“There are no electrons” by Kenn Amdahl provides me with a new perspective of how an educational book could be written. It was a very easy and fun read since a lot of it was stories rather than plain instructions and descriptions. I know effective story-telling is the best way to reach people emotionally, but I did not know a good story can also teach people the fundamentals of the electron theory and challenge this presently well-accepted theory at the same time.
Most of the time, the author not only explains what things are, but also why they are what they are, how they came to be and what flaws there are in a light-hearted way. For example, the “positive” and “negative” current” could as well be called “Bartholomeow” and “Afred” and they wouldn’t be less accurate.
The biggest feature of this snippet of text is perhaps that it ridicules the electron theory and the entire scientific community. There are still many unexplainable behaviours and phenomena involving electrons, yet we are too indulged in our “scientific advancement” to challenge some of the “fundamental” theories anymore. After all, they are only “theories”.
The biggest surprise for me is that I actually remember a lot about the electron theory even though the article seems to be anti- electron theory. From now on, I will replace voltage with “need-to-party” and current with “traffic”.