Richard Phillips Feynman
Richard Feynman, dust jacket photo for What Do You Care What Other People Think?
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	United States
Field	Physics
Institutions	Manhattan Project Cornell University California Institute of Technology
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Princeton University
Academic advisor	John Archibald Wheeler
Notable students	Al Hibbs George Zweig
Known for	Quantum electrodynamics Particle theory Feynman diagrams
Notable prizes	Nobel Prize in Physics (1965) Oersted Medal (1972)
Religion	Jewish (Athiest) [1]
Signature

Quantum mechanics

Key topics

Introduction to... Mathematical formulation of... This article is about the medical researcher. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 481 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (642 × 800 pixel, file size: 391 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Book cover pic to 1989 Bantam edition of Richard Feynmans What Do You Care What Other People Think? This image is of a book... What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character is the second of two books consisting of transcribed and edited oral reminiscences from American physicist Richard Feynman. ... is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Far Rockaway is one of the four neighborhoods on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens in the United States. ... For other uses, see Queens (disambiguation) and Queen. ... This article is about the state. ... is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Los Angeles and L.A. redirect here. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ... This article is about the World War II nuclear project. ... Cornell redirects here. ... The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech)[1] is a private, coeducational research university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... “MIT” redirects here. ... Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... John Archibald Wheeler (born July 9, 1911) is an eminent American theoretical physicist. ... Albert R. Hibbs was a noted mathematician, known worldwide as the voice of JPL. He was born in Akron, Ohio on October 19, 1924. ... George Zweig was originally trained as a particle physicist under Richard Feynman and later turned his attention to neurobiology. ... Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. ... Thousands of particles explode from the collision point of two relativistic (100 GeV per nucleon) gold ions in the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. ... In this Feynman diagram, an electron and positron annihilate and become a quark-antiquark pair. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Hannes Alfvén (1908–1995) accepting the Nobel Prize for his work on magnetohydrodynamics [1]. List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ... The Oersted Medal recognizes notable contributions to the teaching of physics. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For a less technical and generally accessible introduction to the topic, see Introduction to quantum mechanics. ... This box:      Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger, founders of Quantum Mechanics. ... The mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics is the body of mathematical formalisms which permits a rigorous description of quantum mechanics. ...

Fundamental concepts

Decoherence · Interference Uncertainty · Exclusion Transformation theory Ehrenfest theorem · Measurement Superposition · Entanglement Experiments Double-slit experiment Davisson-Germer experiment Stern–Gerlach experiment Bell's inequality experiment Popper's experiment Schrödinger's cat Equations Schrödinger equation Pauli equation Klein-Gordon equation Dirac equation Advanced theories Quantum field theory Wightman axioms Quantum electrodynamics Quantum chromodynamics Quantum gravity Feynman diagram Interpretations Copenhagen · Ensemble Hidden variables · Transactional Many-worlds · Consistent histories Quantum logic Consciousness causes collapse Scientists Planck · Schrödinger · Heisenberg · Bohr · Pauli · Dirac · Bohm · Born · de Broglie · von Neumann · Einstein · Feynman · Everett · Penrose · others

