Originally published December 01, 2003.

I am astounded by this awesome explanation of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity by Brian Raiter.

He actually explains the background, history and thoughts behind the theory using only 4 letter words or shorter. He refers to Albert Einstern as “Big Al”, Issac Newton as “Izzy” and Aristotle as “Ari”. Good stuff.

More importantly, this short story (only 6 printed pages) brings one of the most complex thoughts in human history down to a level that the average person can understand (well…almost). Since it ignores technical terms and speaks with simile and metaphor that most of us can follow, it does what much didactic texts do not.

It’s actually frickin’ teaches something.

What is most important in education are concepts…the whys of our world…not the whats. I learned more in these 6 pages than I did in 4 years of college (including college physics) and 3 years of graduate school (although my training wasn’t in physics…it was biochemistry…but for Christ’s sake…shouldn’t all scientists have a working understanding of the fundamental laws governing the behavior of the world around us.)

I highly, highly recommend a read of this. Take it with you to the crapper. It’s a lot more interesting than People magazine.