[aronpye]

I think in this example Feynman was using the question to illustrate the levels of complexity in answering a scientific question. If you watch his actual lectures, Feynman does break the concepts down in order to teach them.

Also, documentaries and popular science books tend to dumb down and over simplify theories to such an extent, such as by removing all mathematics, that they just become either wrong, inaccurate, or misleading. I think it was Einstein which said make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.