On Richard Feynman
Laura Batt
EDP 380, FALL 1997
Introduction
Physics. Love. These two words sum up the entities that Richard Feynman held
most important throughout his entire life. An extraordinary individual,
Feynman was able to combine an incredible mind with an incredible personality
to achieve ends bordering on the magical. After Feynman's death in 1988,
physicist Hans Bethe, paraphrasing the mathematician Mark Kac, spoke of two
kinds of geniuses. He explained that the ordinary kind does great things but
lets other scientists feel that they could do the same if only they worked
hard enough. The other kind performs magic. Bethe said, "A magician does
things that nobody else could ever do and that seem completely
unexpected...and that's Feynman" (Lubkin 1989, p. 23).
The calculating, Nobel prize-winning scientist contributed five decades of
field-defining work to the domain of physics; the bongo-playing, safe-cracking
lover contributed seven decades of zest-filled life to the domain of humanity.
The following is an in-depth look at this man's life and work, investigated in
an attempt to give insight into his unique creative genius. To see how well
Feynman's defining characteristics fit with those of other creative geniuses,
another investigation follows. Howard Gardner's model of creativity, as
described in his Creating Minds (1993), is used as the backdrop for this
analysis. Through these investigations, the physicist and non-physicist alike
will gain a sense of the extraordinary mind that this "half genius, half
buffoon" exercised daily--for his love of physics, and for his love of life
(Dyson 1989, p. 34).
Life
"It is impossible to understand Feynman's science properly without
understanding what kind of a person he was, and nobody put more life into
science than he did" (Gribbin 1997, p. xiiv).
Father's influence from the beginning.
Before Richard Phillips Feynman was born on May 11, 1918, his father had
proclaimed, "If it's a boy, he'll be a scientist" (Mehra 1994, p. 2). He was
right, although it is interesting to note that Feynman's sister Joan, nine
years his junior, also has a Ph.D. in physics (Feynman 1988). But while
Melville Feynman might have been wrong about predicting the careers of his
children based on their sex, he certainly prepared the young ones well for the
scientific occupation. In an interview just before his death, Feynman was
asked if he could name a great influence in his life. He said, "My father.
Early in my life, he'd tell me about the world, about nature and how
interesting it was" (Brian 1995, p. 49). The elder Feynman took his son on
long walks in the woods, read to him from the Encyclopedia Britannica, and
encouraged him to conduct experiments with household materials. Throughout
elementary school, Feynman tinkered with toys, clocks, radios, and anything
else he could secure for his laboratory, a workspace in the corner of his
bedroom. Besides influencing Feynman to think about the wonders of science
from a young age, Melville taught his son some non-scientific lessons that
would greatly impact Feynman's views on certain issues. For example, Feynman
learned from his father to show indifference to authority, and to devalue
honors and awards. Melville was in the uniform business, and knew that there
was no difference between a man with a uniform on and a man with a uniform
off, and told his son that he is the same man either way. Similarly, a title
or a medal awarded to person does not change that person in the least. These
lessons shaped attitudes that Feynman carried for the rest of his life
(Gribbin 1997).
High school and simplicity.
Feynman started at Far Rockaway High School in 1931, and excelled in all
subjects, but especially in math and science. Participating in the Math,
Chemistry, Physics, and Chess Clubs introduced Feynman to others like him who
enjoyed science and puzzle thinking. But the others were not exactly like him.
None of the others had taught themselves advanced algebra in elementary school
and calculus early in high school (Brennan 1997). Feynman's senior year
physics instructor recognized the young man's special talents, and supplied
him with an advanced calculus book to read while the other students learned
the physics Feynman already knew. From this teacher, and from his own
independent studying of the world, Feynman developed a view of simplicity
during these years that would guide him throughout his entire life. In
searching for the simplest way to approach a problem, or the simplest way to
explain a concept, or even the simplest way to go home, Feynman found himself
acting like any other object in the natural world--always seeking the path of
least resistance.
College life: science and socials.
