Fun with a big challenge. That is how I have regarded physics since the day when Sharon, one of the
students in a class I taught as a graduate student, suddenly demanded of me, "What has any of this
got to do with my life?" Of course I immediately responded, "Sharon, this has everything to do with
your life-this is physics."
She asked me for an example. I thought and thought but could not come up with a single one. That
night I began writing the book The Flying Circus of Physics (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1975) for
Sharon but also for me because I realized her complaint was mine. I had spent six years slugging my
way through many dozens of physics textbooks that were carefully written with the best of pedagogical
plans, but there was something missing. Physics is the most interesting subject in the world
because it is about how the world works, and yet the textbooks had been thoroughly wrung of any
connection with the real world. The fun was missing.