Which Books Richard Feynman Studied From?

We all know Richard Feynman as a Nobel Prize winner and a beloved teacher whose lectures on physics are enjoyed by millions of people. It would be interesting to know how Feynman became so imaginative and curious about the world. How did Feynman learn physics and mathematics? Let's find out in this post.

When asked in an interview, if anybody could become a physicist like him, Feynman candidly replied: "Of course. I was an ordinary person who studied hard. There are no miracle people. It just happens. They got interested in this thing and they learned all this stuff."

The young Richard Feynman was largely influenced by his father, Melville Feynman, who encouraged his son to ask questions and challenge orthodox thinking. Melville was a sales manager but he always wanted to become a scientist himself.

Feynman recalled: "The most important thing I found out from my father is that if you asked any question and pursued it deeply enough, then at the end there was a glorious discovery of a general and beautiful kind."

Feynman also learned from his father the difference between knowing and understanding. For instance, you can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird.

Feynman goes on to comment: "I don't know what is the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding; they learn by some other way – by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile."

When Feynman found a subject which interested him, he was not the kind to wait for the right teacher to come along; Feynman was determined to master the topic by himself. This is how he practiced early on the art of teaching.

For example, Feynman self-studied calculus at the age of 14 by reading Calculus for the practical man. This and other books written by James Edgar Thompson, such as Algebra for the practical man intrigued him.

Table of contents. Picture credit: Melinda Baldwin

Feynman's notes were quite extensive, less wordy and more visual in nature. This habit of taking notes helped in revision. Feynman would use drawings to simplify a difficult concept, which helped him win a Nobel prize later on.

While Julian Schwinger's formulation of quantum electrodynamics was mathematically superior and far more complex to work with; Feynman's drawing approach, on the other hand, broke the whole thing down into simpler diagrams.

Feynman studied really very hard in his Caltech years too. Before giving a lecture, he would prepare late into the night. Feynman's strategy was: To study in the most undisciplined, irreverent, and original manner possible.

In other words, Feynman's ability to consume knowledge was phenomenal. He would teach it to himself and in the process discover tricks and tips to succeed in maths and physics. Thus, in short, his two secrets to success in academics: Self-learning and teaching.

Feynman was a life-long learner and no matter how long it would take him to learn on his own, he would never give up or lose hope and stayed focused till the problem at hand was resolved.

Einstein's letter sold for $1.2 million at auction

Set up at a base price of $400,000, the letter containing Einstein's most well known formula has sold for $1.2 million at an auction conducted by RR Auction.

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The letter is said to be one of the three written records of Einstein's famous equation. It was sent to Polish-American physicist Ludwik Silberstein in 1946.

In this equation, energy is equal to mass, multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. It shows that very small amounts of mass may be converted into a very large amount of energy and vice versa.

For example: In an atomic bomb, uranium is transformed into krypton and barium. Their combined mass is slightly less than the mass of the original uranium. Though the difference is small, by virtue of speed of light, the energy which is released is enormous.

During the Second World War, Einstein feared that Germans might develop an atomic weapon based upon his groundbreaking discovery.

So, despite being a long-time pacifist, Einstein wrote a letter to Franklin Roosevelt, the then President of the United States, to urge him to develop the atomic bomb before the Germans.

Thus, today, the equation is dear to not only physicists but also to history lovers. Auction of the letter began on 13 May and its rarity set off a bidding war among five parties.

Sold for more than $1.2 million, the letter has garnered about three times more money than it was expected to get.

Who discovered that we are made from star stuff?

Astronomer Carl Sagan popularized the phrase "We are made of star stuff" when he said: Nitrogen in our DNA, calcium in our teeth, iron in our blood and carbon in our food; were made in the interiors of collapsing stars.

However, most people wouldn't know the name of that scientist who actually found it out. It was German American physicist Hans Bethe (1906-2005) who wrote it in a paper titled "Energy Production in Stars" as early as in 1939.

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In 1930s, at the time when European scientists were debating quantum mechanics, Bethe migrated to United States and contemplated the stars. He thus became the first person to figure out that conversion of hydrogen into helium was the primary source of energy in a star.

