| | '''Richard Feynman''' (1918-1988) was a leading American [[physicist]] and educator based at California Institute of Technology. He played a major role in shaping modern [[quantum mechanics|quantum physics]], computer design, and nanotechnology. He attracted a following for his college lectures on physics, which he published, and for his iconoclastic personality. He popularized physics with many short essays and talks, often talking about the pranks he loved to play. | | '''Richard Feynman''' (1918-1988) was a leading American [[physicist]] and educator based at California Institute of Technology. He played a major role in shaping modern [[quantum mechanics|quantum physics]], computer design, and nanotechnology. He attracted a following for his college lectures on physics, which he published, and for his iconoclastic personality. He popularized physics with many short essays and talks, often talking about the pranks he loved to play. |
| − | He credits his education in reading an encyclopedia when he was young, at the insistence of his father.<ref>Review of ''Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character, by R.P. Feynman'' by Robert Matthews [http://jnm.snmjournals.org/cgi/reprint/47/8/1391.pdf]</ref> After studying at [[M.I.T.]] and [[Princeton University]], he assisted in the development of the [[atomic bomb]] at [[Los Alamos]]. As an example of his extraordinary talent at [[mathematics]] by a physicist, Feynman scored in the top five nationally on the Putnam college math contest in 1939.<ref>https://maa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/List-of-Previous-Putnam-Winners-through-2023.pdf</ref> | + | He credits his education in reading an encyclopedia when he was young, at the insistence of his father.<ref>Review of ''Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character, by R.P. Feynman'' by Robert Matthews [http://jnm.snmjournals.org/cgi/reprint/47/8/1391.pdf]</ref> After studying at [[M.I.T.]] and [[Princeton University]], he assisted in the development of the [[atomic bomb]] at [[Los Alamos]]. As an example of his extraordinary talent at [[mathematics]] by a physicist, Feynman scored in the top five nationally on an early annual Putnam college math contest in 1939.<ref>https://maa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/List-of-Previous-Putnam-Winners-through-2023.pdf</ref> |
| | Feynman's major contribution was to [[quantum electrodynamics]]. He introduced the diagrams, now called Feynman diagrams, which are used to describe the behavior of systems of interacting particles. He was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965. He worked on the problem from 1939 to 1947, confronting two puzzles that were the source of the difficulties with quantum electrodynamical theories. The first was an [[infinite]] energy of interaction of the electron with itself. And this difficulty existed even in the classical theory. The other difficulty came from some infinities which had to do with the infinite numbers of degrees of freedom in the field. His solution, while still an undergraduate, was that electrons cannot act on themselves; they can only act on other electrons. That was not quite right, but as a graduate student, with help from his mentor, Princeton Professor John Wheeler, he did figure it out.<ref>see [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.html "The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics"], his Nobel Prize Lecture, 1965</ref> | | Feynman's major contribution was to [[quantum electrodynamics]]. He introduced the diagrams, now called Feynman diagrams, which are used to describe the behavior of systems of interacting particles. He was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965. He worked on the problem from 1939 to 1947, confronting two puzzles that were the source of the difficulties with quantum electrodynamical theories. The first was an [[infinite]] energy of interaction of the electron with itself. And this difficulty existed even in the classical theory. The other difficulty came from some infinities which had to do with the infinite numbers of degrees of freedom in the field. His solution, while still an undergraduate, was that electrons cannot act on themselves; they can only act on other electrons. That was not quite right, but as a graduate student, with help from his mentor, Princeton Professor John Wheeler, he did figure it out.<ref>see [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.html "The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics"], his Nobel Prize Lecture, 1965</ref> |