"Richard P. Feynman"
It was 1947, Freeman Dyson met with Richard P. Feynman and named him “half
genius and half buffoon” in a letter to his parents. Actually it was precisely
true. He was not only the seemingly clown but also the one of the finest
physicists of all the time.
Feynman was born to Lucille Feynman and Melville Arthur Feynman in Far Rockaway,
Queens, New York City on 11th of May, 1918. He had been taught to take
independent opinions in the early age.
He worked on quantum electrodynamics and received his Ph.D. in 1942 at MIT. His
prowess in physics is astounding and astonishing. That’s why he was offered to
work on Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, where he joined Hans Bethe.
He married to Arline Greenbaum but she died of tuberculosis in 1946. Feynman was
at Los Alamos at that time. Feynman went to Caltech in 1951 where he lived until
his last breath.
He repaired radios as a youth. In his autobiography “Surely You're Joking, Mr.
Feynman!” he wrote:
One day I got a telephone call: "Mister, are you Richard Feynman?"
"Yes."
"This is a hotel. We have a radio that doesn't work, and would like it repaired.
We understand you might be able to do something about it."
"But I'm only a little boy," I said. "I don't know how--"
"Yes, we know that, but we'd like you to come over anyway."
And yes, he did it.
Feynman was a dignified professor. It was his commitment and passion which made
him the great Richard P. Feynman. He often said to himself, “At least I’m
living, at least I’m doing something; I’m making some contribution.” Though it
was a psychological act but it worked.
To teach elementary concepts was just a fun and an act of delight for Feynman.
But thinking of something new pleased him. He was in search of something new. He
wanted to find modern ways to look at.
In the postwar era, when research style had changed, pragmatism was taking its
final breaths, Feynman emerged himself as an influential and iconoclastic
figure. He formulated quantum electrodynamics in his path integral approach.
Path integral formulation is used to describe quantum mechanics by generalizing
the action principles of classical mechanics.
Paul Dirac extended his approach but he was unable to do a precise calculation
of sum over paths. But Feynman solved it and took it to new heights.
In 1948, Feynman realized a great simplicity. He introduced a pictorial
representation to express mathematical expressions for subatomic particles. He
introduced Feynman Diagrams. These were the set of rules for writing the results
without deriving each one. It changed the every inch of particle physics. One
can easily apply it to each new theory of this field.
Now the year of “something special” came. Feynman enthralled the physicists of
all castes and creeds. In 1965, Royal Society elected him as a foreign member.
In the same year, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced to award Nobel
Prize in Physics to Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger and Richard P. Feynman
for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing
consequences for the field of elementary particles.
Besides that he was a physicist, he was also an artist. I would like to call him
a “magical artist” or “artistic magician”. He knew how to handle the thicket of
mathematical physics, how to evolve into the essence of a theory. He was also
well known to play with words.
He played jokes on his classmates, who can forget the usage of French Curve
during a mechanical drawing class at MIT. One cannot unnoticed hi anecdote. He
revealed himself, his early talent with a brain trained to follow a flexible
path of thoughts. One can easily admired himself as an influential physicist and
an unforgettable artist.
Angela Carter said that “Nothing is a matter of life and death except life and
death.” The darkness of death was waiting to absorb the lights of poppy’s lamp.
But he was full of true determination. He was like a hawk, so he neither tired
nor afraid. He was not afraid of death but he was hesitating to taste his twice.
His last words were: “I’d hate to die twice. It’s so boring”. The day was 15th
February, 1988.
He is no more with us, but his work will remain with us. This unbound wilderness
hold an uncanny fright for him but he was bestowed with passion, power and
buoyancy. He created the elixir of life out of the essence of life. And that’s
the beauty of Feynman.
Happy Birthday to You Dear Feynman. You will be remembered always.
Some of his famous quotes are:
1) It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart
you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiments, it’s wrong.
2) I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here
and there.
3) Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be
fooled.
4) The imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.
5) I think, I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.