He mastered Poincaré’s classic work on the hydrodynamics of whirlpools and absorbed two other classic books, Appel’s Mechanics and Planck’s Thermodynamics, so well that he could recall proofs from them years later. His knowledge of relativity and quantum theory was soon greater than that of his teachers, and he frequently gave lectures on relativity. Puccianti, a generous, very old-fashioned physicist, would ask Fermi to lecture him on theoretical subjects that puzzled the older man. In these sessions Fermi honed his pedagogical skills, skills that would play a central role in his subsequent
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