Richard P. Feynman
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Richard P. Feynman

This is a Tribute about a true Rock Star Renaissance Man, Richard Phillips Feynman, 1918-1988. Feynman rubbed shoulders with Albert Einstein, Neil Armstrong and Robert Oppenheimer.

Richard Feynman is the Rock Star of theoretical physicists who thrived on adventure, wit and mischief.

Richard Feynman – Rock Star Physicist

Feynman is one of the best known Scientists in the world.

As a portrait photographer, I love the mischievous “twinkle” in Feynman’s eyes (above image).

I bet it would be fun to shoot some atomic breeze with Feynman, over some fusion blend of single-malt whisky. As fun as the time another genius Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple Computers) and I hung out at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Feynman and Wozniak have the same prankish “twinkle” in their eyes.

In a 1999 poll of 130 leading physicist worldwide by British journal Physics World, he was ranked 7th greatest physicist of all time.

Feynman received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, jointly shared with Julian Schwinger and Shin’ichiro Tomonaga. Do read Wikipedia for a detailed account of Feynman’s life and accomplishments.

Feynman assisted in the development of the atomic bomb during World War 2 and was a valuable member of the Rogers Commission, the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

In 1943, Feynman joined Robert Oppenheimer for the Manhattan Project in the Los Alamos Laboratory, a secret laboratory on a mesa in New Mexico where atomic bombs would be designed, built and tested.

Autobiography Cover

I’m reading (and also listening to his audiobook) his delightful and amusing New York Times best-seller autobiography“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” (above image).

Although a science-based book, I love the escapades that Feynman shares – how he solves problems, how he thinks, how he interacts with friends, problematic people etc. I simply cannot put the book down.

“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” (above image) is one of the most famous science books of our time, the phenomenal national bestseller that “buzzes with energy, anecdote and life. It almost makes you want to become a physicist” (Science Digest).

First written in 1988, the book’s subsequent edition (2005) now features an Introduction by Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder.

Audiobook Cover

Perhaps instead of reading the amusing book, go listen to the humorous hard-to-stop audiobook instead, ably read by Raymond Todd (above image).

The book describes how Albert Einstein attended one of Feynman’s lectures – “The day came and Feynman started to write some physics equations on the blackboard rightly before the seminar while he was writing, Einstein entered the hall and told him, “Hello, I’m coming to your seminar. But first where’s the tea?”” Awesome, amusing anecdote!

Feynman’s opinion of Einstein“Einstein was a giant. His head was in the clouds, but his feet were on the ground. But those of us who are not that tall have to choose!”

Whilst dispensing his committee duties in the Presidential Rogers Commission investigating the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Feynman clashed several times with commission chairman William P. Rogers. During a break in one hearing, Rogers told commission member Neil Armstrong, “Feynman is becoming a pain in the ass.”

In one of the divorces with one of his wives, Mary Louise Bell, on the grounds of “extreme cruelty” – there was this official report filed by a FBI special agent to the FBI Director (see below):

” … the appointee’s wife was granted a divorce from him because of appointee’s constantly working calculus problems in his head as soon as awake, while driving car, sitting in living room, and so forth, and that his one hobby was playing his African drums.”

At Los Alamos, Feynman amused himself by meddling with the combination locks on the cabinets and desks of his fellow physicists. They either left the combination at factory settings or easily guessable dates. He found one cabinet’s combination by trying numbers he thought a physicist might use. It proved to be “27-18-28” after the base of natural logarithms , e=2.71828. He left notes in the cabinets as a prank, causing one physicist to think a spy had gained access to them.

There are many more amusing anecdotes, go read the fun autobiography.

Caltech Speech

A forefather of microtechnology and nanotechnology, in 1959 Feynman delivered his famous lecture on quantum field theory (above image) at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), published under the title, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. This lecture is frequently cited in technical literature on microtechnology and nanotechnology.

At Caltech, he once chalked on the blackboard, “What I cannot create I do not understand.”

In a talk at University of Wisconsin at Madison, Feynman quipped, “It’s great to be back at the only university that ever had the good sense to fire me.” Feynman was an assistant professor of physics at UW-M when he went on unpaid leave to join the Manhattan Project. The offer made to him to rejoin the faculty after the project had lapsed when he did not commit to returning.

Feynman is celebrated in many forms of media – movies, plays, articles and stamps.

In 2005, Feynman was featured in a “American Scientists” 37-cent stamp series with three other famous scientists by the United States Postal Service.

In the 2023 Academy Award-winning movie “Oppenheimer” directed by Christopher Nolan, Feynman was portrayed by Jack Quaid. Feynman was portrayed by Matthew Broderick in the 1996 biopic “Infinity”.

Feynman died on 15 February 1988 and was buried in Mountainview Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, California.

Feynman’s last words were, “I’d hate to die twice. it’s so boring.”