[chris (OP)]

Evan - how do you know this stuff?

[evan_au]

how do you know this stuff?

A long-term interest in understanding whatever I can of creation:

• When I was a child, an older cousin stayed with us; I read all his electronics magazines.
• My cousin had copies of all the high school science textbooks on the shelf; I read many of them before I got to high school (but I lacked the mathematical tools for a quantitative understanding of physics).
  
• As a teenager, I enjoyed reading Isaac Asimov's non-fiction essays on science and all the back-issues of Scientific American in the school library
• This interest has been fueled by listening to podcasts in more recent years.
• Participation in this forum has caused me to look into a variety of topics in more detail.

I use my vague recollection of a topic as an index into Wikipedia, which expands and updates my general knowledge of a subject...

And I'm happy to share my little discoveries with others.

Chris, I could ask the same question of yourself - you seem to be able to answer almost any question in phone-in radio segments...

[Colin2B]

Wow; Evan - how do you know this stuff?

Maybe he's the Evan essence of knowledge []

[chris (OP)]

Evan - you are very good at translating any aspect of physics  (as far as I can tell) into extremely clear, jargon-free explanations. If you are not already, you would be an amazing school teacher.

[evan_au]

Feel free to post your little autobiography here - what inspired you to become interested in science, how did you learn, how have you applied it, and what are you doing to inspire others?

I am sure others can learn from our personal stories.