Maggie's Farm

Nobody could be more amusing than Dr. David Goodstein at
CalTech. His 50+ episodes on physics called The Mechanical
Universe and Beyond was aired on PBS. I would kill to get
my hands on the entire series on DVD but it was never mass-
marketed and the few that are selling have price tags in the
upper stratosphere.

He used costumed actors playing pool sharks while describing
the laws of angular motion and used an audio spectrum
analyzer to capture the tone of Ella Fitzgerald to break a
wineglass ala the Memorex commercial. In describing harmonic
resonance as applied to the Tacoma Narrows bridge failure,
he took a tone generator, audio amplifier and a speaker to
sweep sounds that in turn resonated the strings of a guitar.

I could not digest the advanced math graphics, but he had a
way of amusing his students in the lecture hall and the viewers
on PBS, while teaching the basics in a way that anyone could
understand except Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Empty Cortex.

After my last post, I discovered that the Mechanical Universe and
Beyond has been reissued on DVD. Just under 54 dollars
including shipping and tax for the entire series. It's on the way!

PS If you are looking for any layman level materials on the
subject of physics, all three of the Asimov on physics books
are available for free on the Intertubes. What made Asimov
heads and shoulders above sci-fi authors was his understanding
of physics.