Feynman was delighted with the social life that complemented his academic life
at M.I.T. All freshman at the school were required to join a fraternity, and
Feynman pledged Phi Beta Delta. He tutored his fraternity brothers in exchange
for lessons in dancing, dating, and other "girl-related matters" (Gribbin
1997). Having completely skipped the first year of science classes, by his
sophomore year, Feynman was enrolling himself in senior and graduate-level
physics courses--and he was excelling. He was also improving in his social
relations. Always one to enjoy the company of the opposite sex, he found
plenty of opportunities to practice his new college social skills at the
fraternity dances. One situation found him able to use his science and social
skills at once. He was trying to persuade the "fraternity fellas" that their
urine doesn't just run out because of gravity. To finally prove his point, he
peed standing on his head (Feynman, 1988).
Princeton: continuing to search for new approaches to old
problems.
Even though he had very low scores in the English and history parts of the
G.R.E., Feynman was admitted to Princeton's physics Ph.D. program because his
math and physics scores were the highest anyone on the admissions committee
had ever seen (Mehra 1994). His thesis advisor was John Archibald Wheeler; the
28-year-old was only seven years Feynman's senior. But the two got along very
well and collaborated on a number of important ideas. In between research and
coursework, Feynman found time to volunteer to be hypnotized, to experiment
with ants, to play the drums, and to date Arlene Greenbaum, his high school
sweetheart--whom he planned to marry as soon as he graduated (Feynman 1988). A
skill that Feynman cultivated during his years at Princeton was the ability to
search for and find new methods with which to attack problems. He found that
this skill helped him to better understand personal relationships as well as
physical relationships. On the personal side, he practiced wowing girls with a
variety of different tactics, although both he and Arlene knew that their
relationship was the only serious one. On the classroom side, Feynman
practiced seeking out new techniques in a course he was taking from Eugene
Wigner, who developed the abstract theory of nuclei and the notion of "Wigner
forces." Because he was not initially able to grasp some ideas important in
group theory, Wigner's special tool, "...he always had to find his own way to
understand things, something which he would often do later in his own creative
work in theoretical physics" (Mehra 1994, p. 86). Feynman graduated from
Princeton on June 6, 1942, and soon departed to Los Alamos with his fine-tuned
new approach-finding skill, his Ph.D., and his wife.
At Los Alamos: building the bomb and more.
In the early 1940's, some Princeton faculty members and Ph.D. students,
including Feynman, were asked to assist their country in World War II. They
would help by serving on a team in charge of creating an atomic weapon.
Feynman went along with it because he was concerned with rumors that Germany
might complete such a project before the United States (Gribbin 1997). But
even during such a serious time, he was able to continue to act in his now
typical Feynmanesque way, disregarding authority (here, the government) and
trying to look at every situation in the best possible way. "We were told to
be very careful--not to buy our train ticket in Princeton, for example,
because Princeton was a very small station, and if everybody bought train
tickets to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in Princeton, there would be some
suspicions that something was up. And so everybody bought their tickets
somewhere else, except me, because I figured if everybody bought their tickets
somewhere else..." (Feynman 1985, p. 110). Upon arriving at the Los Alamos
bomb-development site, Feynman soon vaulted into the position of a most
well-respected character. He impressed physicist Hans Bethe so much before the
project officially started that within a week Bethe made him a group leader in
the theoretical division. Throughout his time working on the bomb, Feynman
gained respect from many of the top minds in physics because of his openness
to new ideas, and the willingness to speak his mind. He later reflected, "I
had the problem that I had no respect for reputation or authority, something
my father had taught me" (Mehra 1994, p. 87). This "problem," allowed Feynman
to question and argue with such folks as Niels Bohr, Robert Oppenheimer,
Bethe, and others; this capacity set him apart from his colleagues, who might
have often been too afraid to speak their minds. His wife encouraged this
trait in Feynman. "It was Arlene who gave him the advice that forms the title
of his last book, What Do You Care What Other People Think?" (Wheeler 1989,
p.28). Feynman was very much in love with his young wife, and he had married
her even though she had been diagnosed with tuberculosis beforehand. Weekends
in New Mexico were spent visiting and laughing with Arlene, who was staying in
an Albuquerque hospital, until she died just before the bomb was completed.
