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Richard Feynman Magnets

nebulajr · interview · Watch on YouTube

Fundamental physicsScientific method & science communicationPhilosophy & ethics

What it is

A short clip of Richard Feynman answering an interviewer's question about how magnets work, in which he explains why a why-question has no simple answer without a shared frame of reference.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN returns to it constantly as a classic on the difficulty of explaining fundamentals and the limits of analogies.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “Richard Feynman explaining magnets is one of the best layman explainers”

    Layman explanation of magnets giving an eureka moment

    aunty_helen, 2020-07 · Strong recommendation · in “Bohr–van Leeuwen theorem – magnetism in solids is a quantum mechanical effect”

  2. “the famous Feynman interview snippet”

    Famous Feynman interview on explaining magnetism

    keldaris, 2020-04 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?”

  3. “a great description of the problems inherent to explaining this sort of thing to people”

    Feynman on the difficulty of explaining why magnets feel the way they do

    rimunroe, 2020-07 · Recommendation · in “Neutrino Particles May Be a Link to the Dark Sector”

  4. “I revisit this feynman video of him explaining (or not) magnets every few months”

    Revisited video on how deep explanations go

    ramraj07, 2025-04 · Recommendation · in “I should have loved biology too”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: richard feynman, magnetism, explanation, physics, epistemology

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