The process is called nuclear fusion in which many nuclei combine together to make a larger one. It so happens that the resultant nucleus is smaller in mass than the sum of the ones that made it. So, by virtue of Einstein's equation E=mc², the mass is converted to energy.

When a star would eventually run out of hydrogen (its primary fuel) it would start converting helium into carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and so on, in order to keep itself hot.

However, those reactions themselves will halt at some point and the star would no longer be able to support itself against its own gravity and it will die in an explosion.

Therefore, it was proposed that most of the material that we're made from, came out of the dead stars which spewed out those chemical elements into the universe for further use. Hence, we are made of star stuff.

Bethe's groundbreaking paper not only helped in understanding the inner workings of the stars but also solved the age-old questions like: 'How do stars shine?' 'Where did the chemical elements come from?'

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He won the 1967 Nobel Prize in physics for this theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. Bethe would continue to do research on supernovae, neutron stars, black holes and other problems of astrophysics well into his late nineties.

Carl Sagan and Hans Bethe share the stage at Cornell

Now, Carl Sagan, who was earlier at Harvard University, joined Cornell in 1976 and became immediate colleagues with Hans Bethe who had been at Cornell since coming to America in 1935. While Bethe was a professor of physics, Sagan was a professor of Astronomy.

It was unfortunate that the general public still did not know about stellar nucleosynthesis despite Bethe discovering it some 40 years ago and winning the highest prize for it a decade ago. Carl Sagan changed this.

Their common interests in science and politics brought them even closer. Bethe was also a fan of Sagan's 1980 show Cosmos: A personal voyage. In one of the episodes, when Sagan said "We are made of star stuff", he immortalized Bethe's work in television history.

7 Lessons To Learn From Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) was a Nobel Prize winning American physicist whose life was a combination of his intellect, uncertainty and a childlike curiosity.

Although he was a late talker and did not speak until after his third birthday, we know Feynman best as the chatty one.

His life is a story of constant growth: First, as a student, then as an eminent physicist and ultimately as a beloved teacher. Following are seven motivating lessons from Feynman's life.

1. Pursue a hobby

Feynman has said: "Fall in love with some activity and do it. Because, nobody ever figures out what life is all about and it doesn't matter." Feynman used to draw on canvas in spare time. He also learned Portuguese just so he could impress his colleagues in Brazil.

2. Explore the world

Everyone wants to win but no one wants to play the game. That's what Feynman meant when he said: "Everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough." Try new things and work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best.

3. Carve your own path

The essence of Feynman's autobiography is: "Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do." Don't care about what others think. However, keep up some kind of a minimum, such as a degree, so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all.

4. Keep learning

Feynman has said: "It is important to admit when you do not know." There is no shame in not knowing. The only shame is when you pretend that you know everything. So, read as many books as you can. Be as practical as you need to be.

5. You only live once

Feynman was the first to profess this popular life mantra when he said: "Of course, you only live one life. So, make all your mistakes now, and learn what not to do." Thus, life is a process of constantly growing up.

6. Blind belief is dangerous

Feynman mentions in his autobiography: "Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead ask yourself, Is it reasonable?" In other words, do not blindly believe anyone and make up your own mind about the world.

7. Enjoy the process

Feynman did not become a scientist for honors or recognition. He said: "My interest in science is to simply find out more about the world." So, no matter what you choose to become in life, do it because you love it deeply.

Engineer Who Won The Nobel Prize Twice In Physics

Winning the Nobel Prize once is no easy feat let alone winning it twice! The first ever person to do win the Nobel Prize twice was celebrated chemist and physicist Marie Curie as many of you might already know.

Similarly, John Bardeen has won the prestigious prize for physics not once but twice! If you ever watched The Big Bang Theory, a show in which engineering as a field is consistently made fun of, it might come off as surprising that Bardeen was an engineer by education and profession.

John Bardeen (1908-1991) completed his bachelor and master degrees in electrical engineering in 1928 and 1929 respectively. He was then employed by Gulf Oil Corporation where he worked for four years.

However, his love for physics was intact and urged him to go back to school. Therefore, he enrolled at Princeton University to study physics and mathematics in 1933.

There he wrote a thesis on solid-state physics under the guidance of Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner. After graduating in 1935, he was chosen as Junior Fellow at Harvard University, a position he held for three years.

