Microsoft’s Project Tuva: physics made fun

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Under the title Project Tuva, Microsoft has posted a series of classic physics lectures by Manhattan Project collaborator Richard Feynman for free on the web, and in the space of an hour they’ve become one of my all time favourite things.

They’re brilliant. Feynman has a lovely delivery that sweeps you along, together with a depth of understanding that allows him to strip a difficult concept down to its simple foundations, without needing to dumb it down. He just knows the right door to open in order to usher you quickly into his world.

Even if you’ve little interest in the topics under discussion, it’s well worth spending a few hours in Feynman’s company for the entertainment value. He’s a genuinely funny man able to express his science with a poet’s turn of phrase.

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