After the Bomb: Teaching at Cornell.
Feynman was disheartened after the death of his wife and his experiences with
the bomb, and was quite depressed for some time afterwards. He was certain
that starting anything new was pointless in the face of ultimate world-wide
nuclear destruction (Feynman 1988). However, his outlook on the world
brightened as he settled into a teaching and researching routine at Cornell
University. Bethe had convinced Feynman to follow him back to Ithaca, New
York, and it was here that Feynman formulated many of his ideas on his theory
of quantum electrodynamics. These ideas would later win him the Nobel Prize
(1965). Feynman enjoyed Bethe's companionship, and had fun trading his ideas
with other scientific colleagues. But he was never one to cherish the
humanities, and thought that many of Cornell's departments were "dopey"
(Gribbin 1997). When he was offered a job at Caltech that included a
pre-contracted year-long sabbatical in Brazil, warm weather, and less dopiness
(i.e., Caltech is a science and technology-based school), he accepted happily.
The Move to Caltech.
Feynman would stay at Caltech from 1952 until his death. His physical
intuition, obvious love of science and teaching, and drum-beating antics won
him instant approval amongst most of his peers. He would dabble in a variety
of diverse fields in physics during his tenure at Caltech, would win the Nobel
Prize, and would complete work on other two projects probably also worth the
Nobel prize (Gribbin 1997). He could have finished working fervently after he
won the prestigious award in 1965; his reputation would already be enough to
win respect from his peers and students. But his true love of physics and the
"pleasure of finding things out" helped to fuel the amazing feats he continued
to accomplish right up to his death (Mehra 1994). Murray Gell-Mann, also a
Nobel Prize-winning Caltech physicist summed up Feynman's day-to-day attitude
when he commented, "He was a picture of energy, vitality, and playfulness.
That was Richard at his best. He often worked on theoretical physics in the
same way, with zest and humor" (Gell-Mann 1989, p. 50).
Two more marriages: failure with Mary Lou; rediscovery of
happiness with Gweneth.
In his time at Caltech, Feynman wed twice more. He proposed in 1952 to his
second wife, Mary Lou Bell, a girl he had met at Cornell and had happily dated
for awhile. However happy their dating might have been, it was not a happy
marriage on either end (Brennan 1997). They agreed to a divorce in 1956, on
the grounds of Feynman's "extreme cruelty," described as his obsession with
calculus and loud drumming (Gribbin 1997). Some years later, when Feynman was
40 years old, he met his third and final wife in Geneva, Switzerland. Gweneth
Howarth, the 24-year-old Englishwoman, was working as an au pair, and Feynman
spotted her spotted bikini on the beach as he was taking a break from a
particle physics convention. They would eventually fall in love, would marry
on September 24, 1960, and would stay together for the rest of their lives.
Their son, Carl, was born in 1962, and their daughter, Michelle, was adopted
in 1968. Feynman enjoyed spending time with his wife and children, and
especially loved telling them stories and traveling with them (Gribbin 1997).
The final years.
First diagnosed with cancer in 1978, Feynman was briefly put out of commission
as he endured the aftermath of surgery that removed his "football-sized
cancer." But as soon as he recovered, Feynman was back doing what Feynman
loved best: he would research, travel to other global research centers, teach,
play his bongos, and spend time with his family. A few weeks after his fourth
and final cancer operation in 1987, he was back teaching a graduate course in
quantum chromodynamics at Caltech (Gribbin 1997). His only remaining kidney
failed soon after, and Feynman went into a coma on February 1, 1988. He
briefly came out of the coma to say, "This dying is boring," and died with
these as his last words on February 15, 1988 (Gribbin 1997, p. 257).
Work
"Equally, it is impossible to understand what kind of man Feynman was without
understanding at least something of the science that was so important to him"
(Gribbin 1997, p. xiiv)
Undergraduate work at M.I.T.
