RICHARD FEYNMAN

LIFE SKETCH
Richard Feynman : (1918-1988)A scientist, A teacher, A raconteur, and A drummer

"I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next
guy”

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

These well known words are said by one of the pioneers in the field of physics without whose
commitment we can't think about the presence of "“modern quantum physics" a Nobel
physicist and an incredible realist whose commitments to the humankind has no equal.
Richard Philips Feynman a Nobel laureate once said that he was more joyful with the
suggestions and references of his research as opposed to getting a Nobel price.

Out of his outbound love and interest to different physical wonder which was made and cut
since his youth when he used to get propelled by her mom's family unit tests ,since early
youth Feynman has unmistakable fascination for mathematics , he constantly attempted to
move toward science in a flighty manner , he constantly inferred a great deal of enjoyment
from mathematics. He used to consider a ton of mathematics in his recreation time which
included trigonometry, differential equation and complex numbers which lead first
experience with these some time before its presentation in formal training.

He examined a great deal of science voluntarily including trigonometry, differential and

integral calculus, and complex numbers some time before he met these points in his proper
instruction. In the wake of leaving school Richard entered MIT in 1935 and got his B sc. , in
1939 , in spite of the fact that he had a distinct fascination for science however being
concerned by the absence of deliberations and absence of uses he moved his consideration
towards I numerical hypothesis of relativity , this is really what he needed from arithmetic ,
lastly he moved to material science so as to investigate increasingly about the physical
feasibility .

There was no course on quantum mechanics, a point that Feynman was quick to
contemplate, so together with a kindred undergrad, T .A. Welton, he started to peruse the
accessible messages in the spring of 1936. Coming back to their individual homes in the
late spring of 1936 the two traded a progression of exceptional letters as they attempted to
build up a form of room time.

By 1937 Feynman was perusing Dirac's the standards of quantum mechanics and
perceiving how his profoundly unique thoughts fitted into Dirac's approach. Actually Dirac
turned into the researcher who Feynman generally regarded for a mind-blowing duration.
Subsequent to finishing his lords at MIT in material science "which essentially remembered
quantum material science for a nutshell", Richard entered Princeton where His doctoral
work was managed by John Wheeler, and in the wake of finding the primary issue that
Wheeler gave him rather obstinate, he returned to thoughts he had contemplated while at
MIT. The principal course that he gave at Princeton was to a group of people which
included Einstein, Pauli and von Neumann. He got his doctorate from Princeton in 1942 yet
before this time the United States had entered World War II.

Feynman chipped away at the nuclear bomb venture at Princeton University (1941-42) and
afterward at Los Alamos (1943-45). Feynman was experiencing a troublesome individual
issue right now as his better half of numerous years was determined to have tuberculosis
and his family rejected their marriage. Not long after he was granted his doctorate
Feynman wedded Arlene with no relatives present. Soon after his marriage Feynman went
to the recently developed Los Alamos site to take a shot at the nuclear bomb venture. His
astounding capacities before long prompted him being selected as leader of the
hypothetical division. Arlene died in 1945 just before the main trial of the bomb

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

After World War II, in the autumn of 1945, Feynman was appointed as a professor of
theoretical physics at Cornell University. At first he devoted himself to teaching and put his
research aside. The pressure of the work at Los Alamos, together with the personal stress of
watching his wife's health decline, had taken its toll. He received offers of posts at other
universities but felt that as a non-researcher he could not even consider them. Suddenly the
desire to undertake research hit him again and he returned to the quantum theory of
electrodynamics that he was working on before World War II.

In 1950 Feynman accepted a position as professor of theoretical physics at the California

Institute of Technology. Since he had already planned a sabbatical leave before receiving the
offer, he was able to arrange to spend the first ten months of his new appointment in Brazil.
He remained at Cal tech for the rest of his career, being appointed Richard Chace Tolman
Professor of Theoretical Physics there in 1959.
FEYNNAMAN's CONTRIBUTION : -

1. Feynman’s main contribution was to quantum mechanics, following on from the

work of his doctoral thesis. He introduced diagrams (now called Feynman diagrams)
that are graphic analogues of the mathematical expressions needed to describe the
behavior of systems of interacting particles. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in
1965, jointly with Schwinger and Tomonoga
" for fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing
consequences for the physics of elementary particles. "
2. Other work on particle spin and the theory of 'partons' which led to the current
theory of quarks were fundamental in pushing forward an understanding of particle
physics.

FEYNMAN's BOOKS:-

Feynman's books include many outstanding ones which evolved out of lecture courses. For
example:-

1. Quantum Electrodynamics (1961)

2. The Theory of Fundamental Processes (1961),
3. The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1963-65)
4. The Character of Physical Law (1965)
5. QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985).

LAST PHASE OF LIFE :-

In early 1979 Feyman's health had deteriorated and he had surgery for stomach cancer.
This was very successful and his doctors believed that he would not suffer a recurrence.
After his recovery he enjoyed the limelight as a famous public figure, a role which was
enhanced when the book “Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman” became a surprise best seller.
His final major task was as a member of a committee set up to investigate the cause of the
explosion on the space shuttle Challenger on Tuesday 28 January 1986. The fascinating
story of the science and politics of this investigation is told in Feynman’s own words in. It
was a very difficult time for Feynman since throughout the investigation his health was
deteriorating. Near the end of 1987 cancer was found again in his abdomen. After his death,
Chandler wrote on 17 February 1988 in "Feynman, who died at the University of
California at Los Angeles Medical Center after an eight-year battle with abdominal cancer,
was a popular and energetic lecturer who, despite his illness, continued to teach at the
California Institute of Technology until two weeks ago."

LESSON LEARNT FROM FEYNMAN :-

The famous words said by Feynman:-

“If you're teaching a class, you can think about the elementary things that you know very
well. These things are kind of fun and delightful. It doesn't do any harm to think them over
again. Is there a better way to present them? The elementary things are easy to think about; if
you can't think of a new thought, no harm done; what you thought about it before is good
enough for the class. If you do think of something new, you're rather pleased that you have a
new way of looking at it"

Feynman was constantly inquisitive about the different physical marvel occurring around
us , he was constantly sharp about knowing the science behind these this instructed me to
build up an objective deduction as opposed to tolerating the words been passed on
unblemished .

•Feynman has experienced different sick and terrible periods of life viz. demise of his
significant other Arlene kicked the bucket at early age yet he constantly found an exit from
it and never got discouraged by it, this especially instructed me to have an uplifting
mentality towards the issues of life.

•Feynman was a genuine human who when envisioned about the pulverization brought
about by Atom Bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki turned out to be troubled , and took a
goals to work just for humankind not for its devastation.

•A genuine instructor , Feynman was a genuine educator who when begun instructing at
Cornell college gave himself completely towards this Nobel calling " during initial not many
long periods of his vocation as an educator he hasn't taken any examination work close by
with the idea of not bargaining with the instructing plan. “and these words can be backed by
the fact that all the books been published by his name are specifically derived from his physics
lectures , even some of them are fully copied form it”

This quality of Feynman teaches us to do justice with this noble profession.

 Feynman was even more happy when he sees that his research work in the field of
Quantum physics can be further used in various other discipline like astronomy ,
chemistry etc . Rather than receiving Nobel price, he didn’t like to be in limelight.
 Feynman was a drummer an artist and use to spend his leisure time in doing
different other things (despite being glued to Research and Development work at
laboratory). This particularly taught me of enjoying the life to the fullest with a focus
of mainstream work.