Richard Phillips Feynman
Richard Feynman
Born	May 11, 1918(1918-05-11) Far Rockaway, Queens, New York
Died	February 15, 1988 (aged 69) Los Angeles, California
Residence	United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Physics
Institutions	Manhattan Project Cornell University California Institute of Technology
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Princeton University
Doctoral advisor	John Archibald Wheeler
Doctoral students	Al Hibbs George Zweig
Known for	Quantum electrodynamics Particle theory Feynman diagrams
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1965) Oersted Medal (1972)
Religious stance	Atheist[1]
Signature

Richard Phillips Feynman (IPA: /ˈfaɪnmən/; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American physicist known for the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, and particle theory. Events 330 - Byzantium is renamed ''Nova Roma'' during a dedication ceremony but is more popularly referred to as Constantinople Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Far Rockaway is one of the four neighborhoods on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Events 590 - Khosrau II is crowned as king of Persia 1637 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, Coeducational research university located in Pasadena Alma mater is Latin for "nourishing mother" It was used in Ancient Rome as a title for the mother Goddess, and in Medieval Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. A doctorate is an Academic degree that indicates the highest level of academic achievement John Archibald Wheeler ( July 9, 1911 &ndash April 13, 2008) was an eminent American Theoretical physicist. Albert R Hibbs was a noted Mathematician known worldwide as "the voice of JPL " George Zweig (born 1937 in Moscow Russia into a Jewish family was originally trained as a Particle physicist under Richard Feynman and later turned his attention Quantum electrodynamics ( QED) is a relativistic Quantum field theory of Electrodynamics. Particle physics is a branch of Physics that studies the elementary constituents of Matter and Radiation, and the interactions between them Motivation and history When calculating Scattering cross sections in Particle physics, the interaction between particles can be described The Nobel Prize in Physics (Nobelpriset i fysik is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Oersted Medal recognizes notable contributions to the Teaching of Physics. Atheism Events 330 - Byzantium is renamed ''Nova Roma'' during a dedication ceremony but is more popularly referred to as Constantinople Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 590 - Khosrau II is crowned as king of Persia 1637 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A physicist is a Scientist who studies or practices Physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning This article is about a formulation of quantum mechanics For integrals along a path also known as line or contour integrals see Line integral. Quantum electrodynamics ( QED) is a relativistic Quantum field theory of Electrodynamics. Superfluidity is a phase of matter or description of Heat capacity in which unusual effects are observed when Liquids, typically of Helium-4 Helium exists in Liquid form only at very low Temperatures The Boiling point and critical point depend on the Isotope Particle physics is a branch of Physics that studies the elementary constituents of Matter and Radiation, and the interactions between them For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman was a joint recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, together with Julian Schwinger and Shin-Ichiro Tomonaga. The Nobel Prize in Physics (Nobelpriset i fysik is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Julian Seymour Schwinger ( February 12, 1918 &ndash July 16, 1994) was an American Theoretical physicist. Sin-Itiro Tomonaga or Shinichirō Tomonaga (朝永 振一郎 Tomonaga Shin'ichirō, March 31, 1906 Feynman developed a widely-used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, which later became known as Feynman diagrams. Motivation and history When calculating Scattering cross sections in Particle physics, the interaction between particles can be described

He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb and was a member of the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster took place on January 28 1986 when ''Challenger'', a Space Shuttle operated by NASA, broke apart In addition to his work in theoretical physics, Feynman has been credited with pioneering the field of quantum computing,^[2] and introducing the concept of nanotechnology (creation of devices at the molecular scale). A quantum computer is a device for Computation that makes direct use of distinctively Quantum mechanical Phenomena, such as superposition Nanotechnology, sometimes shortened to nanotech, refers to a field of Applied science whose theme is the control of matter on an Atomic and Molecular ^[3] He held the Richard Chace Tolman professorship in theoretical physics at Caltech. Richard Chace Tolman ( March 4 1881 &ndash September 5 1948) was an American mathematical physicist and Physical chemist The meaning of the word professor ( Latin: professor, person who professes to be an expert in some art or science teacher of highest rank) varies Theoretical physics employs Mathematical models and Abstractions of Physics in an attempt to explain experimental data taken of the natural world The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, Coeducational research university located in Pasadena

Feynman was a keen popularizer of physics in both his books and lectures, notably a 1959 talk on top-down nanotechnology called There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom, and The Feynman Lectures on Physics. There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom is the title of a famous lecture given by physicist Richard Feynman at an American Physical Society meeting The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynman's most accessible technical work Feynman is also known for his semi-autobiographical books Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think?, and through books about him, such as Tuva or Bust! He was also known as a prankster, juggler, a proud amateur painter, and a bongo player. Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman! is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize -winning Physicist Richard Feynman. What Do You Care What Other People Think? Further Adventures of a Curious Character (1988 is the second of two books consisting of transcribed and edited oral reminiscences Tuva or Bust! (1991 is a book by Ralph Leighton about the author and his friend Richard Feynman 's attempt to travel to Tuva. A prank is defined as "acting like a clown or buffoon" or "dressing showily" or alternatively "a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement" Juggling is a physical human skill involving the movement of objects usually through the air for entertainment (see Object manipulation) Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e Richard Feynman was regarded as an eccentric and a free spirit. He liked to pursue multiple seemingly independent paths, such as biology, art, percussion, Maya hieroglyphs, and lock picking. Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual The Maya script, also known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently Lock picking is the act of unlocking a lock by analyzing and manipulating the components of the lock device without the original key

Richard Feynman's interest in biology was more than casual. He was a friend of Esther Lederberg, the geneticist and microbiologist who developed replica plating and discovered bacteriophage lambda (though often others received credit for her work). Esther Miriam Zimmer Lederberg ( December 18, 1922 - November 11, 2006) was an American Microbiologist and Immunologist A geneticist is a scientist who studies Genetics, the science of Heredity and variation of Organisms A geneticist can be employed as a researcher A microbiologist is a Scientist who works in the field of Microbiology. In Molecular biology and Microbiology, replica plating is a technique in which one or more secondary Petri plates containing different solid ( Agar Enterobacteria phage λ ( Lambda phage) is a temperate bacteriophage that infects Escherichia coli It is not surprising that both these engaging people should be friends, as they also shared other scientists as friends. These included physicists in nuclear research who for moral reasons switched to genetics (such as Leo Szilard, Guido Pontecorvo, Aaron Novick, and Carl Sagan). Nuclear physics is the field of Physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of Atomic nuclei. Leó Szilárd (Szilárd Leó February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964) was an Hungarian - American Physicist who Guido Pontecorvo ( 29 November 1907, Pisa, Italy - 25 September 1999) was an Italian geneticist. Carl Edward Sagan ( November 9 1934 &ndash December 20 1996) was an American Astronomer, astrochemist, author ^[4]

Freeman Dyson once wrote that Feynman was "half-genius, half-buffoon", but later revised this to "all-genius, all-buffoon". Freeman John Dyson FRS (born December 15, 1923) is an English-born American theoretical Physicist and Mathematician, famous for his ^[5] During his lifetime and after his death, Feynman became one of the most publicly known scientists in the world.