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Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988; IPA: /ˈfaɪnmən/) was an American physicist known for expanding the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, and particle theory. For his work on quantum electrodynamics, Feynman was a joint recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, together with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga; he developed a widely-used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, which later became known as Feynman diagrams. In quantum mechanics, quantum decoherence is the mechanism by which quantum systems interact with their environments to exhibit probabilistically additive behavior - a feature of classical physics - and give the appearance of wavefunction collapse. ... For other uses, see Interference (disambiguation). ... In quantum physics, the outcome of even an ideal measurement of a system is not deterministic, but instead is characterized by a probability distribution, and the larger the associated standard deviation is, the more uncertain we might say that that characteristic is for the system. ... The Pauli exclusion principle is a quantum mechanical principle formulated by Wolfgang Pauli in 1925. ... The term transformation theory refers to a procedure used by P. A. M. Dirac in his early formulation of quantum theory, from around 1927. ... The Ehrenfest theorem, named after Paul Ehrenfest, relates the time derivative of the expectation value for a quantum mechanical operator to the commutator of that operator with the Hamiltonian of the system. ... The framework of quantum mechanics requires a careful definition of measurement, and a thorough discussion of its practical and philosophical implications. ... Quantum superposition is the application of the superposition principle to quantum mechanics. ... It has been suggested that Quantum coherence be merged into this article or section. ... Slit experiment redirects here. ... In 1927 at Bell Labs, Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer fired slow moving electrons at a crystalline Nickel target. ... In quantum mechanics, the Stern–Gerlach experiment, named after Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach, is a celebrated experiment in 1920 on deflection of particles, often used to illustrate basic principles of quantum mechanics. ... In quantum mechanics, Bells Theorem states that a Bell inequality must be obeyed under any local hidden variable theory but can in certain circumstances be violated under quantum mechanics (QM). ... Poppers experiment is an experiment proposed by the 20th century philosopher of science Karl Popper, to test the standard interpretation (the Copenhagen interpretation) of Quantum mechanics. ... Schrödingers Cat: When the nucleus (bottom left) decays, the Geiger counter (bottom centre) may sense it and trigger the release of the gas. ... For a non-technical introduction to the topic, please see Introduction to quantum mechanics. ... The Pauli equation is a Schrödinger equation which handles spin. ... The Klein-Gordon equation (Klein-Fock-Gordon equation or sometimes Klein-Gordon-Fock equation) is the relativistic version of the Schrödinger equation. ... In physics, the Dirac equation is a relativistic quantum mechanical wave equation formulated by British physicist Paul Dirac in 1928 and provides a description of elementary spin-½ particles, such as electrons, consistent with both the principles of quantum mechanics and the theory of special relativity. ... Quantum field theory (QFT) is the quantum theory of fields. ... In physics the Wightman axioms are an attempt of mathematically stringent, axiomatic formulation of quantum field theory. ... Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. ... Quantum chromodynamics (abbreviated as QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction (color force), a fundamental force describing the interactions of the quarks and gluons found in hadrons (such as the proton, neutron or pion). ... Quantum gravity is the field of theoretical physics attempting to unify quantum mechanics, which describes three of the fundamental forces of nature, with general relativity, the theory of the fourth fundamental force: gravity. ... In this Feynman diagram, an electron and positron annihilate and become a quark-antiquark pair. ... It has been suggested that Quantum mechanics, philosophy and controversy be merged into this article or section. ... Early twentieth century studies of the physics of very small-scale phenomena led to the Copenhagen interpretation. ... The Ensemble Interpretation, or Statistical Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, is an interpretation that can be viewed as a minimalist interpretation. ... In physics, a hidden variable theory is urged by a minority of physicists who argue that the statistical nature of quantum mechanics implies that quantum mechanics is incomplete; it is really applicable only to ensembles of particles; new physical phenomena beyond quantum mechanics are needed to explain an individual event. ... The transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics (TIQM) by Professor John Cramer is an unusual interpretation of quantum mechanics that describes quantum interactions in terms of a standing wave formed by retarded (forward in time) and advanced (backward in time) waves. ... The many-worlds interpretation or MWI (also known as relative state formulation, theory of the universal wavefunction, many-universes interpretation, Oxford interpretation or many worlds), is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that claims to resolve all the paradoxes of quantum theory by allowing every possible outcome to every event to... In quantum mechanics, the consistent histories approach is intended to give a modern interpretation of quantum mechanics, generalising the conventional Copenhagen interpretation and providing a natural interpretation of quantum cosmology. ... In mathematical physics and quantum mechanics, quantum logic can be regarded as a kind of propositional logic suitable for understanding the apparent anomalies regarding quantum measurement, most notably those concerning composition of measurement operations of complementary variables. ... Consciousness causes collapse is the name given to the claim that observation by a conscious observer is responsible for the wavefunction collapse in quantum mechanics. ... “Planck” redirects here. ... Schrödinger in 1933, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics Bust of Schrödinger, in the courtyard arcade of the main building, University of Vienna, Austria. ... Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 – February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics and acknowledged to be one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century. ... Niels Henrik David Bohr (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962) was a Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. ... This article is about the Austrian-Swiss physicist. ... Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, OM, FRS (IPA: [dɪræk]) (August 8, 1902 – October 20, 1984) was a British theoretical physicist and a founder of the field of quantum physics. ... David Bohm. ... Max Born (December 11, 1882 – January 5, 1970) was a German physicist and mathematician. ... Louis-Victor-Pierre-Raymond, 7th duc de Broglie, generally known as Louis de Broglie (August 15, 1892–March 19, 1987), was a French physicist and Nobel Prize laureate. ... For other persons named John Neumann, see John Neumann (disambiguation). ... “Einstein” redirects here. ... Hugh Everett III (November 11, 1930 – July 19, 1982) was an American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation(MWI) of quantum physics, which he called his relative state formulation. ... Sir Roger Penrose, OM, FRS (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College. ... is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Not to be confused with physician, a person who practices medicine. ... Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. ... Superfluidity is a phase of matter characterised by the complete absence of viscosity. ... Helium exists in liquid form only at very low temperatures. ... Thousands of particles explode from the collision point of two relativistic (100 GeV per nucleon) gold ions in the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. ... Hannes Alfvén (1908–1995) accepting the Nobel Prize for his work on magnetohydrodynamics [1]. List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ... Julian Seymour Schwinger (February 12, 1918 -- July 16, 1994) was an American theoretical physicist. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... In this Feynman diagram, an electron and positron annihilate and become a quark-antiquark pair. ...

