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    Benjamin Feynman was born in 1918 in Queens, New York. He worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II where he helped develop the atomic bomb. He later had an illustrious academic career teaching at Cornell and Caltech where he made significant scientific contributions in the fields of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, winning the Nobel Prize. He served on the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger disaster where he concluded that there was a disconnect between NASA's engineers and executives. Throughout his career, Feynman was known for his ability to explain complex scientific concepts in an understandable way and popularizing physics for broader audiences.

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    Benjamin Feynman was born in 1918 in Queens, New York. He worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II where he helped develop the atomic bomb. He later had an illustrious academic career teaching at Cornell and Caltech where he made significant scientific contributions in the fields of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, winning the Nobel Prize. He served on the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger disaster where he concluded that there was a disconnect between NASA's engineers and executives. Throughout his career, Feynman was known for his ability to explain complex scientific concepts in an understandable way and popularizing physics for broader audiences.

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    80 views11 pages

    Feynman

    Uploaded by

    bigboy12345
    Benjamin Feynman was born in 1918 in Queens, New York. He worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II where he helped develop the atomic bomb. He later had an illustrious academic career teaching at Cornell and Caltech where he made significant scientific contributions in the fields of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, winning the Nobel Prize. He served on the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger disaster where he concluded that there was a disconnect between NASA's engineers and executives. Throughout his career, Feynman was known for his ability to explain complex scientific concepts in an understandable way and popularizing physics for broader audiences.

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    of 11

    By: Benjamin Yue

    Biography
    Born May 11, 1918 in Queens, NY Childhood: Family = Jewish I = avowed atheist Melville (father) = ask ?s to challenge orthodox thinking MIT for bachelor, Princeton for Ph.D
    Me in my early 30s

    Manhattan Project
    Persuasion = build A-bomb before Nazi Trinity bomb = no welders lenses bec. Truck windshield = block UV radiation Later on, I reassessed my prior motive of joining. What about after Germanys defeat? I am anxious about its application and consequences. Hiroshima = depression
    Me in Los Alamos

    I saw this with no glasses on

    Early Academic Career


    Taught at Cornell(45-50), Caltech Great Explainer Philosophy = moral duty for students to comprehend. If topic couldnt be explained in freshman lecture, its not yet fully understood. Condense intricate ideas into understandable bits which can be understood. Despise rote learning/unthinking memorization Function > Form

    Scientific Contributions
    Worked on: path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, theory of quantum electrodynamics, physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, particle physics Nobel Prize for theory in Quantum electrodynamics.

    Me getting a bit emotional

    Challenger Disaster
    Assigned to Rogers Commission which investigated the Challenger disaster Conclusion = disconnect between NASA's engineers and executives. NASA's highranking managers = startling misunderstandings of elementary concepts. "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."

    Influence of Work
    He developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles = Feynman diagrams During his lifetime, Feynman became one of the best-known scientists in the world. Popularized physics through lucid books/lectures Developed atomic bomb

    The Uncertainty Of Knowledge

    Knowing the Name vs. Knowing the Essence

    What I Believe
    It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong. Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry. Some people say, "How can you live without knowing?" I do not know what they mean. I always live without knowing. That is easy. How you get to know is what I want to know. Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers in the preceding generation. Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. Since then I never pay attention to anything by "experts". I calculate everything myself.

    Metaphor
    Life is a piece of clay. You mold it onto what you want it to be. But in the end, its never truly perfect.

    The world is a glass of water. Sometimes its half- empty. Sometimes its half full.

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