Richard Feynman

Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) (surname pronounced FINE-man; {{IPA|/ˈfaɪnm?n/}} in IPA) was one of the most influential American physicists of the 20th century, expanding greatly the theory of quantum electrodynamics. As well as being an inspiring lecturer and amateur musician, he helped in the development of the atomic bomb and was later a member of the panel which investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. For his work on quantum electrodynamics, Feynman was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1965, along with Julian Schwinger and Shin-Ichiro Tomonaga.

Quotations

• "Dear Mrs. Chown, Ignore your son's attempts to teach you physics. Physics isn't the most important thing. Love is. Best wishes, Richard Feynman."
• "Physics is to math what sex is to masturbation."
• "Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it."
• "Mathematics is not real, but it feels real. Where is this place?"
• "The same equations have the same solutions." (Thus when you have solved a mathematical problem, you can re-use the solution in another physical situation. Feynman was skilled in transforming a problem into one that he could solve.)
• "When you are solving a problem, don't worry. Now, after you have solved the problem, then that's the time to worry."
• "The wonderful thing about science is that it's alive."
• "All fundamental processes are reversible."
• "What does it mean, to understand? ... I don't know."
• "What I cannot create, I do not understand."
• "But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose—which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me."
• "To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in."
• "I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring" (last words).

Quotations About Feynman

• The "Feynman Problem Solving Algorithm", as facetiously observed by a colleague, Murray Gell-Mann in the NY Times, was:

:# write down the problem;

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:# think very hard;

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:# write down the answer.

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• The Nobel laureate physicist and mathematician E.P. Wigner said about Feynman, "He is a second Dirac. Only this time human".
• Jeff Coffin (of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) says in the song "Hoedown" (during a live show recorded and released on DVD as "Live at the Quick"):

:This verse is for Richard Feynman, He was not a simple simon.

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