In this
course, since your textbook is actually a series of lectures, I will not burden you by adding yet another lecture. (That also spares this instructor from having to compete with the great Feynman!)Rather, I will
search through Feynman's lectures and identify those points I believe are especially important for our understanding. I will also point out areas I believe deserve special emphasis for people of faith. Finally, I will
provide hints, as it were, for you as you complete each assignment.
First, in the Assignment section, I have asked you to read Chapter One twice. If you are new to physics and physical science, you may want to read it
twice slowly. As promised in the book's various introductions, Feynman has a great talent for making difficult concepts comprehensible.
However, they are still difficult concepts. So bear with it. This is a great way
to learn a lot about the way the world works. It just takes a little effort.
Perhaps one of the most profound contributions Feynman makes with this book, and especially with Chapter One is to articulate the central
role and importance of the atom.
In Feynman's words, "everything is made of atoms." This is both a very important concept, and a very important "first step" in understanding physical science. Feynman is essentially
saying that if you understand atoms and their behavior, you have a foundation for understanding the entire world around you.
He goes on to describe the behavior of atoms in various processes, including temperature
changes, pressure, and evaporation. Consistent in his description are certain properties of atoms: attraction, movement, and changes (later, called "phase transitions").
It seems that Feynman holds the atom at the
center of all understanding about physical processes. In other words, if we understand the atom's behavior, we can understand how things change (such as salt dissolving in water). If we understand an atom's structure,
we can understand how things move (such as his "perpetual jiggling" in Brownian motion).
"…there is nothing that living things do that cannot be understood from the point of view that they are made up of atoms acting
according to the laws of physics." This is true, as well, for non-living things, of course.
The important notion is not that we should go through life thinking about everything from its atomic perspective, but rather
that we should see the consistent design in our universe. Everything in the universe is consistent. Everything in the world is made of the same fundamental material.
If we see the nature of that material, might it give us a better understanding of the Designer?
