Richard Feynman: Fun to Imagine (1983) BBC Two

Stretching, Pulling and Pushing

Why do rubber bands stretch and contract? And why do two magnets feel as though there's something in between them when they repel each other? These are simple enough questions but, as Professor Feynman explains, the answers are surprisingly complicated.

Physicist Richard Feynman thinks more about the 'jiggling' of atoms, and about rubber bands and how they 'work'... From the BBC TV series 'Fun to Imagine' (1983). You can now watch higher quality versions of some of these episodes at www.bbc.co.uk/archive/feynman/

Richard Feynman (1918-88) was one of the most remarkable and gifted theoretical physicists of any generation. He was also known as the 'Great Explainer' because of his passion for helping non-scientists to imagine something of the beauty and order of the universe as he saw it.

In this series, Richard Feynman looks at the mysterious forces that make ordinary things happen and, in doing so, answers questions about why rubber bands are stretchy, why tennis balls can't bounce for ever and what you're really seeing when you look in the mirror.