Book Three in this series is dedicated to Mr. Fields — my middle school science teacher.
"I'm going to teach you all the answers. They're already on the walls."
He had his final exam posted all around the classroom walls. The questions were always visible. That was the first time I realized that learning isn't memorizing answers — it's understanding why the answers work.
Mr. Fields didn't just teach science. He taught thinking. Simple machines. Pressure. Gases. What vacuum does. And he didn't just lecture — we experienced it.
We checked our shoes in the hallway with a Van de Graaff generator. We saw static make hair stand on end. We felt pulley systems lift heavy loads. We learned that with a lever, a little force can do a lot.
Book Three is about simple machines for a reason.
These are not ancient curiosities. These are tools of understanding. They show how motion becomes force, and how force shapes our world.
It's easy to overlook these things in a world full of electronics and automation. But if you strip life down to fundamentals — motion, energy, force — you realize how much of what we take for granted is just these concepts stacked together.
Mr. Fields didn't give us answers. He taught us why the answers are already all around us.
But because they're fundamental.
And once you understand the fundamentals,
complexity stops being intimidating.