In 1939, the second world war broke out and John could no longer facilitate his individual research interests. The big break came after the war in October 1945 when he started working at Bell Labs.

Along with colleagues William Shockley and Walter Brattain, John invented the first transistor in 1947. Their relationship, however, soured when Shockley tried to take most of the credit for the invention.

Replica of the first transistor

Shockley prevented both Bardeen and Brattain from working any further on the transistor technologies. So, John left Bell Labs in 1951 and accepted an offer from the University of Illinois to study superconductivity.

In 1956, he shared the Nobel Prize in physics with Shockley and Brattain for their work on the transistor. Today, as you might know, most of computing technologies are unimaginable without the transistor.

When Bardeen brought only one of his three children to the prize distribution ceremony, the King of Sweden ridiculed him, to which Bardeen candidly replied: "Next time I will bring them all to Sweden."

In 1957, John wrote a theory of superconductivity along with Leon Cooper and John Schrieffer. It ushered a new era of transportation and medical technologies such as MagLev and MRI respectively.

15 years later, John kept the promise he made to the King of Sweden when he took his three children to the Nobel Prize distribution ceremony in 1972.

John stayed as a professor of engineering at University of Illinois until 1975. In 1983, Sony corporation, which owed much of its commercial success to inventions by John, created an honorary John Bardeen professorship at the university.

It's similar to the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, a chair founded in 1663 and held by icons like Newton, Dirac and Hawking.

In a 1988 interview, when Bardeen was asked to comment on religion, he said: "I am not a religious person and so do not think about it very much." John was a very humble scientist who donated much of his Nobel Prize money. He enjoyed hosting cookouts for neighbours who were unaware of his scientific achievements.

If you make a list of people – politicians, scientists, sportspersons, etc – who have had the greatest impact on the 20th century, John's name would certainly make it to the top ten. Because, without his work, none of the modern technologies would be possible.

Oppenheimer Helped Feynman Meet His Hero

Paul Dirac and Richard Feynman were two different physicists in terms of approach. For Dirac, physics was a search of pretty mathematics. Feynman, however, always began his work from observations he made in the real world.

The two physicists were also poles apart when it came to informal speaking. While Dirac was a man of extremely few words and legendarily so; Feynman on the other hand was candidly chatty.

Yet, Dirac was Feynman's idol growing up.

Their first meeting in 1946 was very brief and unproductive. Dirac asked: "Do you have an equation?" Feynman being a beginner at the time didn't and so Dirac walked away after a silence.

In 1948, Feynman got a second chance to impress Dirac, thanks to his former boss at the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer, who also happened to be close friends with Dirac.

Oppenheimer successfully organized the first postwar physics conferences in the United States and brought together the most brilliant minds of his time such as Bohr, Fermi, Dirac and Bethe.

Under Oppenheimer's direction, physicists once again tackled the greatest unsolved problems of the pre-war. Some may consider it rather ironic that the same person who headed nuclear weapons program was also the one who helped revive collaborative work in physics.

During one of the conferences arranged by Oppenheimer, Feynman gave a lecture on quantum electrodynamics and introduced to the world for the very first time, Feynman diagrams.

He drew strange, unfamiliar drawings on the blackboard; lines in different shapes—straight, dotted, and squiggly—in the course of the lecture, as intellectuals, including Dirac, looked at him in bewilderment.

Feynman had succeeded in making a mark.

Their third meeting occurred in 1962 out of which came an iconic picture of the duo. It was taken by Polish photographer Marek Holzman during the relativity conference in Warsaw. The following conversation is said to have transpired.

Feynman: Hello again. I'm Feynman.

Dirac: I'm Dirac.

Feynman (admiringly): It must be wonderful to be the discoverer of that equation (he meant Dirac equation).

Dirac: That was a long time ago. (1928)

A pause.

Dirac: What are you working on now?

Feynman: Mesons.

Dirac: Are you trying to find an equation for them?

Feynman: No; it's very hard!

Dirac: One must try.

This was their last meeting. Feynman shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in physics with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga for work done in quantum electrodynamics, a field of physics pioneered by Paul Dirac in the 1930s.

Feynman would later recall that those conferences organized by Oppenheimer were the best he had ever attended. That they were his first and the most important outings with the big men of physics.