<p>I know what you mean - I’ve visted Chicago a lot lately (and I will be visiting it even more in the future) and all I can think of when I see a UChicago sweatshirt is that I covet that person’s position. I know it’s wrong to covet, but I can’t help it (I was rejected). Even when I meet adults who went to UChicago, I just want to BE them. It’s silly, I know. Certain schools just give off this “thing” that I want…and tbh I’m not sure what that “thing” is. Want want want…it’s horrible.</p>
<p>Quant Mech, that is just a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant parody of Frost from a quantum mechanics point of view! I really hope you have shared it with your students.</p>
<p>I second the Goldbarth recommendation, but you may also enjoy Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics. They are short pieces in which some sort of mathematical function attempts to narrate key moments in the history of the universe. I especially like its “memoir” of the Big Bang, “Everything At One Point”.</p>
<p>Thanks for the kind comments (blushes furiously). I’ve received a great return on the poem, in terms of the suggestions for other reading. “Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology” is supposed to arrive today or tomorrow, and Calvino is next on my reading list.</p>
<p>To return to the OP’s issue: David, I’d suggest that you take a look at the Feynman Lectures on Physics, either Vol. I, Chap. 37 or Vol. III, Chap. 1, if you haven’t read the chapter yet. That chapter is astonishing! (It’s more or less the same in both volumes.) There are a lot of exciting ideas up ahead. I hope that you will really enjoy your modern physics class.</p>
<p>I still recall the first time I read something by Calvino. It was like being transported to an instant vacation in some far-off nonexistent land. Just love him.</p>
<p>Quantmech, you might also like [Space</a> Child’s Mother Goose - Frederick Winsor - Purple House Press](<a href=“http://www.purplehousepress.com/space.htm]Space”>http://www.purplehousepress.com/space.htm)</p>