Physics Appreciation 10

There was once a young lady called Bright,

Who traveled much faster than light.

She started one day

On her relative way,

And came back on the previous night.

This limerickization of a facet of Einstein's theory of relativity is a sample of the witty, plain-speaking physics that has moved over 900 University of California students to sign up for next semester's early-morning (8 o'clock) freshman course, catalogued simply as: "Physics 10. Descriptive introduction to physics." Limerick-wielder, parablist and reason for the rush: the lecturer in Physics 10 this spring, Dr. Edward Teller. The brilliant theoretical physicist credited with a major role in perfecting the H-bomb. Teller, in a series of appearances since 1955 on San Francisco's prizewinning ETV Station KQED, has proved a master at lighting up the dark corners of physics for laymen. Although on leave from the university (he is boss of the AEC-University of California's Radiation Laboratory at Livermore), he volunteered to teach Berkeley's one-semester course because "it will not be a physics class but a physics-appreciation course --an appreciation of what physics is about, not a practical knowledge. When you teach music appreciation, you do not sit the student down and make him play the scales with no mistakes. You suggest he listen to the Ninth Symphony, and then discuss it with him."

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