proper, however I do know it isn’t true as a result of the reality at all times seems to be less complicated than you thought.

Feyman

If you’ll find another view of the world which agrees over the complete vary the place issues have already been noticed, however disagrees some other place, you will have made an incredible discovery. It is extremely practically unattainable, however not fairly, to seek out any idea which agrees with experiments over the complete vary by which all theories have been checked, and but offers completely different penalties in another vary, even a idea whose completely different penalties don’t prove to agree with nature. A brand new concept is extraordinarily tough to consider. It takes a implausible creativeness…”

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