He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb and was a member of the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. 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).^[3] He held the Richard Chace Tolman professorship in theoretical physics at Caltech. The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... For further information about Challengers mission and crew, see STS-51-L. The iconic image of Space Shuttle Challengers smoke plume after its breakup 73 seconds after launch. ... Molecule of alanine used in NMR implementation of error correction. ... Buckminsterfullerene C60, also known as the buckyball, is the simplest of the carbon structures known as fullerenes. ... ... The meaning of the word professor (Latin: [1]) varies. ... Theoretical physics employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics in an attempt to explain experimental data taken of the natural world. ... California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (commonly known as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ...

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. 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. 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. Freeman Dyson once wrote that Feynman was "half-genius, half-buffoon", but later revised this to "all-genius, all-buffoon".^[4] During his lifetime and after his death, Feynman became one of the most publicly known scientists in the world. In 1959, Richard Feynman gave the first talk on nanotechnology, entitled Theres Plenty of Room at the Bottom[1]. He considered the possibility of direct manipulation of individual atoms as a more powerful form of synthetic chemistry. ... Cover of the book on quantum mechanics The Feynman Lectures on Physics, by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynmans most accessible technical work, and is considered a classic introduction to modern physics, including lectures on mathematics, electromagnetism, Newtonian physics, quantum physics, and even the relation... Surely Youre Joking, Mr. ... What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character is the second of two books consisting of transcribed and edited oral reminiscences from American physicist Richard Feynman. ... Tuva or Bust!, by Ralph Leighton, is a book about the author and his friend Richard Feynmans attempt to travel to Tuva. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Juggling can refer to all forms of artful or skillful object manipulation. ... Painting by Rembrandt self-portrait Detail from Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, in which the painter portrayed himself at work For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter. ... Bongos Bongo drums or bongos are a percussion instrument made up of two small drums attached to each other. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico The Maya script, commonly known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only deciphered script of the Mesoamerican writing systems. ... Lock picking is the art of unlocking a lock without its intended key. ... Freeman John Dyson FRS (born December 15, 1923) is an English-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, famous for his work in quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, nuclear weapons design and policy, and for his serious theorizing in futurism and science fiction concepts, including the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. ...

Biography

Richard Phillips Feynman was born on May 11, 1918,^[5] in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York.^[6] His family was Jewish and, while not ritualistic in their practice of Judaism, his parents attended synagogue every Friday. Feynman (in common with other famous physicists, Edward Teller and Albert Einstein) was a late talker; by his third birthday he had yet to utter a single word. 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. His sister Joan also became a professional physicist.^[7] is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Far Rockaway street scene Far Rockaway is one of the four neighborhoods on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens in the United States. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Edward Teller (original Hungarian name Teller Ede) (January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-born American theoretical physicist, known colloquially as the father of the hydrogen bomb, even though he did not care for the title. ... “Einstein” redirects here. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Engineering is the discipline of acquiring and applying knowledge of design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ... Joan Feynman is an astrophysicist, who made original studies of the interactions between the solar wind and the Earths magnetosphere. ...

