Dear Dick,
I first
heard of you in the first issue of the Scientific
American Brazil in 2002. A nanorobot carrying a
cell- or an organelle-sized piece of matter through the bloodstream was the
cover design, and in the middle the word “Nanotechnologyâ€. It said you were closely
related to that field of Science. Reading that I’d say I was caught by the
“infection†at first sight, so from then on I simply couldn’t stop finding out
about you and became a “Feynman addictâ€.
I
was born in 1981, brought up in a low-income family but in a musically healthy
environment. Some of my uncles would listen to their rock and roll vinyl
records every day after work. Those were bands from United States and England. We
used to live in those semi-detached houses so I would join my uncles quite
frequently for listening to the records. I enjoyed that a lot. That new “soundâ€
was pleasure to my ears so I would also try to sing the songs by trying to
pronounce the lyrics inserted on the back of the portrait posters. I was around
11 or 12. That early little acquaintance with the English language would help
later: I grew up having a tremendous interest in learning English. Years later,
when I was around 18, my parents could pay for a four-month beginner-level
course, then, in 2005, I could enroll in a two-year basic-level one, and
finally, in 2007, I bought myself my first book: Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! I loved it at first sight: your
writing style sounded as if we were talking to each other as in a sit-down. It
made me understand. It did not complicate. I was really pleased that I could
read in English and also immensely happy I would begin to effectively find out
about you.
For
sure I did find out. I found out about your completely accurate description of
Brazil’s Science Education System and realized that the rote learning process
absurdly existing in higher education also prevailed in my entire elementary
and high school years. It was exactly the unthinking memorization process you
described: I did effectively learn nothing. When I first heard the term “learn
by understanding†I immediately opened up my mind to it. You liberated me from
the bonds of false learning. From that day on I have consistently applied the
learn-by-understanding approach to every process of my learning so I have
studied and learned things differently.
Few
years ago I was listening to a radio program about Science. A Physics Professor
of a top-ranked university was the host, and he would answer some listeners’
questions sent by email or on the phone. There were guests and all. I had once
read about wave function and I got puzzled. I couldn’t understand it in terms
of equations, so I thought I would send “What a wave function tells us?†to the
program hoping to get a Feynman-like explanation or at least something close to
it. What I got was: “The wave function is a mathematical expression involving
the coordinates of a particle in space.†Question answered, period! As in
dictionaries! As in those many situations you told in “O Americano, Outra Vez!†I thought, “That’s
not Physics! That’s language!†I was disappointed by the answer. I just wanted
to know what the particles or the electrons or whatever was actually doing. In
the following week, just as a prank, I sent another email asking him to briefly
tell about you and your extreme importance to Physics. I listened to the
program for four weeks in a row waiting for that. No reply ever! I quitted
listening to it. I thought he perhaps dislikes you or something on account of
your completely accurate descriptions of Brazil’s System. That answer concerned
me a lot. “Is this an evidence of rote learning still remains in the system?†I
asked myself. For being afraid rote learning would still be in Brazil’s
universities I have decided not to pursue one. For some other reasons too, but
that was the deciding factor.
It’s
my fourth time reading Surely, Dick.
How illuminating! Since the first time reading it, I have imagined myself being
an undergrad student in those universities you went to. It would be amazing to
be among those you have influenced. The vibes! Purely exciting Science! Sheer
true learning!
Speaking
of true learning, two smart guys called Gottlieb and Pfeiffer from Caltech have
brilliantly put your entire The Feynman
Lectures on Physics on the Internet. Hats off to them! But I am not ready,
mathematically speaking, for them yet: my poor elementary and high school
learning made following intermediate and advanced Math very difficult. In 2009
I enrolled in a one-year intermediate-level English course. Nearly two years
later I got a fairly good job because of this also fairly good command of
English. So I would gradually save money for continuing with my English studies
and without doubt buying your books plus Math and Physics texts. Around 2012 I
was quite happy that I could enroll in a two-year upper-intermediate course at
a highly respected school. I was taught by native speakers during the whole two
years! With an amount of money already saved, I would buy the books and texts. From
then on I have been trying to learn by myself, embracing self-study.
The
Mathematics for Self-Study books were
the first I got. All the contents just in the first three books are more than
all the contents I poorly learned in my elementary and high school years. They
encourage thinking. I have been now effectively learning elementary Math so I
call them “my elementary and high school textsâ€. I haven’t got self-studying
“The Calculus for the Practical Man†yet, but I have been able to self-study
James Stewart’s College Algebra and Geometry to, later on, proceed to follow
Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, and then Calculus.
All of these Stewart’s texts are in PDF I downloaded for free because their
print form would cost me a large amount of money I couldn’t afford: books here
in Brazil are very expensive. To complete my Math section, I got the
three-volume Morris Kline’s Mathematical
Thought from Ancient to Modern Times. I skim through them once in a while,
in “small movesâ€. When I am ready they will enable me to understand the
development of Mathematics through History and how some development helped
solving problems in Quantum Mechanics and Relativity. So these above are all
the Math material, making every effort to get, I have to help me to follow your
Lectures.
Understanding Physics, the basic concepts of Physics along with their
humanistic contexts, and Modern
Introductory Physics are all I have to be acquainted with the basics to
then delight in self-studying your Lectures.
Being mathematically ready for them, needless to say, is crucial, and I am as
best as I can doing the job. I think that being
physically and mentally healthy for them is also important. I have always lived
healthily (no smoking, no drinking, and no drugs) and now have decided to live
even healthier so to live longer to thrive on the Lectures: they are, Dick, the most important aim in my life as a
student. One more important aim is to attain a Certificate in Advanced English,
and I know there is a long, very long road to achieve these aims, requiring as
too much hard work as there is plenty of room at the bottom. And all the
commitment is, as you say, to appreciate the wonderful world and the
physicist’s way of looking at it. And I will never cease finding it
fascinating.
If
I was asked to tell about you I would count only one single day of your life,
for a simple reason: “the story of a great man can be told by recounting just
one single day of his life.†And the day would be the one you were in lovely
discussions with the then kid Henry Bethe about infinity. You always, Dick,
leave us with bright eyes at your explanations, at your entire life.
This
letter will easily reach you because I do know your address: at the deep of my
heart.
Love
you dearly!
Junior
Augusto dos Santos
Brazil