Biography

Richard Phillips Feynman was born on May 11, 1918,^[6] in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. Events 330 - Byzantium is renamed ''Nova Roma'' during a dedication ceremony but is more popularly referred to as Constantinople Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Far Rockaway is one of the four neighborhoods on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens ^[7] His family was Jewish and, while not ritualistic in their practice of Judaism, his parents attended synagogue every Friday. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Feynman (in common with other famous physicists, Edward Teller, Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein) was a late talker; by his third birthday he had yet to utter a single word. Edward Teller (original Hungarian name Teller Ede) (January 15 1908 &ndash September 9 2003 was a Hungarian -American theoretical Physicist Carl Edward Sagan ( November 9 1934 &ndash December 20 1996) was an American Astronomer, astrochemist, author Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical Language delay is a failure to develop Language abilities on the usual developmental timetable The young Feynman was heavily influenced by his father, Melville, who encouraged him to ask questions to challenge orthodox thinking. From his mother, Lucille, he gained the sense of humor that endured throughout his life. As a child, he delighted in repairing radios and had a talent for engineering. Engineering is the Discipline and Profession of applying technical and scientific Knowledge and His sister Joan also became a professional physicist. Joan Feynman (born 31 March 1928) the sister of Richard Feynman, is an Astrophysicist who made original studies of the interactions between ^[8][9]

Education

In high school he was bright, with a measured IQ of 123:^[10] high, but "merely respectable" according to biographer Gleick. An Intelligence Quotient or IQ is a score derived from one of several different Standardized tests attempting to measure Intelligence. James Gleick (born August 1, 1954) is an author journalist and biographer whose books explore the cultural ramifications of science and technology ^[10] He would later scoff at psychometric testing. By 15, he had mastered differential and integral calculus. Differential Calculus, a field in Mathematics, is the study of how functions change when their inputs change The European Space Agency 's INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory ( INTEGRAL) is detecting some of the most energetic radiation that comes from space Before entering college, he was experimenting with and re-creating mathematical topics, such as the half-derivative, utilizing his own notation. Fractional calculus is a branch of Mathematical analysis that studies the possibility of taking Real number powers of the Differential operator Thus, while in high school, he was developing the mathematical intuition behind his Taylor series of mathematical operators. In Mathematics, the Taylor series is a representation of a function as an infinite sum of terms calculated from the values of its Derivatives In Mathematics, an operator is a function which operates on (or modifies another function His habit of direct characterization would sometimes disconcert more conventional thinkers; for example, one of his questions when learning feline anatomy was: "Do you have a map of the cat?" (referring to an anatomical chart).

Feynman attended Far Rockaway High School, a school that also produced fellow laureates Burton Richter and Baruch Samuel Blumberg. Far Rockaway High School, a Public high school in the Public school system of New York City, is located on Bay 25 Street in Far Rockaway in the Burton Richter (born March 22 1931) is a Nobel Prize -winning American physicist Baruch Samuel Blumberg (born July 28, 1925) is an American scientist and recipient of the 1976 ^[11] A member of the Arista Honor Society, in his last year in high school, Feynman won the New York University Math Championship; the large difference between his score and his closest runners-up shocked the judges. ^[12] He applied to Columbia University; however, because he was Jewish, and Columbia still had a quota for Jews, he was not accepted. Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ^[13] Instead he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1939, and in the same year was named a Putnam Fellow. A bachelor's degree is usually an Undergraduate Academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three four or in some cases and The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to the Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for Undergraduate While there, Feynman took every physics course offered, including a graduate course on theoretical physics while only in his second year. Theoretical physics employs Mathematical models and Abstractions of Physics in an attempt to explain experimental data taken of the natural world He obtained a perfect score on the entrance exams to Princeton University in mathematics and physics — an unprecedented feat — but did rather poorly on the history and English portions. Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. Attendees at Feynman's first seminar included the luminaries Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, and John von Neumann. Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical He received a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1942; his thesis advisor was John Archibald Wheeler. "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. John Archibald Wheeler ( July 9, 1911 &ndash April 13, 2008) was an eminent American Theoretical physicist. Feynman's thesis applied the principle of stationary action to problems of quantum mechanics, laying the ground work for the "path integral" approach and Feynman diagrams. This article discusses the history of the principle of least action

This was Richard Feynman nearing the crest of his powers. At twenty-three . . . there was no physicist on earth who could match his exuberant command over the native materials of theoretical science. It was not just a facility at mathematics (though it had become clear . . . that the mathematical machinery emerging from the Wheeler-Feynman collaboration was beyond Wheeler's own ability). John Archibald Wheeler ( July 9, 1911 &ndash April 13, 2008) was an eminent American Theoretical physicist. Feynman seemed to possess a frightening ease with the substance behind the equations, like Albert Einstein at the same age, like the Soviet physicist Lev Landau—but few others. Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical Lev Davidovich Landau ( Russian language: Ле́в Дави́дович Ланда́у ( January 22, 1908 &ndash April 1, 1968

– James Gleick , Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

The Manhattan Project

Feynman (center) with Robert Oppenheimer (right) relaxing at a Los Alamos social function during the Manhattan Project. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL (previously known at various times as Site Y, Los Alamos Laboratory, and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) is a The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb

At Princeton, the physicist Robert R. Wilson encouraged Feynman to participate in the Manhattan Project—the wartime U.S. Army project at Los Alamos developing the atomic bomb. Robert Rathbun Wilson ( March 4, 1914 &ndash January 16, 2000) was an American Physicist who was a group leader of the Manhattan The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL (previously known at various times as Site Y, Los Alamos Laboratory, and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) is a A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Feynman said he was persuaded to join this effort to build it before Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers He was assigned to Hans Bethe's theoretical division, and impressed Bethe enough to be made a group leader. Hans Albrecht Bethe (/hans ˈalbʀɛçt ˈbeːtə/ ( July 2 1906 &ndash March 6, 2005) was a German - American Physicist Together with Bethe, he developed the Bethe-Feynman formula for calculating the yield of a fission bomb, which built upon previous work by Robert Serber. Robert Serber ( March 14 1909 - June 1 1997) was an American physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project. Until his wife's death on June 16, 1945, he visited her in a sanatorium in Albuquerque each weekend. Events 1487 - Battle of Stoke Field, the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses. Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar A sanatorium (also sanitorium, sanitarium) is a medical facility for long-term illness typically Tuberculosis. He immersed himself in work on the project, and was present at the Trinity bomb test. Trinity was the first test of technology for a Nuclear weapon. Feynman claimed to be the only person to see the explosion without the very dark glasses provided, reasoning that it was safe to look through a truck windshield, as it would screen out the harmful ultraviolet radiation. Ultraviolet ( UV) light is Electromagnetic radiation with a Wavelength shorter than that of Visible light, but longer than X-rays

As a junior physicist, he was not central to the project. The greater part of his work was administering the computation group of human computers in the Theoretical division (one of his students there, John G. Kemeny, would later go on to co-write the computer language BASIC). Before electronic computers became commercially available the term " computer " in use from the mid 17th century literally meant "one who computes" John George Kemeny (Kemény János György ( May 31, 1926, Budapest – December 26, 1992, New Hampshire) was a Hungarian In Computer programming, BASIC (an Acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of High-level programming languages Later, with Nicholas Metropolis, he assisted in establishing the system for using IBM punch cards for computation. Nicholas Constantine Metropolis ( June 11, 1915 &ndash October 17, 1999) was a Greek American Mathematician, Physicist International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology Feynman succeeded in solving one of the equations for the project that were posted on the blackboards. However, they did not "do the physics right" and Feynman's solution was not used in the project.

Feynman's other work at Los Alamos included calculating neutron equations for the Los Alamos "Water Boiler", a small nuclear reactor, to measure how close an assembly of fissile material was to criticality. This article is a discussion of neutrons in general For the specific case of a neutron found outside the nucleus see Free neutron. This article is a subarticle of Nuclear power. A nuclear reactor is a device in which Nuclear chain reactions are initiated controlled On completing this work he was transferred to the Oak Ridge facility, where he aided engineers in calculating safety procedures for material storage, so that inadvertent criticality accidents (for example, storing subcritical amounts of fissile material in proximity on opposite sides of a wall) could be avoided. Oak Ridge National Laboratory ( ORNL) is a multiprogram science and technology National laboratory managed for the United States Department of Energy by A criticality accident, sometimes referred to as an excursion or a power excursion, occurs when a Nuclear chain reaction accidentally occurs in Fissile He also did theoretical work and calculations on the proposed uranium-hydride bomb, which later proved to be infeasible. The uranium hydride bomb was a variant of the Atomic bomb, first suggested by Robert Oppenheimer in 1939 and advocated and tested by Edward Teller

Feynman was sought out by physicist Niels Bohr for one-on-one discussions. Niels Henrik David Bohr (nels ˈb̥oɐ̯ˀ in Danish 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962 was a Danish Physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding He later discovered the reason: most physicists were too in awe of Bohr to argue with him. Feynman had no such inhibitions, vigorously pointing out anything he considered to be flawed in Bohr's thinking. Feynman said he felt as much respect for Bohr as anyone else, but once anyone got him talking about physics, he would become so focused he forgot about social niceties.