Education

In high school he was bright, with a measured IQ of 123:^[8] high, but "merely respectable" according to biographer Gleick.^[8] He would later scoff at psychometric testing. By 15, he had mastered differential and integral calculus. Before entering college, he was experimenting with and re-creating mathematical topics, such as the half-derivative, utilizing his own notation. Thus, while in high school, he was developing the mathematical intuition behind his Taylor series of mathematical operators. 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). IQ redirects here. ... James Gleick (August 1, 1954– ) is an author, journalist, and biographer, whose books explore the cultural ramifications of science and technology. ... Differential calculus is the theory of and computations with differentials; see also derivative and calculus. ... This article deals with the concept of an integral in calculus. ... In mathematics, fractional calculus is a branch of mathematical analysis, studying the possibility of taking real number powers of the differential operator D = d/dx and the integration operator I. By powers we refer to iteration, for example in the sense that f2(x) = f(f(x)). For example, one... Series expansion redirects here. ... This article is about operators in mathematics, for other kinds of operators see operator (disambiguation). ...

Feynman attended Far Rockaway High School, a school that also produced fellow laureates Burton Richter and Baruch Samuel Blumberg.^[9] 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.^[10] He applied to Columbia University; however, because he was Jewish, and Columbia still had a quota for Jews, he was not accepted.^[11] 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. While there, Feynman took every physics course offered, including a graduate course on theoretical physics while only in his second year. 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. Attendees at Feynman's first seminar included the luminaries Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, and John von Neumann. He received a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1942; his thesis advisor was John Archibald Wheeler. 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. 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 borough of Queens, as part of the New York City Department of Education. ... 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 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases. ... Alma Mater Columbia University is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ... “MIT” redirects here. ... A bachelors degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three, four, or in some cases and countries, five or six years. ... The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate college students, awarding scholarships and cash prizes ranging from $2,500 to $250 for the top 25 students and $25,000 to $5,000 for the top five schools. ... Theoretical physics employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics in an attempt to explain experimental data taken of the natural world. ... Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... “Einstein” redirects here. ... This article is about the Austrian-Swiss physicist. ... For other persons named John Neumann, see John Neumann (disambiguation). ... Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph. ... John Archibald Wheeler (born July 9, 1911) is an eminent American theoretical physicist. ... The principle of stationary action for the Action (physics) S (a measure of the energy of the system under study) states that the variation in S is at an extremum, in symbols: where the independent variables are denoted by a set of acting at some time t. ...

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). 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. John Archibald Wheeler (born July 9, 1911) is an eminent American theoretical physicist. ... “Einstein” redirects here. ... Lev Davidovich Landau Lev Davidovich Landau (Russian language: Ле́в Дави́дович Ланда́у) (January 22, 1908 – April 1, 1968) was a prominent Soviet physicist, who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics. ...

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

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 Tuberculosis) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis. ...

The Manhattan Project

Feynman (center) with Robert Oppenheimer (right) relaxing at a Los Alamos social function during the Manhattan Project.

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. Feynman said he was persuaded to join this effort to build it before Nazi Germany. He was assigned to Hans Bethe's theoretical division, and impressed Bethe enough to be made a group leader. 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. Until his wife's death on June 16, 1945, he visited her in a sanatorium in Albuquerque each weekend. He immersed himself in work on the project, and was present at the Trinity bomb test. 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. Image File history File links Feynman_and_Oppenheimer_at_Los_Alamos. ... Image File history File links Feynman_and_Oppenheimer_at_Los_Alamos. ... J. Robert Oppenheimer[1] (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist, best known for his role as the director of the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to develop the first nuclear weapons, at the secret Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... This article is about the World War II nuclear project. ... Robert Rathbun Wilson (March 4, 1914–January 16, 2000) was an American physicist who was the youngest group leader of the Manhattan Project, a sculptor, and an architect of Fermi National Laboratory (Fermilab), where he was also the director from 1967-1978. ... This article is about the World War II nuclear project. ... The United States Army is the largest and oldest branch of the armed forces of the United States. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Hans Albrecht Bethe (pronounced bay-tuh; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005), was a German-American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. ... Robert Serber (1909 - June 1, 1997) was a physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project. ... is the 167th day of the year (168th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Sanatório Heliantia A sanatorium refers to a medical facility for long-term illness, typically cholera or tuberculosis. ... This article is about the largest city of New Mexico. ... An early stage in the Trinity fireball. ... For other uses, see Ultraviolet (disambiguation). ...

