As far as professors go, there is no one like Walter Lewin. At a university like MIT, where I’m sure there are lots of professors who try to dodge introductory courses–preferring to leave that sort of work to graduate students or junior lecturers–Lewin has perfected the art of teaching. His lectures on basic concepts like “classical mechanics”:http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/CourseHome/, “electricity and magnetism”:http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-MagnetismSpring2002/CourseHome/, or “vibrations and waves”:http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-03Fall-2004/CourseHome/ are works of genius combining scientific information with a humble yet often fantastic stage presence the likes of which very few actors ever achieve. Preferring to show rather than tell, Dr. Lewin’s lectures feature real examples of physics at work, like this pictured demonstration of the conservation of momentum.
Perhaps the best part about Lewin’s lectures–at least as far as I’m concerned–is that they are not just available to students at MIT. Thanks to a great educational outreach program called “MIT Open Courseware”:http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm, Lewin’s lectures and many others are available for anyone to download and watch. Alternatively, “iTunesU”:http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu/, a special educational sub-section of Apple’s iTunes music store distributes all of Lewin’s physics lectures, as well as TONS of other materials from all over the world.
For more information about Lewin and his work, read his “faculty bio”:http://web.mit.edu/physics/facultyandstaff/faculty/walter_lewin.html from the MIT website, “this article”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/education/19physics.html?_r=1&ex=1198904400&en=422fff9addc1eaff&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin from the “New York Times”:http://www.nytimes.com, or his entry in the ever-informative information hive that is “Wikipedia”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lewin.
(Thanks Melissa)