Feynman's ID badge from the Manhattan Project

Due to the top secret nature of the work, Los Alamos was isolated. The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb In his own words, "There wasn't anything to do there". Bored, Feynman indulged his curiosity by learning to pick the combination locks on cabinets and desks used to secure papers. Feynman played many jokes on colleagues. In one case he found the combination to a locked filing cabinet by trying the numbers a physicist would use (it proved to be 27-18-28 after the base of natural logarithms, e = 2. The natural logarithm, formerly known as the Hyperbolic logarithm is the Logarithm to the base e, where e is an irrational The Mathematical constant e is the unique Real number such that the function e x has the same value as the slope of the tangent line 71828. . . ), and found that the three filing cabinets where a colleague kept a set of atomic bomb research notes all had the same combination. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. He left a series of notes as a prank, which initially spooked his colleague, Frederic de Hoffman, into thinking a spy or saboteur had gained access to atomic bomb secrets. On several occasions Feynman was driven to Albuquerque to see his wife by Klaus Fuchs, who was later discovered to be a spy for the Soviets. Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs ( December 29, 1911 &ndash January 28, 1988) was a German -born theoretical physicist and

On occasion, Feynman would find an isolated section of the mesa to drum in the style of American natives; "and maybe I would dance and chant, a little". A mesa ( Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic for "table" is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. These antics did not go unnoticed, and rumors spread about a mysterious Indian drummer called "Injun Joe". He also became a friend of laboratory head J. Robert Oppenheimer, who unsuccessfully tried to court him away from his other commitments to work at the University of California, Berkeley after the war. The University of California ( UC) is a Public university system in the state of California. The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley

Feynman alludes to his thoughts on the justification for getting involved in the Manhattan project in "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a collection of short works from American Physicist Richard Feynman, including interviews speeches lectures " As mentioned earlier, he felt the possibility of Nazi Germany developing the bomb before the Allies was a compelling reason to help with its development for the U. S. However, he goes on to say that it was an error on his part not to reconsider the situation when Germany was defeated. In the same publication Feynman also talks about his worries in the atomic bomb age, feeling for some considerable time that there was a high risk that the bomb would be used again soon so that it was pointless to build for the future. Later he describes this period as a 'depression. '

Early career

After the project concluded, Feynman began work as a professor at Cornell University, where Hans Bethe (who proved that the sun's source of energy was nuclear fusion) worked. Hans Albrecht Bethe (/hans ˈalbʀɛçt ˈbeːtə/ ( July 2 1906 &ndash March 6, 2005) was a German - American Physicist In Physics and Nuclear chemistry, nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple- like charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus However, he felt uninspired there; despairing that he had burned out, he turned to less useful, but fun problems, such as analyzing the physics of a twirling, nutating dish, as it is spinning in the air. Nutation is a slight irregular motion (etymologically a "nodding" in the Axis of rotation of a largely axially symmetric object such as a Gyroscope (As it turned out, this work served him well in future research. ) He was therefore surprised to be offered professorships from competing universities, eventually choosing to work at the California Institute of Technology at Pasadena, California, despite being offered a position near Princeton, at the Institute for Advanced Study (which included such distinguished faculty members as Albert Einstein). The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, Coeducational research university located in Pasadena Pasadena ( is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton New Jersey, United States is a center for theoretical research

Although he was offered a professorship at Princeton that included teaching duties, in addition to a position at the Institute for Advanced Study, Feynman opted for Caltech. Feynman noted in his book "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!" that his decision was also influenced by a desire to live in a mild climate, a goal he chose while having to put snow chains on his car's wheels in the middle of a snowstorm in Ithaca, New York. The City of Ithaca (named for the Greek island of Ithaca) sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York

Feynman the "Great Explainer": The Feynman Lectures on Physics found an appreciative audience beyond the undergraduate community. The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynman's most accessible technical work

Feynman has been called the "Great Explainer"; he gained a reputation for taking great care when giving explanations to his students, and for assigning himself a moral duty to make the topic accessible. His principle was that if a topic could not be explained in a freshman lecture, it was not yet fully understood. A freshman, fresher, fish, or frosh is a first-year student in an educational institution Feynman gained great pleasure^[14] from coming up with such a "freshman level" explanation of the connection between spin and statistics (that groups of particles with spin 1/2 "repel", whereas groups with integer spin "clump", i. In Quantum mechanics, spin is a fundamental property of atomic nuclei, Hadrons and Elementary particles For particles with non-zero spin e. , Fermi-Dirac statistics and Bose-Einstein statistics as consequence of how fermions and bosons behave under a rotation of 360°), a question he pondered in his own lectures and to which he demonstrated the solution in the 1986 Dirac memorial lecture. In Statistical mechanics, Fermi-Dirac statistics is a particular case of Particle statistics developed by Enrico Fermi and Paul Dirac that In Statistical mechanics, Bose - Einstein statistics (or more colloquially B-E statistics determines the statistical distribution of In Particle physics, fermions are particles which obey Fermi-Dirac statistics; they are named after Enrico Fermi. In Particle physics, bosons are particles which obey Bose-Einstein statistics; they are named after Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein ^[15] In the same lecture he explained that antiparticles exist since if particles only had positive energies they would not be restricted to a light cone. In Special relativity, a light cone (or null cone) is the pattern describing the temporal evolution of a flash of Light in Minkowski spacetime He opposed rote learning and other teaching methods that emphasized form over function, and put these opinions into action whenever he could, from a conference on education in Brazil to a state commission on school textbook selection. Rote learning is a Learning technique which avoids understanding of a subject and instead focuses on memorization. Clear thinking and clear presentation were fundamental prerequisites for his attention. It could be perilous even to approach him when unprepared, and he did not forget the fools or pretenders. ^[16]

During one sabbatical year, he returned to Newton's Principia Mathematica to study it anew; what he learned from Newton, he passed along to his students, such as Newton's attempted explanation of diffraction. A sabbatical (from the Latin sabbaticus, from the Greek sabbatikos, from Hebrew shabbathon, i Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (ˈnjuːtən 4 January 1643 31 March 1727) Biography Early years See also Isaac Newton's early life and achievements The Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ( Latin: "mathematical principles of natural philosophy" often Principia Diffraction is normally taken to refer to various phenomena which occur when a wave encounters an obstacle

The Caltech years

The Feynman section at the Caltech bookstore, a tribute to his enduring impact. The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, Coeducational research university located in Pasadena

Feynman did significant work while at Caltech, including research in:

• Quantum electrodynamics. Quantum electrodynamics ( QED) is a relativistic Quantum field theory of Electrodynamics. The theory for which Feynman won his Nobel Prize is known for its accurate predictions. The Nobel Prize (Nobelpriset (Nobelprisen is a Swedish prize established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Peace, Literature Forecasting is the process of Estimation in unknown situations ^[17][18] He helped develop a functional integral formulation of quantum mechanics, in which every possible path from one state to the next is considered, the final path being a sum over the possibilities (also referred to as Sum-over-paths or Sum over histories). This article is about a formulation of quantum mechanics For integrals along a path also known as line or contour integrals see Line integral. Sum-over-paths, also known as Feynman sum-over-paths is an approach to visualizing the movement of particles that is mathematically described by the equations of quantum mechanics ^[19]

• Physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, where helium seems to display a lack of viscosity when flowing. Superfluidity is a phase of matter or description of Heat capacity in which unusual effects are observed when Liquids, typically of Helium-4 Helium ( He) is a colorless odorless tasteless non-toxic Inert Monatomic Chemical Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a Fluid which is being deformed by either Shear stress or Extensional stress. Applying the Schrödinger equation to the question showed that the superfluid was displaying quantum mechanical behavior observable on a macroscopic scale. In Physics, especially Quantum mechanics, the Schrödinger equation is an equation that describes how the Quantum state of a Physical system This helped with the problem of superconductivity; however, the solution eluded Feynman. Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain Materials generally at very low Temperatures characterized by exactly zero electrical resistance It was solved with the BCS theory.

