Richard Phillips Feynman

Claimed by Catherine Johnson

Richard Phillips Feynman, an American theoretical physicist, was quite famous for his work with quantum mechanics, electrodynamics, and superfluidity, but was most known for his familiarization with particle physics. He proposed the parton model in 1969.

Richard Phillips Feynman. May 11, 1918 - February 15, 1988.

Early Life

Feynman was born in New York City, New York, on May 11th, 1918, to Lucille and Melville Arthur Feynman. His parents originated from Poland and Russia, and both were Ashkenazi Jews, or "Germanic Jews". However, neither of his parents were very religious, and therefore, Richard proclaimed himself atheist as a young boy. Feynman could not talk until the age of three, but once he could, he closely retained his Bronx accent. As Feynman grew, his parents were greatly supportive of his creative mind-set. His father continuously pushed him to think beyond the box, and his mother provided him with a sense of humor that carried him happily through life. He became a little engineer all on his own, and by age 10, he created a home burglar alarm while his parents were out. At age nine, Feynman gained a baby sister Joan, and the two became very close. Although Richard's mother disapproved of Joan's high level of curiosity for a woman, Richard always encouraged his little sister, and she later became an astrophysicist specializing in Earth's solar winds. Due to his family's constant support, Feynman developed a general curiosity about the world that led him to discover great things in the future.

Education

The First Feynman Diagram, "Space-Time Approach to Quantum Electrodynamics," 1949.

Feynman was always very dedicated to his school work. While attending Far Rockaway High School as a teenager, he taught himself many disciplines of mathematics that usually only collegiate students could perceive. He graduated from Far Rockaway in June of 1935, and was accepted and soon attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He graduated from MIT with a BS degree in Physics in 1939, after realizing his initial passion with mathematics did not carry far enough into the world of application, in his opinion. He then followed his studies with quantum mechanics to Princeton University, and received his doctorate in physics in 1942. Feynman joined the Manhattan Project during World War II and was the head of the theoretical division. He later was appointed a professor at Cornell University, but he soon transferred to the California Institute of Technology in 1950 to develop his interest in quantum mechanics.

Scientific Contributions

Feynman contributed to modern science in various ways, upon which he earned the Nobel Peace Prize in Physics in 1965 "for their [Feynman's, Tomonaga's, and Schwinger's fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles".

The Feynman Lectures on Physics

The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1963) by Feynman, R.; Leighton, R.; & Sands, M.

The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a physics textbook written by Richard P. Feynman himself, that were given to collegiate students at Cal Tech from 1961 to 1963. The book also had two other authors: Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands. The book is composed of three volumes, with the first focusing on heat, radiation, and mechanics; the second one exploring matter and electromagnetism; and the third volume discussing quantum mechanics. However, the book also includes several chapters focusing on relating physics to other subjects, including mathematics.

The lectures were initially created at a time when Cal Tech was reconsidering its physics material instructed to new students. Cal Tech wanted a more modern physics-based class, where new discoveries were relayed to students almost instantly. Feynman developed the lectures due to this, and he was the only professor to teach this new material to the incoming class at Cal Tech in the year of 1961. All of his lectures and drawings were taped and recorded by Cal Tech's staff as a remarking advancement to their institution. This compilation of teachings is perhaps one of the most famous physics books to exist. It has sold over 1.5 million English copies, and has been translated into over a dozen languages. It may not be the work that Feynman was most proud of; however, it may be the work for which he is most famous.

Quotes by Feynman

"Every morning we brush our teeth. What is the evidence that the brushing of the teeth does us any good in cavities? So you start wonderin'... As the Earth turns on the orbit, there's an edge between light and dark, and along that edge, all the people along that edge are doing the same ritual (Loud brushing teeth noise) for no good reason, just like in the middle ages... and you're trying to picture this perpetual line of tooth brushes going around the Earth. It's to take the world from another point of view!"

"We were playing in a field and a kid said to me, 'Say what's that bird, what's the name... you know the name of that bird?' I said, 'I haven't the slightest idea.' He said, 'Well, it's a brown-throated thrush. Your father doesn't teach you anything.' But my father had already taught me about the names of birds. Once [my father and I] walked and he said, 'That's a brown-throated thrush... You know what the name of that bird is? A brown-throated thrush. When you know all the names in every language of that bird, you know nothing but absolutely nothing about the bird.' Then we would go on and talk about the pecking in the feathers. So I had learned already that names don't constitute knowledge."

"The world is strange. The whole universe is very strange, but when you look at the details, and you find out that the rules are very simple, it's, again, this chess game."

"We've learned from experience that the truth will come out. Other experimenters will repeat your experiment and find out whether you were wrong or right. Nature's phenomena will agree or they'll disagree with your theory. And, although you may gain some temporary fame and excitement, you will not gain a good reputation as a scientist if you haven't tried to be very careful in this kind of work. And it's this type of integrity, this kind of care not to fool yourself, that is missing to a large extent in much of the research in cargo cult science."

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are the easiest person to fool."

"If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis that all things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied."

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See also

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Further reading

Feynman, Richard (1997). Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!. W. W. Norton & Company. Feynman, R. P., Leighton, R. B., & Sands, M. L. (1963). The Feynman lectures on physics. Reading, Mass.: AddiWesley Pub. Co.. http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

External links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgJPjG4KJYQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjwotips7E http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-facts.html

References

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2562 http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/06/06/feynman-and-the-bomb/ http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Feynman.shtml http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-facts.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgJPjG4KJYQ Feynman, R. P., Leighton, R. B., & Sands, M. L. (1963). The Feynman lectures on physics. Reading, Mass.: AddiWesley Pub. Co.. http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/