Physics really is cool.

I do like physics, not that I was very good in it during High School, but understanding how things work, being able to see the underlying principles governing motion, objects and their interactions is just so satisfying. So this morning when I opened the NYT to find a front page article with a photo of a 71 year old Physicist swinging like a pendulum to demonstrate the non-relationship between mass and moment I had to read further (and be late for work).

The New York Times article by SARA RIMER describes the swinging physicist thusly:

Professor Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube’s greatest hits. He is part of a new generation of academic stars who hold forth in cyberspace on their college Web sites and even, without charge, on iTunes U, which went up in May on Apple’s iTunes Store.

Here are links to some of Professor Lewin's online physics lectures at the MIT OPENCOURSEWARE site.

A Demonstration of Electrostatics

Trajectories of Objects in Freefall

How a Rocket Lifts Off

A Lecture on Pendulums

The full NYT article can be found here.