"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character

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Sykes, Christopher (1994). No Ordinary Genius: the Illustrated Richard Feynman. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-03621-9. OCLC 924553844. Feynman was born on May 11, 1918, in Queens, New York City, [2] to Lucille ( néePhillips; 1895–1981), a homemaker, and Melville Arthur Feynman (1890–1946), a sales manager. [3] Feynman's father was born into a Jewish family in Minsk, Belarus [4] (then part of the Russian Empire) and emigrated with his parents to the United States at the age of five. Feynman's mother was born in the United States into a Jewish family. Lucille's father had emigrated from Poland, and her mother also came from a family of Polish immigrants. She trained as a primary school teacher but married Melville in 1917, before taking up a profession. [2] [3] Feynman was a late talker and did not speak until after his third birthday. As an adult, he spoke with a New York accent [5] [6] strong enough to be perceived as an affectation or exaggeration, [7] [8] so much so that his friends Wolfgang Pauli and Hans Bethe once commented that Feynman spoke like a "bum". [7] Upon completing his studies at Princeton, Feynman goes to work with the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico (to develop the nuclear bomb). Although young and obscure at the time, he is able to work among many of the most distinguished scientists of the time—most notably Niels Bohr. Feynman, Richard (March 5, 1966). "Richard Feynman – Session III" (Interview). Interviewed by Charles Weiner. American Institute of Physics. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016 . Retrieved June 19, 2016. Feynman played an important role on the Presidential Rogers Commission, which investigated the 1986 Challenger disaster. He had been reluctant to participate, but was persuaded by advice from his wife. [177] Feynman clashed several times with commission chairman William P. Rogers. During a break in one hearing, Rogers told commission member Neil Armstrong, "Feynman is becoming a pain in the ass." [178]

With Murray Gell-Mann, Feynman developed a model of weak decay, which showed that the current coupling in the process is a combination of vector and axial currents (an example of weak decay is the decay of a neutron into an electron, a proton, and an antineutrino). Although E. C. George Sudarshan and Robert Marshak developed the theory nearly simultaneously, Feynman's collaboration with 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 Enrico Fermi with an explanation of parity violation. [141] I’ll have both, thank you,” I say, still looking for where I’m going to sit, when suddenly I hear “Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh. Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman.” Feynman, Richard P. "Appendix F – Personal observations on the reliability of the Shuttle". Kennedy Space Center. Archived from the original on May 5, 2019 . Retrieved September 11, 2017. The young Feynman was heavily influenced by his father, who encouraged him to ask questions to challenge orthodox thinking, and who was always ready to teach Feynman something new. From his mother, he gained the sense of humor that he had throughout his life. As a child, he had a talent for engineering, [9] maintained an experimental laboratory in his home, and delighted in repairing radios. This radio repairing was probably the first job Feynman had, and during this time he showed early signs of an aptitude for his later career in theoretical physics, when he would analyze the issues theoretically and arrive at the solutions. [10] When he was in grade school, he created a home burglar alarm system while his parents were out for the day running errands. [11]Feynman, Richard P. (1972). Statistical Mechanics: A Set of Lectures. Reading, Mass: W. A. Benjamin. ISBN 0-8053-2509-3. Feynman, Richard P. (1999). Robbins, Jeffrey (ed.). The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Books. ISBN 0-7382-0108-1. Feynman, Richard (March 5, 1966). "Richard Feynman – Session II" (Interview). Interviewed by Charles Weiner. American Institute of Physics. Archived from the original on May 5, 2019 . Retrieved May 25, 2017. Lauer-Williams, Kathy (October 5, 2021). "Carbon artist designs stamps". Morning Call . Retrieved June 10, 2023.

Feynman had studied the ideas of John von Neumann while researching quantum field theory. His most famous lecture on the subject was delivered in 1959 at the California Institute of Technology, published under the title There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom a year later. In this lecture he theorized on future opportunities for designing miniaturized machines, which could build smaller reproductions of themselves. This lecture is frequently cited in technical literature on microtechnology, and nanotechnology. [156] Pedagogy [ edit ] Feynman during a lectureFeynman, Richard P. (December 11, 1965). "Richard P. Feynman – Nobel Lecture: The Development of the Space–Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics". Nobel Foundation . Retrieved June 10, 2023. Feynman, Richard P.; Metropolis, N.; Teller, E. (1947). Equations of State of Elements Based on the Generalized Fermi-Thomas Theory (PDF). Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Atomic Energy Commission. doi: 10.2172/4417654. OSTI 4417654. LAWRENCE Richard P. Feynman, 196..." United States Department of Energy. December 28, 2010 . Retrieved June 10, 2023. Martin Ebers; Susana Navas, eds. (2020). Algorithms and Law. Cambridge University Press. pp.5–6. ISBN 9781108424820. SAC (Special Agent in Charge ), Washington Field Office) (January 26, 1955). "FOI Request FBI files on Richard Feynman Requested by Michael Morisy on March 12, 2012 for the Federal Bureau of Investigation of United States of America and fulfilled on March 21, 2012". p.1(324) . Retrieved June 10, 2023.