As an undergraduate, Feynman demonstrated his early mastery of physics by
publishing two papers in the Physical Review, a premier American physics
journal. The first paper was the result of collaboration with an M.I.T.
professor, and investigated the nature of cosmic rays. The second was a
version of his undergraduate thesis entitled "Forces and Stresses in
Molecules." Dealing with a simplification of atom behaviors in crystals,
Feynman "very clearly" explained new ways to picture the structures, often
using "strong visual imagery" to enhance his mathematical work (Gribbin 1997,
p. 73). This ability to visualize concepts in a unique yet simple manner would
serve Feynman well for the rest of his life, and both identified and
distinguished his physics work over the next five decades.
Ph.D. thesis at Princeton.
At Princeton, Feynman had the opportunity to work with Wheeler on numerous
research problems at the cutting edge of theoretical physics. Feynman and
Wheeler enjoyed an excellent relationship as not only friend-friend and
student-teacher, but also teacher-student. After four years of intense study,
research, and fun, Feynman wrote up his thesis on the path integral approach
to quantum mechanics that he formulated on his own with very little assistance
from anybody. Quantum mechanics "...refers to the description of the behavior
of matter in all its details and, in particular, of the happenings on an
atomic scale. This behavior of matter at the atomic and subatomic level is not
easy to describe nor is it easy to envision. Feynman's method, at its
simplest, was a quantum mechanics version of the classical idea that a
particle takes the 'path of least resistance' in going from point to point"
(Brennan 1997, p. 198). Feynman created an entirely new way to view quantum
mechanics, as the only previously existing approaches were Heisenberg's
particle approach and Schrodinger's wave approach. Although it never caught on
at universities, many present-day physicists discover Feynman's method years
after their former schooling, and are amazed at its simplicity and clarity
(Gribbin 1997).
Contributions at Los Alamos.
Although one of the youngest physicists at Los Alamos, Feynman did more than
his share of work during the hectic years he spent helping to create the
atomic bomb. In addition to learning how to break into virtually all of the
safes at the compound, including those holding top-secret documents, Feynman
"...gave a series of lectures on central issues of bomb design and assembly;
supervised the critical-mass calculations; helped compute the effects of
various tamper materials in reflecting neutrons back into the reactions;
contributed to the design of both the gun method and the implosion method of
ignition; and established safety procedures" (Brennan 1997, p. 195). All the
while, he was caring for Arlene, showing off his whiz-quick math skills to all
who would watch, and dropping notes into the cracked safes that implored the
government to create safer safes.
At Cornell: Wobbling Plate's Revolutions Lead to QED Revelations.
During his short period of depression after working on the bomb, Feynman
decided that the reason he was unhappy was that he was not "playing" with
physics anymore. He originally fell in love with the subject because it lent
itself to puzzling situations--any and all of which Feynman loved to explore.
After deciding to begin once again to "play with physics," Feynman was much
happier (Mehra 1994). One day, watching a friend toss a Cornell-emblazoned
china plate in the air, he became intrigued by the relationship of the plate's
wobbling to its rotation. He decided to figure out the equations governing
motion just for fun. "There was no importance to what I was doing, but
ultimately there was. The diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel
Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate" (Feynman
1985, p. 174).
The Nobel prize.
Although Feynman did not win the prize for his theory of quantum
electrodynamics until 1965, most of his work in the field was done in his
Cornell years. Quantum electrodynamics (or QED) refers to the domain of
physics that encompasses everything between an atomic nucleus and a planet.
The two categories of extrema are handled by the domains of the very large and
the very small. But Feynman dealt with QED--the middle ground, and his aim was
"...to give a complete and accurate account of all physical properties" in
this domain (Brennan 1997, p. 198). He did so by reformulating an
understanding of QED in terms of not only the mathematics but also the
visualization of quantum happenings. Enter Feynman diagrams. In a manner that
reflects his lifelong desire to always describe events simply and succinctly,
Feynman created a method to pictorially represent nearly any interaction
encountered in QED. The diagrams are a short-hand representation of "physical
processes and the mathematical expressions used to describe them" (Gribbin
1997, p. 128). Their importance is clear in that they are still widely-used by
theoretical physicists around the world. Feynman once described his diagrams:
"You will have to brace yourself for this--not because it is difficult to
understand, but because it is absolutely ridiculous: All we do is draw little
arrows on a piece of paper...that's all" (Brennan 1997, p. 185). Those little
arrows helped him to be recognized with the 1965 Nobel Prize in physics. He
shared with two other scientists whose contributions also helped to re-invent
QED theory.