• A model of weak decay, which showed that the current coupling in the process is a combination of vector and axial (an example of weak decay is the decay of a neutron into an electron, a proton, and an anti-neutrino). The weak interaction (often called the weak force or sometimes the weak nuclear force) is one of the four Fundamental interactions of nature This article is a discussion of neutrons in general For the specific case of a neutron found outside the nucleus see Free neutron. The electron is a fundamental Subatomic particle that was identified and assigned the negative charge in 1897 by J The proton ( Greek πρῶτον / proton "first" is a Subatomic particle with an Electric charge of one positive Neutrinos are Elementary particles that travel close to the Speed of light, lack an Electric charge, are able to pass through ordinary matter almost Although E. C. George Sudarshan and Robert Marshak developed the theory nearly simultaneously, Feynman's collaboration with Murray Gell-Mann was seen as seminal because the weak interaction was neatly described by the vector and axial currents. Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan (born September 16, 1931, Pallam, in Kottayam district of Kerala, India) also named Robert Eugene Marshak ( October 11, 1916 – December 23, 1992) was an American Physicist dedicated to learning research and education Murray Gell-Mann (born September 15, 1929) is an American Physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work The weak interaction (often called the weak force or sometimes the weak nuclear force) is one of the four Fundamental interactions of nature It thus combined the 1933 beta decay theory of Fermi with an explanation of parity violation. In Nuclear physics, beta decay is a type of Radioactive decay in which a Beta particle (an Electron or a Positron) is emitted In Physics, a parity transformation (also called parity inversion) is the flip in the sign of one Spatial Coordinate.

He also developed Feynman diagrams, a bookkeeping device which helps in conceptualizing and calculating interactions between particles in spacetime, notably the interactions between electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons. Motivation and history When calculating Scattering cross sections in Particle physics, the interaction between particles can be described In Particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a particle not known to have substructure that is it is not known to be made SpaceTime is a patent-pending three dimensional graphical user interface that allows end users to search their content such as Google Google Images Yahoo! YouTube eBay Amazon and RSS In Particle physics and Quantum chemistry, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the Antiparticle to Matter, where antimatter is composed The positrons or antielectron is the Antiparticle or the Antimatter counterpart of the Electron. This device allowed him, and later others, to approach time reversibility and other fundamental processes. Feynman famously painted Feynman diagrams on the exterior of his van.

Feynman diagrams are now fundamental for string theory and M-theory, and have even been extended topologically. String theory is a still-developing scientific approach to Theoretical physics, whose original building blocks are one-dimensional extended objects called strings In Theoretical physics, M-theory is a new limit of String theory in which 11 dimensions of Spacetime may be identified Feynman's mental picture for these diagrams started with the hard sphere approximation, and the interactions could be thought of as collisions at first. It was not until decades later that physicists thought of analyzing the nodes of the Feynman diagrams more closely. The world-lines of the diagrams have developed to become tubes to allow better modelling of more complicated objects such as strings and M-branes.

From his diagrams of a small number of particles interacting in spacetime, Feynman could then model all of physics in terms of those particles' spins and the range of coupling of the fundamental forces. SpaceTime is a patent-pending three dimensional graphical user interface that allows end users to search their content such as Google Google Images Yahoo! YouTube eBay Amazon and RSS Scientific modelling is the process of generating abstract, conceptual, Graphical and or mathematical models. In Quantum mechanics, spin is a fundamental property of atomic nuclei, Hadrons and Elementary particles For particles with non-zero spin In Physics, a fundamental interaction or fundamental force is a mechanism by which particles interact with each other and which cannot be explained in terms ^[20] Feynman attempted an explanation of the strong interactions governing nucleons scattering called the parton model. In particle physics the strong interaction, or strong force, or color force, holds Quarks and Gluons together to form Protons and In Particle physics, the parton model was proposed by Richard Feynman in 1969 as a way to analyze high-energy Hadron collisions The parton model emerged as a complement to the quark model developed by his Caltech colleague Murray Gell-Mann. In Physics, a quark (kwɔrk kwɑːk or kwɑːrk is a type of Subatomic particle. Murray Gell-Mann (born September 15, 1929) is an American Physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work The relationship between the two models was murky; Gell-Mann referred to Feynman's partons derisively as "put-ons". Feynman did not dispute the quark model; for example, when the fifth quark was discovered, Feynman immediately pointed out to his students that the discovery implied the existence of a sixth quark, which was duly discovered in the decade after his death.

After the success of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman turned to quantum gravity. Quantum gravity is the field of Theoretical physics attempting to unify Quantum mechanics, which describes three of the fundamental forces of nature By analogy with the photon, which has spin 1, he investigated the consequences of a free massless spin 2 field, and was able to derive the Einstein field equation of general relativity, but little more. The Einstein field equations ( EFE) or Einstein's equations are a set of ten equations in Einstein 's theory of General relativity in which the ^[21] However, a calculational technique that Feynman developed for gravity in 1962 — "ghosts" — later proved invaluable for explaining the quantum theory of the weak and strong forces, the other two fundamental interactions in nature. In 1967, Fadeev and Popov quantized the particle behaviour of the spin 1 theories of Yang-Mills -Shaw -Pauli, that are now seen to describe the weak and strong interactions, using Feynman's path integral technique but including also Feynman's "ghost" particles to conserve probability.

At this time, in the early 1960s Feynman exhausted himself by working on multiple major projects at the same time, including his Feynman Lectures on Physics: while at Caltech, Feynman was asked to "spruce up" the teaching of undergraduates. The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynman's most accessible technical work After three years devoted to the task, he produced a series of lectures that would eventually become the Feynman Lectures on Physics, one reason that Feynman is still regarded as one of the greatest teachers of physics. The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynman's most accessible technical work He wanted a picture of a drumhead sprinkled with powder to show the modes of vibration at the beginning of the book. Outraged by many rock and roll and drug connections that one could make from the image, the publishers changed the cover to plain red, though they included a picture of him playing drums in the foreword. Feynman later won the Oersted Medal for teaching, of which he seemed especially proud. The Oersted Medal recognizes notable contributions to the Teaching of Physics. ^[22] His students competed keenly for his attention; he was once awakened when a student solved a problem and dropped it in his mailbox; glimpsing the student sneaking across his lawn, he could not go back to sleep, and he read the student's solution. The next morning his breakfast was interrupted by another triumphant student, but Feynman informed him that he was too late.

Partly as a way to bring publicity to progress in physics, Feynman offered $1000 prizes for two of his challenges in nanotechnology, claimed by William McLellan and Tom Newman, respectively. William McLellan (born in 1928 is a British electrical engineer Tom Newman, a graduate student at Stanford University in 1985 was one of the two people to solve one of a pair of challenges put forth by Nobel Prize-winning physicist ^[23] He was also one of the first scientists to conceive the possibility of quantum computers. A quantum computer is a device for Computation that makes direct use of distinctively Quantum mechanical Phenomena, such as superposition Many of his lectures and other miscellaneous talks were turned into books, including The Character of Physical Law and QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. QED The Strange Theory of Light and Matter is an adaptation for the general reader of four Lectures on Quantum electrodynamics (QED by Richard Feynman He gave lectures which his students annotated into books, such as Statistical Mechanics and Lectures on Gravity. The Feynman Lectures on Physics^[24] occupied two physicists, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands as full-time editors for several years. The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynman's most accessible technical work Robert B Leighton ( September 10, 1919 &ndash March 9, 1997) was an American Even though they were not adopted by the universities as textbooks, the books continue to be bestsellers because they provide a deep understanding of physics. As of 2005, The Feynman Lectures on Physics have sold over 1. 5 million copies in English, an estimated 1 million copies in Russian, and an estimated half million copies in other languages.