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). Later, with Nicholas Metropolis, he assisted in establishing the system for using IBM punch cards for computation. 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. Before mechanical and electronic computers, the term computer, in use from the mid 17th century, meant a human undertaking mathematical calculations. ... John George Kemeny (Kemény János) (May 31, 1926–December 26, 1992), U.S. computer scientist and educator best known for co-developing the BASIC programming language in 1964 with Thomas Eugene Kurtz. ... This article is about the programming language. ... Nicholas Constantine Metropolis (June 11, 1915 – October 17, 1999) was a Greek-American mathematician, physicist, and computer scientist. ... For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ... Punched cards (or Hollerith cards, or IBM cards), are pieces of stiff paper that contain digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. ...

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. 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. He also did theoretical work and calculations on the proposed uranium-hydride bomb, which later proved to be infeasible. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Core of a small nuclear reactor used for research. ... A combination of federal, state and private funds is providing $300 million for the construction of 13 facilities on ORNLs new main campus. ... A criticality accident (also sometimes referred to as an excursion or power excursion) occurs when a nuclear chain reaction is accidentally allowed to occur in fissile material, such as enriched uranium or plutonium. ... The uranium hydride bomb was a variant of the atomic bomb, first suggested by Robert Oppenheimer in 1939. ...

Feynman was sought out by physicist Niels Bohr for one-on-one discussions. 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 forget about anything else. Niels Henrik David Bohr (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962) was a Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. ...

Due to the top secret nature of the work, Los Alamos was isolated. 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 = 2.71828...), and found that the three filing cabinets where a colleague kept a set of atomic bomb research notes all had the same combination. He left a series of notes as a prank, which initially spooked his colleague into thinking a spy or saboteur had gained access to atomic bomb secrets (coincidentally, Feynman once borrowed the car of physicist Klaus Fuchs who was later discovered to be a spy for the Soviets). The natural logarithm, formerly known as the hyperbolic logarithm, is the logarithm to the base e, where e is an irrational constant approximately equal to 2. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... Klaus Fuchs ID badge at Los Alamos. ...

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". 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. Mathematics Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) is a current program that is building in schools around the United States. ... Native Americans redirects here. ... J. Robert Oppenheimer[1] (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist, best known for his role as the director of the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to develop the first nuclear weapons, at the secret Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. ... Berkeley Davis Irvine Los Angeles Merced Riverside San Diego Santa Barbara Santa Cruz UC Office of the President in Oakland The University of California (UC) is a public university system in the state of California. ... Sather tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ...

Feynman alludes to his thoughts on the justification for getting involved in the Manhattan project in "The pleasure of finding things out." 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, for example, 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. 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 being balanced by a juggler. (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). Cornell redirects here. ... Hans Albrecht Bethe (pronounced bay-tuh; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005), was a German-American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. ... The deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reaction is considered the most promising for producing fusion power. ... Rotation (green), Precession (blue) and Nutation (red) of the Earth Nutation is a slight irregular motion (etymologically a nodding) in the axis of rotation of a largely axially symmetric object, such as a gyroscope or a planet. ... The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech)[1] is a private, coeducational research university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... Fuld Hall The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. ...

Feynman rejected the Institute on the grounds that there were no teaching duties. Feynman found his students to be a source of inspiration and, during uncreative times, comfort. He felt that if he could not be creative, at least he could teach. Another major factor in his decision was 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 State. ...

Feynman the "Great Explainer": The Feynman Lectures on Physics found an appreciative audience beyond the undergraduate community.

