Have you ever listened to a powerpoint presentation heavily loaded with mathematical formulas? Did you fall asleep? Despite having all the details flushed before your eyes, did you end up going home not knowing what the talk was about? If you haven’t had this experience, you are probably not a scientist.
Usually, the same topic is far easier to understand when presented on a classic blackboard with symbols, graphs and formulas sketched before your eyes. If the professor brings a cheat sheet to help him remember the details he needs to present, the students understand less, not more.
This is because human minds are better at understanding what fits in another human mind. The powerpoint presentation is given by a human-computer team and provides too many details – so the audience shuts down and goes to sleep. The cheat sheet helps the professor tell his students details he can’t remember himself – the students won’t remember either.
Children minds are wired differently from adults in subtle ways. When adults write books for children, they instinctively attempt to communicate with other minds like their own and, often, things are presented in ways children can’t grasp or, worse, children are taught they should not attempt to grasp the scientific truth at all.
Children who have a good grasp of physics at a young age are very rare. We find their way of understanding fundamental things about the universe valuable because it can be easier to share with other children – like-minded people talk to each other easier.
We didn’t just write this book. We taught the material to our children and then helped them draft the pages – the way they see it, the way they feel it, but still true to the letter and spirit of fundamental science.