Physicist Richard Feynman, in one of his books (not sure which, but probably "Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!) tells that when he was a kid, he fixed a radio that had ear-splitting feedback, by switching around the order of the tubes in the unit. He impressed the radio’s owner because he fixed the radio by THINKING about the problem. (Feynman also tells how he nearly burned down his bedroom while working with his chemistry set.)
I was told by my parents that, at the age of about 5, I watched my dad completely disassemble our vacuum cleaner to repair it; he then put it back together. The next day when he got home from work, my mom said to him, “Come and see what your son did.” It seems I had taken apart the cleaner, and left the parts on the floor. Fortunately, my dad said, I had put the parts in ordered groups, so it wasn’t a big headache for him to reassemble it. I must admit that I remember none of this.
Yes, certainly. Otherwise we wouldn’t keep them in our lives. But as with all such developments, they are mixed blessings. Or, to modify a saying: Every silver lining has its cloud.
Yes, it was. And before TV. And before radio. And telephones. In fact, instantaneous communication, and the faster travel afforded by cars, trains and planes, made life a lot more complicated in many ways.
Physicist Richard Feynman, in one of his books (not sure which, but probably "Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!) tells that when he was a kid, he fixed a radio that had ear-splitting feedback, by switching around the order of the tubes in the unit. He impressed the radio’s owner because he fixed the radio by THINKING about the problem. (Feynman also tells how he nearly burned down his bedroom while working with his chemistry set.)