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. Feynman gained great pleasure^[12] 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.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.^[13] 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. 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. Clear thinking and clear presentation were fundamental prerequisites for his attention. It could be perilous to even approach him when unprepared, and he did not forget the fools or pretenders.^[14] Richard Feynman: Cover of The Feynman Lectures on Physics Source: Amazon. ... Richard Feynman: Cover of The Feynman Lectures on Physics Source: Amazon. ... Cover of the book on quantum mechanics The Feynman Lectures on Physics, by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynmans most accessible technical work, and is considered a classic introduction to modern physics, including lectures on mathematics, electromagnetism, Newtonian physics, quantum physics, and even the relation... Alternate uses: Student (disambiguation) Etymologically derived through Middle English from the Latin second-type conjugation verb stŭdērĕ, which means to study, a student is one who studies. ... In physics, spin refers to the angular momentum intrinsic to a body, as opposed to orbital angular momentum, which is the motion of its center of mass about an external point. ... Fermi-Dirac distribution as a function of ε/μ plotted for 4 different temperatures. ... In statistical mechanics, Bose-Einstein statistics determines the statistical distribution of identical indistinguishable bosons over the energy states in thermal equilibrium. ... In particle physics, fermions are particles with half-integer spin, such as protons and electrons. ... In particle physics, bosons, named after Satyendra Nath Bose, are particles having integer spin. ... In special relativity, a light cone is the pattern describing the temporal evolution of a flash of light in Minkowski spacetime. ... It has been suggested that Rote memory be merged into this article or section. ...

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 year is a prolonged hiatus, typically one year, in the career of an otherwise successful individual taken in order to fulfill some dream, e. ... Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. ... Newtons own copy of his Principia, with handwritten corrections for the second edition. ... The intensity pattern formed on a screen by diffraction from a square aperture Diffraction refers to various phenomena associated with wave propagation, such as the bending, spreading and interference of waves passing by an object or aperture that disrupts the wave. ...

The Caltech years

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

• Quantum electrodynamics. The theory for which Feynman won his Nobel Prize is known for its accurate predictions.^[15][16] 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).^[17]

• Physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, where helium seems to display a lack of viscosity when flowing. Applying the Schrödinger equation to the question showed that the superfluid was displaying quantum mechanical behavior observable on a macroscopic scale. This helped with the problem of superconductivity; however, the solution eluded Feynman. 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). Although E.C. George Sudharsan 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. It thus combined the 1933 beta decay theory of Fermi with an explanation of parity violation.

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. 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. Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. ... The Nobel Prize (Swedish: ) was established in Alfred Nobels will in 1895, and it was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901. ... Look up forecast in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Sum-over-paths, also known as Feynman sum-over-paths, is an approach to visualizing particle movement mathematically described by the equations of quantum mechanics. ... Helium II will creep along surfaces in order to find its own level - after a short while, the levels in the two containers will equalize. ... General Name, symbol, number helium, He, 2 Chemical series noble gases Group, period, block 18, 1, s Appearance colorless Standard atomic weight 4. ... For other uses, see Viscosity (disambiguation). ... For a non-technical introduction to the topic, please see Introduction to quantum mechanics. ... A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor, cooled with liquid nitrogen. ... BCS theory (named for its creators, Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer) successfully explains conventional superconductivity, the ability of certain metals at low temperatures to conduct electricity without resistance. ... In physics, weak decay is the process of decomposing a heavier particle into lighter particles (plus energy) by means of a weak interaction. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see Electron (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Proton (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Neutrino (disambiguation). ... Ennakkal Chandy George Sudarshan (born September 16, 1931, is an Indian physicist and professor at the University of Texas, Austin. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Murray Gell-Mann (born September 15, 1929 in Manhattan, New York City, USA) is an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. ... The weak interaction (often called the weak force or sometimes the weak nuclear force) is one of the four fundamental interactions of nature. ... In nuclear physics, beta decay (sometimes called neutron decay) is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle (an electron or a positron) is emitted. ... Fermi has multiple definitions: Enrico Fermi, the physicist Fermi problem, an estimation problem designed to teach dimensional analysis, approximation, and the importance of clearly identifying ones assumptions. ... Look up Parity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Parity is a concept of equality of status or functional equivalence. ... In this Feynman diagram, an electron and positron annihilate and become a quark-antiquark pair. ... For the novel, see The Elementary Particles. ... For other uses of this term, see Spacetime (disambiguation). ... For other senses of this term, see antimatter (disambiguation). ... A positron is the antiparticle of the electron. ...

