=EQUALS=
A CLUB OF INVESTIGATION AND DISCOVERY
"The special problem we tried to get at with these lectures was to maintain the interest of the very enthusiastic and rather smart students coming out of the high schools and into Caltech. They have heard a lot about how interesting and exciting physics is—the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, and other modern ideas. By the end of two years of our previous course, many would be very discouraged because there were really very few grand, new, modern ideas presented to them. They were made to study inclined planes, electrostatics, and so forth, and after two years it was quite stultifying.
The problem was whether or not we could make a course which would save the more advanced and excited student by maintaining his enthusiasm."
(from Feynman's Preface)
THE FEYNMAN IMPERATIVE AND "LECTURES ON PHYSICS"
This sounds ominously similar to some of the origins to =EQUALS=. We hear about all sorts of neat things regarding math. However, be it in high school or college, one rarely "gets to the good stuff" in due time, and is left wondering "What happened"?
A goal of =EQUALS= was to "get to the good stuff". In doing so, we find alternative ways of looking at the original math everybody else is already struggling with!
But a more important goal was this: in Excel, one is forced to think - how would I program this? In thinking this simple thought, one is first confronted with the often embarrassing thought: "I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I'VE JUST READ / HEARD"! THEY'RE JUST WORDS!
What am I calling "The Feynman Imperative" - and why am I calling it that? One thing I particularly like about doing this work in Excel is it forces one to really think "What did I just read" - AND TRANSLATE THIS INTO ACTION.
MORE INFORMATION COMING ON GETTING THIS INITIATIVE UP-AND-RUNNING