I was driving a trailer to a horse show yesterday. NPR was tuned;
Click And Clack had finished and a comedian's talk show was running.
Feldman is not a particular enthusiasm of mine.
But he does invite an eclectic variety of guests to interview.
I was not paying much attention. The guest mentioned Faraday.
I have his experimental researches. Then my attention was quickly riveted.
The guest - Johnson - mentioned a gas lantern with a polarizer placed
before a big electromagnet.
Faraday looked through another polarizer - as it might be, a pair
of sunglasses,
as Johnson put it, to extinguish the lantern's light. When he
switched on the
electromagnet, the lantern reappeared. I knew about that. You knew about that
effect too - the rotation of the polarization plane of light by a magnet.
Johnson was talking about his book - Ten Beautiful Experiments - and I was
shocked how powerfully this commentary differed from my received opinion
about the inadequacy of the lecture method.
As far as I can tell, lectures do not generally convey enthusiasm, insight
and pleasure: but advocates overcome our barriers with just these virtues.