In 1974 Feynman delivered the Caltech commencement address on the topic of cargo cult science, which has the semblance of science but is only pseudoscience due to a lack of "a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty" on the part of the scientist. Cargo cult science is a term used by Richard Feynman in his 1974 Caltech commencement address to describe work that has the semblance of being scientific Pseudoscience is defined as a body of knowledge methodology belief or practice that is claimed to be Scientific or made to appear scientific but does not adhere to the He instructed the graduating class that "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you've not fooled yourself, it's easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that. "^[25]

In the late 1980s, according to "Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine", Feynman played a crucial role in developing the first massively parallel computer, and in finding innovative uses for it in numerical computations, in building neural networks, as well as physical simulations using cellular automata (such as turbulent fluid flow), working with Stephen Wolfram at Caltech. The Connection Machine was a series of Supercomputers that grew out of Danny Hillis's research in the early 1980s at MIT on alternatives to the traditional Parallel processing is also another term for Parallel computing. Traditionally the term neural network had been used to refer to a network or circuit of biological neurons. A cellular automaton (plural cellular automata) is a discrete model studied in computability theory, Mathematics, Theoretical biology Stephen Wolfram (born August 29, 1959 in London) is a British Physicist, Mathematician and Businessman known for his ^[26] His son, Carl, also played a role in the development of the original Connection Machine engineering; Feynman influencing the interconnects while his son worked on the software. Carl Richard Feynman (born April 22, 1962) is a computer engineer and an author The Connection Machine was a series of Supercomputers that grew out of Danny Hillis's research in the early 1980s at MIT on alternatives to the traditional

Shortly before his death, Feynman criticized string theory in an interview: "I don't like that they're not calculating anything," he said. String theory is a still-developing scientific approach to Theoretical physics, whose original building blocks are one-dimensional extended objects called strings "I don't like that they don't check their ideas. I don't like that for anything that disagrees with an experiment, they cook up an explanation—a fix-up to say, 'Well, it still might be true. '" These words have since been much-quoted by opponents of the string-theoretic direction for particle physics.

Personal life

While researching his PhD, Feynman married his first wife, Arline Greenbaum. (Arline's name is often spelled Arlene). Arline was diagnosed with tuberculosis, a terminal illness at that time, but she and Feynman were careful, and he never contracted the disease. Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or T u' b' erculosis Bacillus --> is a common This portion of Feynman's life was portrayed in the 1996 film Infinity, which also featured Feynman's daughter Michelle in a cameo role. Infinity is a 1996 American biographical Drama film about the early life of physicist Richard Feynman. Michelle Catherine Feynman (born 1968 is the adopted daughter of physicist Richard Feynman and sister of Carl Feynman.

He was married a second time in June 1952, to Mary Louise Bell of Neodesha, Kansas; this marriage was brief and unsuccessful. Neodesha (pronounced /niˈoʊdəˌʃeɪ/) is a city in Wilson County, Kansas, United States. He later married Gweneth Howarth from the United Kingdom, who shared his enthusiasm for life and spirited adventure. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Besides their home in Altadena, California, they had a beach house in Baja California, the latter of which was purchased with the prize money from Feynman's Nobel Prize, at that time $55,000 (of which Feynman was entitled to a third). Altadena is an unincorporated Census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California approx Baja California (pronounced ˈbɑːhɑː kælɨˈfɔrnjə in English is the northernmost state of Mexico. They remained married until Feynman's death. They had a son, Carl, in 1962, and adopted a daughter, Michelle, in 1968. Carl Richard Feynman (born April 22, 1962) is a computer engineer and an author Michelle Catherine Feynman (born 1968 is the adopted daughter of physicist Richard Feynman and sister of Carl Feynman. ^[27]

Feynman had a great deal of success teaching Carl using discussions about ants and Martians as a device for gaining perspective on problems and issues; he was surprised to learn that the same teaching devices were not useful with Michelle. As an adjective the term "martian" is used to describe anything pertaining to the Planet Mars. Mathematics was a common interest for father and son; they both entered the computer field as consultants and were involved in advancing a new method of using multiple computers to solve complex problems—later known as parallel computing. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory retained Feynman as a computational consultant during critical missions. One coworker characterized Feynman as akin to Don Quixote at his desk, rather than at a computer workstation, ready to do battle with the windmills. es '''''Don Quixote''''' (, see spelling and pronunciation below fully titled es '''''El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha''''' ("The Ingenious Hidalgo Don

According to his colleague, Professor Steven Frautschi, Feynman was the only person in the Altadena region to buy flood insurance after the massive 1978 fire, predicting correctly that the fire's destruction would lead to land erosion, causing mudslides and flooding. Flood insurance denotes the specific Insurance coverage against property loss from Flooding To determine risk factors for specific properties insurers will often The flood occurred in 1979 after winter rains and destroyed multiple houses in the neighborhood. Feynman's use of insurance, an inherently future-looking device, was not only fortunate but ironic in light of his depiction of his outlook following the Manhattan Project. Feynman wrote that in the years following the development and use of the atomic bomb, whenever seeing the construction of a bridge or a new building, he was unavoidably struck by the thought that the labor was futile and in vain, as the human race would soon be undone by the bomb.

Feynman traveled a great deal, notably to Brazil, and near the end of his life schemed to visit the Russian land of Tuva, a dream that, due to Cold War bureaucratic problems, never became reality. Tyva Republic (Респу́блика Тыва́ Respublika Tyva, rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə tɨˈva Тыва Республика Tyva Respublika) or Tuva Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the ^[28] Ironically, the day after he died, a letter arrived for him from the Soviet government giving him authorization to travel to Tuva. During this period he discovered that he had a form of cancer, but, thanks to surgery, he managed to hold it off. Out of his enthusiastic interest in reaching Tuva came the phrase "Tuva or Bust" (also the title of a book about his efforts to get there), which was tossed about frequently amongst his circle of friends in hope that they, one day, could see it firsthand. Tuva or Bust! (1991 is a book by Ralph Leighton about the author and his friend Richard Feynman 's attempt to travel to Tuva. The documentary movie Genghis Blues mentions some of his attempts to communicate with Tuva and chronicles the journey when some of his friends did make it there. Genghis Blues (1999 is a Documentary film directed by Roko Belic. His attempts to circumvent the complex Soviet bureaucratic system which kept Tuva sealed, and also his attempts to write and send a letter using an English-Russian and Russian-Tuvan dictionary, as well as his earlier efforts to translate Mayan hieroglyphics, all demonstrate his life-long addiction to solving puzzles, locks, and cyphers. The Maya script, also known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently At the time, they also earned him a reputation of eccentricity.

Feynman did not work only on physics, and had a large circle of friends from all walks of life, including the arts. He took up drawing at one time and enjoyed some success under the pseudonym "Ofey", culminating in an exhibition dedicated to his work. Drawing is a Visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium He learned to play drums (frigideira) in a samba style in Brazil by dint of persistence and practice, and participated in a samba school. A drum kit (also drum set or trap set) is a collection of Drums Cymbals and sometimes other Percussion instruments such as cowbells Samba ( is one of the most popular forms of music in Brazil. It is widely viewed as Brazil's national musical style The Samba schools ( Escolas de samba in Portuguese) are Samba clubs organised in the early half of the 20th century in Rio de Janeiro Apparently Feynman did not much appreciate orchestral music, but he had a keen sense of rhythm and timing which extended to a personal timekeeping center in his brain which let him operate without ever needing a watch. In addition, he had some degree of synesthesia for equations, explaining that the letters in certain mathematic functions appeared in color for him, even though invariably printed in standard black-and-white. Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae or synaesthesiae)—from the Ancient Greek (syn meaning "with"

According to Genius, the James Gleick biography, Feynman experimented with LSD during his professorship at Caltech. James Gleick (born August 1, 1954) is an author journalist and biographer whose books explore the cultural ramifications of science and technology The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, Coeducational research university located in Pasadena ^[10] Somewhat embarrassed by his actions, Feynman sidestepped the issue when dictating his anecdotes; consequently, the "Altered States" chapter in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! describes only marijuana and ketamine experiences at John Lilly's famed sensory deprivation tanks, as a way of studying consciousness. Cannabis, also known as marijuana or marihuana, or ganja (from Hindi / Sanskrit: गांजा gānjā hemp) is a Ketamine is a drug for use in human and veterinary medicine developed by Parke-Davis (today a part of Pfizer) in 1962 John Cunningham Lilly ( January 6, 1915 &ndash September 30, 2001) was an American Physician, Psychoanalyst and An isolation tank is a lightless soundproof tank in which subjects float in salty water at skin temperature Feynman gave up alcohol when he began to show early signs of alcoholism, as he did not want to do anything that could damage his brain.

In Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, he gives advice on the best way to pick up a girl in a hostess bar. At Caltech, he used a nude/topless bar as an office away from his usual office, making sketches or writing physics equations on paper placemats. When the county officials tried to close the locale, all visitors except Feynman refused to testify in favor of the bar, fearing that their families or patrons would learn about their visits. Only Feynman accepted, and in court, he affirmed that the bar was a public need, stating that craftsmen, technicians, engineers, common workers "and a physics professor" frequented the establishment. While the bar lost the court case, it was allowed to remain open as a similar case was pending appeal.

He was unfortunate in developing two rare forms of cancer, namely Liposarcoma and Waldenström macroglobulinemia, dying shortly after a final attempt at surgery for the former. Liposarcoma is a Malignant Tumor that arises in fat cells in deep soft tissue such as that inside the thigh or in the Retroperitoneum. ^[10] His last recorded words are noted as "I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring. "^[10][29]

Challenger disaster

Feynman served on the presidential commission investigating the 1986 Challenger disaster. Space Shuttle Challenger ( NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-099 was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service STS-51-L was the twenty-fifth flight of the American Space Shuttle program, which marked the first time a civilian had flown aboard the Space Shuttle He concluded that NASA management's space shuttle reliability estimate was fantastically unrealistic. He warned in his appendix to the commission's report: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. "

Feynman was requested to serve on the Presidential Rogers Commission which investigated the Challenger disaster of 1986. The Rogers Commission Report was created by a Presidential Commission charged to investigate the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on its 10th mission STS-51-L The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster took place on January 28 1986 when ''Challenger'', a Space Shuttle operated by NASA, broke apart Feynman devoted the latter half of his book What Do You Care What Other People Think? to his experience on the Rogers Commission, straying from his usual convention of brief, light-hearted anecdotes to deliver an extended and sober narrative. What Do You Care What Other People Think? Further Adventures of a Curious Character (1988 is the second of two books consisting of transcribed and edited oral reminiscences Feynman's account reveals a disconnect between NASA's engineers and executives that was far more striking than he expected. His interviews of NASA's high-ranking managers revealed startling misunderstandings of elementary concepts.

In one example, early tests resulted in some of the booster rocket's o-rings burning a third of the way through. An o-ring, also known as a packing or a toric joint, is a mechanical Gasket in the shape of a Torus; it is a loop of Elastomer with These o-rings provided the gas-tight seal needed between the vertically stacked cylindrical sections that made up the solid fuel booster. NASA managers recorded this result as demonstrating that the o-rings had a "safety factor" of 3. Feynman incredulously explains the magnitude of this error: a "safety factor" refers to the practice of building an object to be capable of withstanding more force than it will ever conceivably be subjected to. To paraphrase Feynman's example, if engineers built a bridge that could bear 3,000 pounds without any damage, even though it was never expected to bear more than 1,000 pounds in practice, the safety factor would be 3. If, however, a 1,000 pound truck drove across the bridge and it cracked at all, the safety factor is now zero: the bridge is defective.

Feynman was clearly disturbed by the fact that NASA management not only misunderstood this concept, but in fact inverted it by using a term denoting an extra level of safety to describe a part that was actually defective and unsafe. Feynman continued to investigate the lack of communication between NASA's management and its engineers and was struck by the management's claim that the risk of catastrophic malfunction on the shuttle was 1 in 10⁵; i. e. , 1 in 100,000. Feynman immediately realized that this claim was risible on its face; as he described, this assessment of risk would entail that NASA could expect to launch a shuttle every day for the next 274 years without an accident. Investigating the claim further, Feynman discovered that the 1 in 10⁵ figure was stating what they claimed that the failure rate ought to be, given that it was a manned vehicle, and working backwards to generate the failure rate of components.

Feynman was disturbed by two aspects of this practice. First, NASA management assigned a probability of failure to each individual bolt, sometimes claiming a probability of 1 in 10⁸; that is, one in one hundred million. Feynman pointed out that it is impossible to calculate such a remote possibility with any scientific rigor. Secondly, Feynman was bothered not just by this sloppy science but by the fact that NASA claimed that the risk of catastrophic failure was "necessarily" 1 in 10⁵. As the figure itself was beyond belief, Feynman questioned exactly what "necessarily" meant in this context—did it mean that the figure followed logically from other calculations, or did it reflect NASA management's desire to make the numbers fit?

Feynman suspected that the 1/100,000 figure was wildly fantastical, and made a rough estimate that the true likelihood of shuttle disaster was closer to 1 in 100. He then decided to poll the engineers themselves, asking them to write down an anonymous estimate of the odds of shuttle explosion. Feynman found that the bulk of the engineers' estimates fell between 1 in 50 and 1 in 100. Not only did this confirm that NASA management had clearly failed to communicate with their own engineers, but the disparity engaged Feynman's emotions. When describing these wildly differing estimates, Feynman briefly lapses from his damaging but dispassionate detailing of NASA's flaws to recognize the moral failing that resulted from a scientific failing: he was clearly upset that NASA presented its clearly fantastical figures as fact to convince a member of the public, schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, to join the crew. Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe ( September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986) was an American teacher from Concord New Hampshire Feynman was not uncomfortable with the concept of a 1/100 risk, but felt strongly that the recruitment of laypeople required an honest portrayal of the real risk involved.

Feynman's investigation eventually suggested to him that the cause of the Challenger explosion was the very part to which NASA management so mistakenly assigned a safety factor. The o-rings were rubber rings designed to form a seal in the shuttle's solid rocket boosters, preventing the rockets' super-heated gas from escaping and damaging other parts of the vehicle. Feynman suspected that despite NASA's claims, the o-rings were unsuitable at low temperatures and lost their resilience when cold, thus failing to expand and maintain a tight seal when rocket pressure distorted the structure of the solid fuel booster. Feynman's suspicions were corroborated by General Kutyna, also on the commission, who cunningly provided Feynman with a broad hint by asking about the effect of cold on o-ring seals after mentioning that the temperature on the day of the launch was far lower than had been the case with previous launches: below freezing at 28 or 29 Fahrenheit (-2. General (ret Donald J Kutyna (born December 6, 1933 in Chicago) is a retired United States Air Force Officer. Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736 a German Physicist who proposed it in 1724 2 to -1. 6 °C); previously, the coldest launch had been at 53 °F (12 °C). The Celsius Temperature scale was previously known as the centigrade scale.

Feynman obtained samples of the seals used on the Challenger by dismantling a model supplied to the commission, intending to test the resilience of the seals at low temperature in front of the TV cameras, but in an act that he claims to have been ashamed of, ran the test first in private to ensure that it was indeed the case that low temperature reduced the resilience of the rubber as he suspected.

When testifying before Congress, Feynman questioned a NASA manager with seeming innocence, focusing on the cold temperatures that the o-rings could be subjected to while remaining resilient (i. e. , effective). The NASA manager insisted that o-rings would retain their resilience even in extreme cold. But Feynman managed to obtain a glass of iced water, and used it to cool a section of o-ring seal clamped flat with a small clamp he had purchased earlier at a hardware store.

After receiving repeated assurances that the o-rings would remain resilient at subzero temperatures, and at an opportune moment selected by Kutyna during a particular NASA slide-show, Feynman took the o-ring out of the water and removed the vise, revealing that the o-ring remained flattened, demonstrating a lack of resilience at 39. 2 °F (4 °C), warmer than the launch temperature. ^[30] While Feynman worried that the audience did not realize the importance of his action, The New York Times picked the story up, crediting Feynman for his ruse, and earning him a small measure of fame.

Feynman's investigations also revealed that there had been many serious doubts raised about the o-ring seals by engineers at Morton Thiokol, which made the solid fuel boosters, but communication failures had led to their concerns being ignored by NASA management. Thiokol (variously Thiokol Chemical Company, Morton-Thiokol Inc He found similar failures in procedure in many other areas at NASA, but singled out its software development for praise due to its rigorous and highly effective quality procedures which were under threat from NASA management which wished to reduce testing to save money since the tests were always passed.

