Science Guys Episode-3: Richard P. Feynman

Source: hackaday.com

“Physics is like sex; sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it” - Feynman

Richard P. Feynman (Richard Phillips Feynman) was one of the revolutionary scientists of the twentieth-century and by far the coolest among his generation of Physicists. Born in New York in 1918, he had Russian and Polish genes which did contribute to his geniuses. He had a nick for Physics since his childhood and pursued this field with such coolness and ambition that he is regarded as one of the best teachers in Physics as well. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965 for his work which tied together with light, radio, electricity, and magnetism. This work revolutionized Quantum Physics and Quantum Electrodynamics and made the study of the interaction of subatomic particles easier. This work was later called “FeynmanDiagrams”.

Feynman’s high standing among physicists was not only due to his brilliance in Physics but his bold and colorful personality, not only this but he mostly used this bold personality more than physics in order to claim rightful victory in the scientific community and that is the reason, at Los Alamos during World War-2, he became the youngest group leader in the theoretical division of the Manhattan Project under the supervision of Hans Bethe. And after World War-2 at age 27 became associate professor at CornellUniversity and at 32 became full professor which was a great feat at that time and such a young age. This was the time he started working full time in Quantum Physics and went on to win a Nobel Prize in 1965.

Just like other greats like Einstein and Curies, Feynman also had a great observation of his surroundings and this is a trait of greats in his field. Hence he is the only one in the whole lot who said that coming up with Feynman diagrams was very easy. Just observing a plastic plate wobble in the air made him win a Nobel Prize.


“It was effortless. It was easy to play with these things. It was like uncorking a bottle: Everything flowed out effortlessly. I almost tried to resist it! There was no importance to what I was doing, but ultimately there was. The diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate” - “Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman”, by Richard Feynman, Copyright 1985

But this is just one prize of the lot. In addition to a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics, he won the Albert Einstein Award, Niels Bohr International Gold Medal, Atomic Energy Commission's E.O. Lawrence Award, National Medal, and Orsted Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers, a prize of which he was especially proud due to his love in teaching.

Feynman’s love for teaching pertains throughout his teaching career. He was viewed as a great teacher not only because of his brilliance but due to his approach especially in a dry subject in Physics.  Feynman’s lectures at Caltech evolved into the books like Quantum Electrodynamics and The Theory of Fundamental Processes. In 1961, he began reorganizing and teaching the introductory physics course at Caltech and recorded as video lectures which later on were published as The Feynman Lectures on Physics and were written as a book as well.  

He achieved growing popular fame after his death and most of his fame came during his illness and battle with cancer. And even today students of Physics listen to his recorded lectures. Richard P. Feynman died on February 15, 1988.




#Science #ascientificperspective #feynman #richardfeynman #feynmandiagrams #cornell #quantumphysics #physics #nobelprize

Comments

Most Popular

Liebster Award: Recognition as a Blogger

Science Guys Episode-1: Neil Degrasse Tyson