THEME MUSIC
"Facade", Sir William Walton, 1921
INTRODUCTION
I HAVE FOUND RELATIVITY BEGUILING — since very long ago, during my teen years. In college, I had the good fortune to learn relativity from Professor Banesh Hoffmann, a man who was a colleague, collaborator, friend, and biographer of Albert Einstein. Banesh nourished my early interest in relativity and in its creator. After a busy career working in research and teaching, income-producing activities, writing books, raising a family, and so on, I lived long enough to return to my favorite area of physics. I loved teaching relativity. I remember a special classroom experience when I decided to spend the entire session deriving E=mc squared from scratch. As the bell rang, signaling the end of the classroom period, I concluded my derivation and wrote the famous equation on the blackboard. The students applauded, in a standing ovation, thinking that I had timed the derivation precisely synchronized with the period’s end. Of course, I hadn’t. But they didn’t know that. Whenever I think about this event, sixty years ago, I smile and feel proud that my love for physics was able to be shared by a gang of enthusiastic youngsters.
FOR SEVERAL YEARS, I have been giving popular talks on Einstein and relativity at libraries and schools. I noticed not only were audience members interested in Einstein’s physics, but also in his life and philosophy… his unique and often profound observations and feelings about many general-interest topics: family, aging, education, humankind, life, peace, politics, and so on.
DURING THE ENTHUSIASTIC QUESTIONS and answers following each talk, I was intrigued and started to collect the most interesting questions. Wouldn’t it be great if Einstein himself were able to answer these contemporary questions? How could I channel the great man in such a way that his voice and words could answer them and satisfy these curious audience members?
WHO IS OUR AUDIENCE? Good question. Certainly, the local people who attended my talks were young adults, senior citizens, high school and college students, teachers, intelligent consumers of popular and informal science. This to whom black holes matter!
INTRODUCTION
I HAVE FOUND RELATIVITY BEGUILING — since very long ago, during my teen years. In college, I had the good fortune to learn relativity from Professor Banesh Hoffmann, a man who was a colleague, collaborator, friend, and biographer of Albert Einstein. Banesh nourished my early interest in relativity and in its creator. After a busy career working in research and teaching, income-producing activities, writing books, raising a family, and so on, I lived long enough to return to my favorite area of physics. I loved teaching relativity. I remember a special classroom experience when I decided to spend the entire session deriving E=mc squared from scratch. As the bell rang, signaling the end of the classroom period, I concluded my derivation and wrote the famous equation on the blackboard. The students applauded, in a standing ovation, thinking that I had timed the derivation precisely synchronized with the period’s end. Of course, I hadn’t. But they didn’t know that. Whenever I think about this event, sixty years ago, I smile and feel proud that my love for physics was able to be shared by a gang of enthusiastic youngsters.
FOR SEVERAL YEARS, I have been giving popular talks on Einstein and relativity at libraries and schools. I noticed not only were audience members interested in Einstein’s physics, but also in his life and philosophy… his unique and often profound observations and feelings about many general-interest topics: family, aging, education, humankind, life, peace, politics, and so on.
DURING THE ENTHUSIASTIC QUESTIONS and answers following each talk, I was intrigued and started to collect the most interesting questions. Wouldn’t it be great if Einstein himself were able to answer these contemporary questions? How could I channel the great man in such a way that his voice and words could answer them and satisfy these curious audience members?
WHO IS OUR AUDIENCE? Good question. Certainly, the local people who attended my talks were young adults, senior citizens, high school and college students, teachers, intelligent consumers of popular and informal science. This to whom black holes matter!