Based on his experiences with NASA's management and engineers, Feynman concluded that the serious deficiencies in NASA management's scientific understanding, the lack of communication between the two camps, and the gross misrepresentation of the shuttle's dangers, required that NASA take a hiatus from shuttle launches until it could resolve its internal inconsistencies and present an honest picture of the shuttle's reliability. Management (covering theory practice and scope of management and Manager' (covering the people who manage might help clarify and systematise An engineer is a person professionally engaged in a field of Engineering. Communication is the process of conveying information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood the same way Feynman soon found that, while he respected the intellects of his fellow Commission members, they universally finished their criticisms of NASA with clear affirmations that the Challenger disaster should be addressed by NASA internally, but that there was no need for NASA to suspend its operations or to receive less funding. Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing analyzing and evaluating ideas Feynman felt that the Commission's conclusions were not compatible with its findings, and could not in good conscience recommend that such a deeply flawed organization should continue without a suspension of operations and a major overhaul. Industrial and Organizational Psychology (also known as I/O psychology, work psychology, work and organizational psychology, occupational psychology, His fellow commission members were alarmed by Feynman's dissension, and it was only after much petitioning that Feynman's minority report was included at all: as an appendix to the official document. ^[31]

Feynman's book What Do You Care What Other People Think? included a copyedited version of the appendix in addition to his narrative account.

It was announced in May 2006 that a movie would be made about the disaster. Challenger (2008) is to be directed by Philip Kaufman—whose 1983 film The Right Stuff chronicled the early history of the space program—and would focus on the role of Feynman in the ensuing investigation. Philip Kaufman (born October 23, 1936) is an American Film director and Screenwriter from Chicago Illinois. The Right Stuff ( is a film adaptation of Tom Wolfe 's book The Right Stuff, about the Test pilots who were involved in high-speed David Strathairn will play Feynman. David Russell Strathairn (born January 26 1949) is an Academy Award -nominated American Film, Television, and stage ^[32]

Commemorations

First-day covers for the American Scientists commemorative stamp set.

On May 4, 2005 the United States Postal Service issued the American Scientists commemorative set of four 37-cent self-adhesive stamps in several configurations. Events 1256 - The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The scientists depicted were Feynman, John von Neumann, Barbara McClintock, and Josiah Willard Gibbs. Barbara McClintock (June 16 1902 – September 2 1992 the 1983 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, was an American scientist and one of the world's most distinguished Josiah Willard Gibbs ( February 11, 1839 &ndash April 28, 1903) was an American theoretical Physicist, Chemist Feynman's stamp, sepia-toned, features a photograph of a 30-something Feynman and eight small Feynman diagrams.

The main building for the Computing Division at Fermilab, the FCC, is named in his honor: The "Feynman Computing Center". Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory ( Fermilab) located in Batavia near Chicago, Illinois, is a U

See also

Notes

References

• The Character of Physical Law, The 1964 Messenger Lectures, MIT Press, 1967, ISBN 0-262-56003-8
• Quantum Electrodynamics, Addison Wesley, 1985, ISBN 0-8053-2501-8
• Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics: The 1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures, Cambridge University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-521-34000-4
• Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher, Perseus Books, 1994, ISBN 0-201-40955-0
• Six Not So Easy Pieces: Einstein’s Relativity, Symmetry and Space-Time, Addison Wesley, 1997, ISBN 0-201-15026-3
• Richard Feynman: A Life in Science, Gribbin, John and Mary. Dutton 1997. ISBN 0-525-94124-X

Further reading

The Feynman Lectures on Physics are perhaps his most accessible work for anyone with an interest in physics, compiled from lectures to Caltech undergraduates in 1961-64. The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynman's most accessible technical work The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, Coeducational research university located in Pasadena As news of the lectures' lucidity grew, a number of professional physicists and graduate students began to drop in to listen. Co-authors Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands, colleagues of Feynman, edited and illustrated them into book form. The work has endured, and is useful to this day. They were edited and supplemented in 2005 with "Feynman's Tips on Physics: A Problem-Solving Supplement to the Feynman Lectures on Physics" by Michael Gottlieb and Ralph Leighton (Robert Leighton's son), with support from Kip Thorne and other physicists. Kip Stephen Thorne (born June 1, 1940) is an American theoretical physicist, known for his prolific contributions in gravitation physics

Books by Feynman

• Selected Papers of Richard Feynman: With Commentary by Richard Feynman and Laurie M. Brown, World Scientific Series in 20th Century Physics, 2000. ISBN 978-9810241315
• The Character of Physical Law, adapted from the 1964 Messenger Lectures Feynman delivered at Cornell and aimed at a popular audience. The Character of Physical Law is a 1964 book written by physicist Richard Feynman, containing a series of lectures which he gave to students concerning MIT Press, 1965.
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton (contributor), Edward Hutchings (editor), W W Norton, 1984, ISBN 0-393-01921-7
• QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, Richard Feynman, Princeton University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-691-08388-6
• What Do You Care What Other People Think?, Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton (contributor), W W Norton, 1988, ISBN 0-553-17334-0
• The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist, Richard Feynman, Perseus Publishing, 1999, ISBN 0738201669. Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman! is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize -winning Physicist Richard Feynman. QED The Strange Theory of Light and Matter is an adaptation for the general reader of four Lectures on Quantum electrodynamics (QED by Richard Feynman The Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. What Do You Care What Other People Think? Further Adventures of a Curious Character (1988 is the second of two books consisting of transcribed and edited oral reminiscences
• The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman, edited by Jeffrey Robbins, Perseus Books, 1999, ISBN 0738201081. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a collection of short works from American Physicist Richard Feynman, including interviews speeches lectures
• "The Principle of Least Action in Quantum Mechanics. " (1942) PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. Publication: Dissertation. Published by World Scientific, 2005, under the title Feynman's Thesis: a New Approach to Quantum Theory, edited by Laurie M. Brown. ISBN 978-9812563804
• Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character, edited by Ralph Leighton, W. W. Norton, 2005, ISBN 0-393-06132-9. Chronologically reordered omnibus volume of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think?, with a bundled CD containing one of Feynman’s signature lectures. Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman! is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize -winning Physicist Richard Feynman. What Do You Care What Other People Think? Further Adventures of a Curious Character (1988 is the second of two books consisting of transcribed and edited oral reminiscences
• Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman, edited by Michelle Feynman, foreword by Timothy Ferris, Basic Books, 2005, ISBN 0-7382-0636-9 (Published in the UK under the title: Don't You Have Time to Think?, edited and with additional commentary by Michelle Feynman, Allen Lane, 2005, ISBN 0-7139-9847-4)
• Feynman Lectures on Computation, edited by Tony Hey and Robin W. Allen, Perseus Books Group, 2000, ISBN 0738202967

About Feynman

• Physics Today, American Institute of Physics magazine, February 1989 Issue. (Vol. 42, No. 2. ) Special Feynman memorial issue containing non-technical articles on Feynman's life and work in physics.
• Most of the Good Stuff: Memories of Richard Feynman, edited by Laurie M. Brown and John S. Rigden, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1993, ISBN 0883188708. Commentary by Joan Feynman, John Wheeler, Hans Bethe, Julian Schwinger, Murray Gell-Mann, Daniel Hillis, David Goodstein, Freeman Dyson, Laurie Brown.
• Disturbing the Universe, Freeman Dyson, Harper and Row, 1979, ISBN 0-06-011108-9. Freeman John Dyson FRS (born December 15, 1923) is an English-born American theoretical Physicist and Mathematician, famous for his Dyson’s autobiography. The chapters “A Scientific Apprenticeship” and “A Ride to Albuquerque” describe his impressions of Feynman in the period 1947-48 when Dyson was a graduate student at Cornell.
• QED and the Men Who Made It: Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga (Princeton Series in Physics), Silvan S. Schweber, Princeton University Press, 1994, ISBN 0691036853.
• Feynman's Rainbow: A Search For Beauty In Physics And In Life, by Leonard Mlodinow, Warner Books, 2003, ISBN 0-446-69251-4 Published in the United Kingdom as Some Time With Feynman.
• The Feynman Processor: Quantum Entanglement and the Computing Revolution, Gerard J. Milburn, Perseus Books, 1998 ISBN 0-7382-0173-1
• Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, James Gleick, Pantheon, 1992, ISBN 0679747044
• The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, Jagdish Mehra, Oxford University Press, 1994, ISBN 0198539487
• No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman, edited by Christopher Sykes, W W Norton & Co Inc, 1994, ISBN 0393036219.
• Richard Feynman: A Life in Science, John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin, Dutton Adult, 1997, ISBN 052594124X
• Infinity, a movie directed by Matthew Broderick and starring Matthew Broderick as Feynman, depicting Feynman's love affair with his first wife and ending with the Trinity test. 1996.
• "Clever Dick", Crispin Whittell, Oberon Books, 2006 (play)
• "QED", Peter Parnell (play).
• "THE PLEASURE OF FINDING THINGS OUT: Autobiography of RICHARD FEYNMAN" Nobel laureate and theoretical physicist extraordinary. BBC2 HORIZON/NOVA (50 mins) Christopher Sykes Productions http://www.sykes.easynet.co.uk/

