Funny Interesting Facts
By Pat Parker
You've heard about Richard Feynman's Nobel Prize for physics in 1965 and about the cool way he demonstrated on live television the reason for the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986. But here are a few fantastic facts you may not know about this amazing man.
Q. What can you (probably) do that Feynman never learned how to do?
A. Tell left from right. When he wrote on the board during his lectures, Feynman would sometimes flip up his left hand and look at it. He explained, "I keep forgetting which is right and which is left, but I know that my left hand has two small brown spots on the back of it."
Q. What was one technique Feynman used to help him figure out difficult concepts or theories?
A. Translation. Feynman's father used to read to him from the Encyclopedia Britannica. If, for example, they read about a dinosaur that was 25 feet tall with a six-foot-wide head, his father might translate that description into familiar terms for his son: If the dinosaur stood in their yard, it would be tall enough to put its head through an upper window, but its head would be too wide to fit. Throughout his life, Feynman translated complex ideas into simple examples.
Q. What job, other than physicist, was Feynman offered?
A. Washing machine repair person. When Feynman's washing machine broke, he didn't want to pay $300 to get it fixed. He pulled a seized bearing out of the transmission, took the bearing to a washing machine store, and ordered a new one. The store owner said, "Hey, you look like someone who knows what he's doing. How about a job with me, repairing washing machines?"
Q. On what musical instrument did Feynman like to rock out?
A. Bongo drums. He loved to beat on the bongos. He also liked to draw and to decode Mayan hieroglyphics. (The ancient Maya lived in Mexico. Their written language, a form of hieroglyphics, was a series of pictures and symbols that represented sounds, words, and ideas.)
Q. How did Feynman once describe the movement of atoms?
A. As a group of friends hanging out. In a series of television films for the British Broadcasting Company called Fun to Imagine, he said: "You see a little drop of water, a tiny drop, and the atoms attract each other — they like to be next to each other; they want as many partners as they can get!" He described the atoms on the surface of the water (the "guys at the edge") as unhappy and nervous, constantly trying to get in. Cooling off the water, he said, causes the atoms to get stuck in place. "They like to be with their friends. . . . It's [called] ice."
Q. What was the ultimate reason that Feynman decided to stick with being a physicist after World War II?
A. For the fun of it. After World War II, Feynman had a hard time focusing on his work and began to think that he would never accomplish anything again. So when he was offered a job at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, he thought that they were "absolutely insane" to want him. Then, he said, "I suddenly realized, while I was shaving, 'I can't live up to what other people expect me to do.' They expected me to be wonderful to offer me a job like this, and I wasn't wonderful and therefore I realized a new principle: 'I'm not responsible for what other people think I am able to do. I don't have to be good because they think I'm going to be good.' . . .So I decided that I was only going to do things for the fun of it."
Odyssey, Nov2004, Vol. 13
You've heard about Richard Feynman's Nobel Prize for physics in 1965 and about the cool way he demonstrated on live television the reason for the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986. But here are a few fantastic facts you may not know about this amazing man.
Q. What can you (probably) do that Feynman never learned how to do?
A. Tell left from right. When he wrote on the board during his lectures, Feynman would sometimes flip up his left hand and look at it. He explained, "I keep forgetting which is right and which is left, but I know that my left hand has two small brown spots on the back of it."
Q. What was one technique Feynman used to help him figure out difficult concepts or theories?
A. Translation. Feynman's father used to read to him from the Encyclopedia Britannica. If, for example, they read about a dinosaur that was 25 feet tall with a six-foot-wide head, his father might translate that description into familiar terms for his son: If the dinosaur stood in their yard, it would be tall enough to put its head through an upper window, but its head would be too wide to fit. Throughout his life, Feynman translated complex ideas into simple examples.
Q. What job, other than physicist, was Feynman offered?
A. Washing machine repair person. When Feynman's washing machine broke, he didn't want to pay $300 to get it fixed. He pulled a seized bearing out of the transmission, took the bearing to a washing machine store, and ordered a new one. The store owner said, "Hey, you look like someone who knows what he's doing. How about a job with me, repairing washing machines?"
Q. On what musical instrument did Feynman like to rock out?
A. Bongo drums. He loved to beat on the bongos. He also liked to draw and to decode Mayan hieroglyphics. (The ancient Maya lived in Mexico. Their written language, a form of hieroglyphics, was a series of pictures and symbols that represented sounds, words, and ideas.)
Q. How did Feynman once describe the movement of atoms?
A. As a group of friends hanging out. In a series of television films for the British Broadcasting Company called Fun to Imagine, he said: "You see a little drop of water, a tiny drop, and the atoms attract each other — they like to be next to each other; they want as many partners as they can get!" He described the atoms on the surface of the water (the "guys at the edge") as unhappy and nervous, constantly trying to get in. Cooling off the water, he said, causes the atoms to get stuck in place. "They like to be with their friends. . . . It's [called] ice."
Q. What was the ultimate reason that Feynman decided to stick with being a physicist after World War II?
A. For the fun of it. After World War II, Feynman had a hard time focusing on his work and began to think that he would never accomplish anything again. So when he was offered a job at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, he thought that they were "absolutely insane" to want him. Then, he said, "I suddenly realized, while I was shaving, 'I can't live up to what other people expect me to do.' They expected me to be wonderful to offer me a job like this, and I wasn't wonderful and therefore I realized a new principle: 'I'm not responsible for what other people think I am able to do. I don't have to be good because they think I'm going to be good.' . . .So I decided that I was only going to do things for the fun of it."
Odyssey, Nov2004, Vol. 13
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