At Caltech: Physics Achievements in Diverse Fields.
Feynman continued to conduct QED research at Caltech, but widened his horizons
to such an extent that he eventually completed significant work in nearly
every major domain of modern physics. Between 1953 and 1958, Feynman published
ten papers on the properties of liquid helium. It is not surprising that this
work was defined by a new way of looking at the phenomenon, both physically
and visually; Feynman's pages and pages of mathematics were always augmented
by simple, precise drawings that interpreted the tedious calculations (Gribbin
1997). Eventually Feynman moved on to investigate the theory of weak
interaction processes in Beta decay, processes "in which a nucleus or an
individual neutron spits out an electron" (Gribbin 1997, p. 159). His
collaborative work in this area with three other physicists might have won him
another Nobel prize except for a rule that limits the number of prize-sharers
to three. It was his work with Beta decay that most impressed Feynman himself,
because he felt that it was the first time that he discovered a completely new
theory with which to work, as opposed to working with an existing theory.
Feynman's last area of concentration at Caltech was in quark research. Between
1968 and 1977, he worked with properties of the strong force, that force which
holds together an atom's nucleus. He played a role in the proposal of quarks,
sub-atomic sub-atomic particles whose existence before the 1970's had been
neither observed nor suspected. Feynman's open mindedness and acute ability to
visualize physics were instrumental in leading him to believe in quarks, and
he was able to watch evidence of their existence revealed experimentally. Work
in this area was Feynman's "last great contribution to physics" (Gribbin 1997,
p. 203).
Feynman the Teacher.
But Feynman wasn't done in the 1970's. He continued to teach with skill and
vivaciousness, and made several contributions to physics education in the last
years of his life. His Lectures on Physics, manuscripts containing the
material he covered while teaching freshman and sophomore-level physics in
1960-1962, are globally recognized as containing some of the best
conceptualizations and descriptions of elementary physics ever created (Mehra
1994). Also well-received was Feynman's popular account of the work that won
him the Nobel Prize: "QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter." In
addition to talking and teaching about physics, Feynman also loved to talk
about his life, and the rules by which he lived. He created a legend of sorts
around himself, as he recounted to students stories about events such as his
safe-cracking escapades and drum-beating samba concerts. Eventually, he, with
friend Ralph Leighton, published two books containing anecdotes about his
life: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman (1985), and What Do You Care What
Other People Think? (1988, published post-humously). These books brought
physics to non-physicists and showed that science (especially physics) can be
fun, an attitude that Feynman surely lived by from his childhood right up
through his death.
Feynman's Relation To Gardner's Model
Feynman was definitely an incredible influence in the world of 20th century
physics. His youthful enthusiasm, contentment with being different, and desire
for simplicity pervaded throughout his life, and guided many of his creative
efforts. But how well does Feynman fit into Gardner's model of creative
genius?
Youthful enthusiasm: a child-like mind.
As seen in his life and work, Feynman had an incredible knack for disregarding
the "known facts," and always looked at problems in a fresh light: "When
Richard Feynman faced a problem he was unusually good at going back to being
like a child, ignoring what everyone else thinks and saying, 'Now, what have
we got here?'" ("The Science of Creativity" 1996, p. 102). Many of the
individuals Gardner studies in his book also possessed this trait. The ability
to re-evaluate popular opinion often plays a very important role in a creative
genius's life, as it is difficult to get started on a creative work until a
paradigm shift occurs (at least on the personal level) and new ways of
thinking are freed.
Contentment with being different: marginality.
A common characteristic of the people Gardner studied is their marginality.
All seemed to be willing to live on the edges of society, whether it was T.S.
Eliot writing poetry in England, or the 20-year-old Martha Graham learning to
dance in a field of youngsters. Throughout his life, Feynman was never afraid
to be different. He did not hide from his loves of science and math at a young
age; instead, he used to show off his abilities in front of his classmates.