Articles by Feynman

• "Space-Time Approach to Quantum Electrodynamics," Physical Review, 1949
• "An Operator Calculus Having Applications in Quantum Electrodynamics," Physical Review, 1951
• JA Wheeler, RP Feynman, "Interaction with the Absorber as the Mechanism of Radiation," Reviews of Modern Physics, 1945
• JA Wheeler, RP Feynman, "Classical Electrodynamics in Terms of Direct Interparticle Action," Reviews of Modern Physics, 1949
• "Relativistic Cut-Off for Quantum Electrodynamics," Physical Review, 1948
• M Cohen, RP Feynman, "Theory of Inelastic Scattering of Cold Neutrons from Liquid Helium," Physical Review, 1957
• "The λ-Transition in Liquid Helium," Physical Review, 1953 - APS
• "Plenty of Room at the Bottom," Presentation to American Physical Society, Dec, 1959
• RP Feynman, FL Vernon, RW Hellwarth - J. Physical Review (frequently abbreviated as Phys Rev) is one of the oldest and most-respected Scientific journals publishing research on all aspects of Physical Review (frequently abbreviated as Phys Rev) is one of the oldest and most-respected Scientific journals publishing research on all aspects of The Reviews of Modern Physics is a journal of the American Physical Society. The Reviews of Modern Physics is a journal of the American Physical Society. Physical Review (frequently abbreviated as Phys Rev) is one of the oldest and most-respected Scientific journals publishing research on all aspects of Physical Review (frequently abbreviated as Phys Rev) is one of the oldest and most-respected Scientific journals publishing research on all aspects of Physical Review (frequently abbreviated as Phys Rev) is one of the oldest and most-respected Scientific journals publishing research on all aspects of , "Geometric representation of the Schrodinger equation for solving maser equations," Appl. Phys, 1957
• Feynman & Kleinert (1986), “Effective classical partition functions.”, Phys. Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar) Rev. , A 34 (6): 5080-5084, December 1986, PMID:9897894, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9897894> 
• Feynman (1974), “Structure of the Proton.”, Science 183 (4125): 601-610, 1974 February 15, PMID:17778830, doi:10.1126/science.183.4125.601, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17778830> 
• Feynman (1966), The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics., vol. PMID is an Acronym for PubMed Identifier or more specifically PubMed Unique Identifier which is a unique number assigned to each PubMed Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. Science is the Academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is considered one of the world's most prestigious Scientific Events 590 - Khosrau II is crowned as king of Persia 1637 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor PMID is an Acronym for PubMed Identifier or more specifically PubMed Unique Identifier which is a unique number assigned to each PubMed A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document. Year 1966 ( MCMLXVI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. 153 (published 1966 August 12), pp. Events 1099 - First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon - Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid 699-708, PMID:17791121, doi:10.1126/science.153.3737.699, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17791121> 
• EDGAR, R S; FEYNMAN, R P; KLEIN, S & LIELAUSIS, I (1962), “Mapping experiments with r mutants of bacteriophage T4D.”, Genetics 47: 179-86, 1962 February, PMID:13889186, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13889186> 
• Feynman (1956), “Science and the Open Channel.”, Science 123 (3191): 307, 1956 February 24, PMID:17774518, doi:10.1126/science.123.3191.307, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17774518> 

Audio recordings

• Safecracker Suite (a collection of drum pieces interspersed with Feynman telling anecdotes)
• Los Alamos From Below (talk given by Feynman at Santa Barbara on February 6, 1975)
• Six Easy Pieces (original lectures upon which the book is based)
• Six Not So Easy Pieces (original lectures upon which the book is based)
• The Feynman Lectures on Physics: The Complete Audio Collection
  • Quantum Mechanics, Volume 1
  • Advanced Quantum Mechanics, Volume 2
  • From Crystal Structure to Magnetism, Volume 3
  • Electrical and Magnetic Behavior, Volume 4
  • Feynman on Fundamentals: Energy and Motion, Volume 5
  • Feynman on Fundamentals: Kinetics and Heat, Volume 6
  • Feynman on Science and Vision, Volume 7
  • Feynman on Gravity, Relativity and Electromagnetism, Volume 8
  • Basic Concepts in Classical Physics, Volume 9
  • Basic Concepts in Quantum Physics, Volume 10
  • Feynman on Science and Vision, Volume 11
  • Feynman on Sound, Volume 12
  • Feynman on Fields, Volume 13
  • Feynman on Electricity and Magnetism, Part 1, Volume 14
  • Feynman on Electricity and Magnetism, Part 2, Volume 15
  • Feynman on Electromagnetism, Volume 16
  • Feynman on Electrodynamics, Volume 17
  • Feynman on Flow, Volume 18
  • Masers and Light, Volume 19
  • The Very Best Lectures, Volume 20
• Samples of Feynman's drumming, chanting and speech are included in the songs "Tuva Groove (Bolur Daa-Bol, Bolbas Daa-Bol)" and "Kargyraa Rap (Dürgen Chugaa)" on the album Back Tuva Future, The Adventure Continues by Kongar-ool Ondar. PMID is an Acronym for PubMed Identifier or more specifically PubMed Unique Identifier which is a unique number assigned to each PubMed A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document. Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Genetics (not to be confused with the Indian publication Journal of Genetics) is a monthly Scientific journal publishing investigations bearing PMID is an Acronym for PubMed Identifier or more specifically PubMed Unique Identifier which is a unique number assigned to each PubMed Year 1956 ( MCMLVI) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Science is the Academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is considered one of the world's most prestigious Scientific Events 303 - Galerius, Roman Emperor, publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the PMID is an Acronym for PubMed Identifier or more specifically PubMed Unique Identifier which is a unique number assigned to each PubMed A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats the combined army of Pompeian followers and Numidians under Metellus Scipio Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Kongar-ool Ondar ( Коңар-өл Ондар) is a master Tuvan throatsinger and a member of the Tuvan Parliament (Great Khural The hidden track on this album also includes excerpts from lectures without musical background. In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes secret track) is a piece of music which has been placed on a Compact disc, audio cassette

Video recordings

• The Messenger Lectures (1964) (See also the book The Character of Physical Law)
  • The Law of Gravitation
  • The Relation of Mathematics to Physics
  • The Great Conservation Principles
  • Symmetry in Physical Law
  • The Distinction of Past and Future
  • Probability and Uncertainty - The Quantum Mechanical View of Nature
  • Seeking New Laws
• Take the world from another point of view [videorecording] / with Richard Feynman; Films for the Hu (1972)
• QED in New Zealand (1979)
• Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics (1986)
• The Last journey of a genius [videorecording] / a BBC TV production in association with WGBH Boston (1989)

External links

Primary sources

• The Online Archive of California
• Guide to the Papers of Richard Phillips Feynman, 1933-1988
• The Caltech Institute Archives
• Feynman at The Caltech Institute Archives

Other material

• The Feynman Lectures Website
• About Richard Feynman
• Feynman's Scientific Publications
• A Biography of R. P. Feynman as a mathematician
• Gallery of Drawings by Richard P. Feynman
• Quotes by Richard Feynman
• The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: A 49-minute BBC Horizon TV programme from the 1980s in which Feynman reminisces about his life and work. The Character of Physical Law is a 1964 book written by physicist Richard Feynman, containing a series of lectures which he gave to students concerning
• Edge-video: Murray Gell-mann reminisces about Feynman's personal eccentricities