Feynman diagrams are now fundamental for string theory and M-theory, and have even been extended topologically. 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. Interaction in the subatomic world: world lines of pointlike particles in the Standard Model or a world sheet swept up by closed strings in string theory This box:      String theory is a model of fundamental physics, whose building blocks are one-dimensional extended objects called strings, rather than the zero... M-theory is a solution proposed for the unknown theory of everything which would combine all five superstring theories and 11-dimensional supergravity together. ...

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.^[18] Feynman attempted an explanation of the strong interactions governing nucleons scattering called the parton model. The parton model emerged as a rival to the quark model developed by his Caltech colleague Murray Gell-Mann. 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. For other uses of this term, see Spacetime (disambiguation). ... An abstract model (or conceptual model) is a theoretical construct that represents something, with a set of variables and a set of logical and quantitative relationships between them. ... In physics, spin refers to the angular momentum intrinsic to a body, as opposed to orbital angular momentum, which is the motion of its center of mass about an external point. ... A fundamental interaction is a mechanism by which particles interact with each other, and which cannot be explained by another more fundamental interaction. ... The strong nuclear force or strong interaction (also called color force or colour force) is a fundamental force of nature which affects only quarks and antiquarks, and is mediated by gluons in a similar fashion to how the electromagnetic force is mediated by photons. ... In particle physics, the parton was a hypothetical fundamental particle considered, in the parton model of strong interactions, to be a constituent of the hadron. ... For other uses, see Quark (disambiguation). ... Murray Gell-Mann (born September 15, 1929 in Manhattan, New York City, USA) is an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. ...

After the success of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman turned to quantum gravity. 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.^[19] 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. Quantum gravity is the field of theoretical physics attempting to unify quantum mechanics, which describes three of the fundamental forces of nature, with general relativity, the theory of the fourth fundamental force: gravity. ... For other topics related to Einstein see Einstein (disambig) In physics, the Einstein field equation or the Einstein equation is a tensor equation in the theory of gravitation. ...

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. 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. 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 a picture of him playing drums. Feynman later won the Oersted Medal for teaching, of which he seemed especially proud.^[20] 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. Cover of the book on quantum mechanics The Feynman Lectures on Physics, by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynmans most accessible technical work, and is considered a classic introduction to modern physics, including lectures on mathematics, electromagnetism, Newtonian physics, quantum physics, and even the relation... Cover of the book on quantum mechanics The Feynman Lectures on Physics, by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynmans most accessible technical work, and is considered a classic introduction to modern physics, including lectures on mathematics, electromagnetism, Newtonian physics, quantum physics, and even the relation... The Oersted Medal recognizes notable contributions to the teaching of physics. ...

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.^[21] He was also one of the first scientists to conceive the possibility of quantum computers. 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. He gave lectures which his students annotated into books, such as Statistical Mechanics and Lectures on Gravity. The Feynman Lectures on Physics^[22] required two physicists, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands as full-time editors for several years. 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. 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 Richard Feynman at the annual meeting of the Americal Physical Society in 1959. ... The Bloch sphere is a representation of a qubit, the fundamental building block of quantum computers. ... QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Alix G. Mautner Memorial Lectures) is a book by Richard Feynman consisting of four lectures which describe, for the general reader, quantum electrodynamics. ... Cover of the book on quantum mechanics The Feynman Lectures on Physics, by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynmans most accessible technical work, and is considered a classic introduction to modern physics, including lectures on mathematics, electromagnetism, Newtonian physics, quantum physics, and even the relation... Robert B. Leighton (September 10, 1919 - March 9, 1997) was an American physicist who spent his professional career at the California Institute of Technology. ...

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. 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."^[23] 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, but is missing a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty. The speech is... A typical 18th century phrenology chart. ...

In the late 1970s, according to "Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine", Feynman played a critical role in developing the first parallel processing computer and finding innovative uses for it in numerical computing and building