Richard Feynman

Alexander King
Salt Lake Community College

Richard Feynman in todays society is regarded as being one of the most highly
admired and most important physicist in Quantum Mechanics, making a huge
contribution in our understanding of the workings of Quantum Mechanics and its

importance in understanding the world around us. Richard Feynman was given the
gift to explore nature to the point where it was nearly impossible to comprehend for
any other human being. In short Feynman gave us ways of probabilistically locating
an electron or particle.
On May 11, 1918 Richard Feynman was born in Queens New York. During his
teenage years he became really passionate about mathematics and started to excel
at both Differential and Integral Calculus. Any time he would do mathematics he
would try to unveil new methods or new techniques that werent even thought of
yet. More or less, Feynman was interested towards Theoretical Physics and more
abstract Mathematics. Feynman was said to take different methods on mathematics
in seemingly different ways. He was also mentioned to have a certain amount of
pleasure from doing mathematics on his free time. During his free-time, Feynman
would study Trigonometry, Differential and Integral Calculus along with complex
numbers.
As a child, Richard Feynman was raised by both Lucille and Melville Feynman whom
of which were Jewish. It was stated from Richardss father that his son would one
day become a scientist. During his early childhood, Feynman lived in Far Rockaway,
which is a small village on Long Islands southern shore. As his life went on, Richard
was taught the importance of how to read certain patterns and how to also ask the
correct questions that nature gives him. Richard was considered to be highly elastic,
but was known for his disregard of standards. At about the age of 11 he had done
much experimentation with electricity and was soon known throughout the town for
his ability to create and repair radio devices. As the years progressed Feynman had
gained his passion for solving rigorous puzzles; much of which Feynman was

described as being very determined and wouldnt stop at nothing to successfully

master whatever it was he was trying to understand.
In 1935, Richard Feynman had entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
where he spent four years of complete study where after he earned his Bachelor of
Science. During his time at MIT, Feynman had spent a great deal on researching and
studying mathematics, however at the same time Feynman became relatively
concerned with his deep understanding of the subjects when he found the courses
to be prematurely easy. While attending MIT, Feynman had on several occasions
switched from courses in Electrical Engineering to courses on Physics. By the time
Feynman had transferred over to physics, he had taken a course on Theoretical
physics which sparked his interest in the subject. Over the course of Feynmans
education he had admired Paul Dirac whom of which was the primary creator of
quantum mechanics. Paul Dirac was considered to be one of the leading scientists
that Feynman had respected and admired throughout his entire career. Richard
Feynman went on to major in Theoretical Physics, where he ended up investigating
his theory of Quantum Electrodynamics. Robert R. Wilson, Physicist of Princeton
University offered Feynman to participate in the Manhattan Project at the Los
Alamos testing site for work on the atomic bomb. During the project Feynman
became seriously engrossed in the project itself. Some of the most popular work of
his was his experimentation of calculating neutron equations that was necessary for
the Los Alamos nuclear reactor. This was necessary to measure how close a specific
set of fissile material had to be critical. After the Manhattan Project, Feynman had
went on to become a professor at Cornell University, Feynman eventually found out
that he had little passion for professing at Cornell but made it up by making the fun
out of doing many physics experiments from simple objects rotating, or spinning.

After his teaching at Cornell University, Feynman had moved on to work at California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California where he would soon create some of
his finest work on Theoretical Physics. While at Caltech, Feynman researched
Quantum Electrodynamics, Physics of Super fluidity, and models of weak decay.
Richard Feynmans ground-breaking discovery in quantum mechanics came to be
known today as The Principle of Least Action, in which he acquired Maxwells wave
model of electromagnetics and transformed that model on particle interactions
which would help mapping space-time. However, his greatest achievement was his
theory of Quantum Electrodynamics which describes how light interacts with
matter, and also a description of anti-matter. Richard Feynman was awarded the
Nobel Prize in 1965 for the discovery of his theory of Quantum Electrodynamics,
after receiving the award he mentions that the award was a pain in the neck in
which he grew concerned about the potential loss of his reputation. Feynman was
given new standing in which he was given an important task in investigating the
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and later proved that a frozen O-shaped ring was
the cause of the disaster. A few years later in 1988, Feynman died from cancer
disease.
To Conclude, Richard Feynman was without a doubt one of the most successful and
influential scientists of all time, Feynman has also made a huge impact on the
modern understanding of Quantum Mechanics and especially Quantum
Electrodynamics in which we can understand a lot more about the interaction of
light and particles. It was from his great curiosity and perseverance that led him to
this discovery. Of anybody in this world Feynman was considered the Einstein of
Quantum Mechanics in his methodical way of describing the nature of

electrodynamics. However, Feynman proves to be a stepping stone for those willing

to venture where no one else has gone before.

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