Later in life, he was never embarrassed to ask questions of anyone, no matter
their position, as his quest was always to consider material presented--not
presenters of material. If he had to question Einstein, he would, and did. One
of Feynman's Caltech colleagues summed up his marginality in an article
published after Feynman's death: "Of course any of us engaged in creative
work, and in fact anyone having a creative idea even in everyday life, has to
shake up the usual patterns in some way in order to get out of rut (or the
basin of attraction!) of conventional thinking, dispense with certain accepted
but wrong notions, and find a new and better way to formulate some problem.
But with Dick, 'turning things around' and being different became a passion"
(Gell-Mann 1989, p. 54). Gardner noticed such a pattern in his book, and
commented that "...creative individuals may strive to make themselves ever
more marginal" (Gardner 1993, p. 11). Bongo-beating Feynman surely qualifies
for genius in this aspect.
Desire for simplicity: ability to redefine work in simpler terms.
Somewhat related to a child-like mind, the desire for simplicity is definitely
seen in Feynman's life, and in the lives of many of Gardner's chosen geniuses.
Describing Einstein, Gardner comments, "...he insisted on going back to first
principles: in setting for himself the most fundamental problems and in
looking for the most comprehensive yet simplifying explanatory axioms"
(Gardner 1993, p. 10). Very similarly, Feynman sought always to simplify, and
in doing so, created some of his most notable works such as Feynman diagrams.
Feynman also believed in simplicity in explanation, and one reason he was such
an excellent communicator in his field was precisely that people could
understand him. Whereas his colleagues would spew out mathematical equation
after mathematical equation, Feynman would always augment his presentations
with lucid analogies, and simple diagrams (Mehra 1994). In this sense, he was
able to excel as an interpersonal communicator in his field because of his
departure from the conventional approaches to physics.
Ten-year cycle?
An interesting pattern that Gardner detected when examining the lives of his
chosen creative geniuses is the "ten-year cycle," in which significant
creative works appear about every ten years. One of the implications of the
presence of such a cycle is the obvious longevity of the generator. Often,
creative geniuses could have quit early on after they experienced some great
success, but they seem to persist for decades longer than their peers. It is
interesting that one of Feynman's biographers, independent of Gardner, noted
that Feynman fits this pattern; indeed, Feynman is compared to Einstein, the
creative genius profiled in Gardner's book: "Albert Einstein was almost unique
among the physicists of modern times in making major contributions to
fundamental physics in each of three separate decades--the 1900's, the 1910's,
and the 1920's...But his achievement is only 'almost' unique because it has
been matched by one other physicist, Richard Feynman, who made major
contributions to fundamental physics in the 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's.
Indeed, Feynman's last great work continued well into the 1970's..." (Gribbin
1997, p. 189).
Conclusion
As seen through the life and work of Feynman, as well as a comparison to some
of the aspects in Howard Gardner's model of creative genius, it is easy to see
why he inspired a biography entitled No Ordinary Genius, and why Hans Bethe
deemed him a magician. Feynman's zest for life, and how that zest is reflected
in his work, is the characteristic that most defined his truly unique genius.
In the cases above, a cutout of Feynman fits right into Gardner's puzzle of a
complex definition of creativity. However, some elements of underlapping come
with the overlapping. Only a few of Gardner's emerging themes were applied to
Feynman's life, but they are ones that seem to fit quite nicely. Yet Feynman,
like no man, is a perfect fit. For example, Feynman never made any great
Faustian bargains, while Gardner seemed to detect such a bargain in the lives
of all of creative geniuses examined in his book. One possible reason that
Feynman never pressured himself into such an agreement is that he took such
pleasure from both his work and his life. Because of his attitudes towards
both people life and physics life, he was able to work out a suitable balance
for himself without sacrificing too much of one for the other. As one of his
biographers put it, "To Feynman, love was more important than physics; it just
happened that, as well as loving people, he loved physics" (Gribbin 1997, p.
xv). And physicists and non-physicists alike have learned to love Feynman.
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Richard Feynman Information Sources Online:
http://www.mindspring.com/~madpickl/home.htm
http://adams.patriot.net/~eslone/tuva.htm
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~rthomas/Feynman.html