Richard P. Feynman—Who Changed the Image of Science

-Subodh Mahanti

Richard Phillips Feynman’s life and work signify the joy  of discovery and the pleasure of exploring things. He  demonstrated that doing science could be fun. He provided an "image of science that cut right across the stereotype". He loved people more than he  loved physics. He believed that the highest forms  of  under standing  one can achieve are laughter and human  compassion.  He was  an accomplished drummer. He was so fascinated with  drumming that  he hardly missed any opportunity to beat a rythm -  whether on  a wall, a table, a pot or on a pan. He enjoyed listening  to African drum music. He also became an accomplished amateur artist and  he could organise an exhibition on his own. And, of  course, Feynman  is  one  of greatest physicists that  the  20^th  century produced. He was a great problem solver even if it meant breaking a lock.

Above all Feynman was a simple man, who could laugh and make others laugh and so as Hans Bethe wrote, "More than other  scientists, he  (Feynman)  was  loved  by  his  colleauges  and   his students."  And  as Laurie Brown and John Rigden  have  stated, "there  is an important sense in which all modern physicists  are Feynman’s  students." He taught his students how to  think,  to reject any theory if it did disagree with experimental facts  and he inspired them to appreciate nature and love science. He epitomised  honesty and integrity. The whole basis of  the  scientific pursuit of knowledge as percieved by Feynman can be seen from his following observations:

"In general we look for a new law by the following process. First we guess it. Then we compare the consequences of the guess to see what would be implied if this law that we guessed is right.  Then we compare the result of the computation to nature, with  experiment or experience, compare it directly with observation, to  see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple  statement  is the key to science. It does  not  make  any difference  how  beautiful your guess is. It does  not  make  any difference  how  smart you are, who made the guess, or  what  his name is—if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong."

He was against pseudosciences. While explaining the underlying difference between real science and different forms of  pseudosciences  he  said: "It’s a kind of  scientific  integrity,  a principle  of  scientific thought that corresponds to a  kind  of utter  honesty—a  kind leaning over backwards. For  example,  if you’re doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think  might  make it invalid—not only what you think  is  right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your  results; and  things you thought of that you’ve eliminated by  some  other experiment,  and how they worked—to make sure the  other  fellow can tell they have been eliminated.

Details  that could throw doubt on your interpretation  must be given, if you know them. You must do the best you can—if  you know anything at all wrong, or possibly wrong—to explain it.  If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or put it  out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree with  it, as well as those that agree with it.

Feynman  put his views straight without mincing  words.  He disliked when people used the language in a phoney way. He could never  appreciate philosophy and thought religion is nothing  but ‘wishful  thinking’. He never bothered with  empty  formalities. Feynman  lacked  respect for authority. Some of  the  traits  of Feynman’s personality were as summed up by General Donald Kutyna: "Feynman had three things going for him. Number one,  tremendous intellect,  and  that was well known around the  world.  Second, integrity... Third, he brought this driving desire to get to the bottom  of  any mystery. No matter where it took  him,  he  was going to get there, and he was not deterred by any roadblocks  in the  way. He was a courageous guy, and he wasn’t afraid to  say what he meant."

Richard Phillips Feynman was born on 11 May 1918 in  Manhattan,  USA.  He was greatly influenced by his  parents.  Feynman’s father  Melville  Feynman encouraged his son’s  fascination  with science in all possible ways. While not pushing in any particular  direction his father would explain things about the way  the world  worked. Melville taught his son at a very early  age  ‘the difference  between  knowing the name of  something  and  knowing something’. To quote one of Richard’s oft-quoted anecdotes about his father :

‘See that bird?’ he says. ‘It’s a Spencer’s warbler. (I knew he didn’t  know  the real name.) ‘Well, in Italian, it’s  a  Chutto Lapittida. In Portuguese, it’s a Bom da Peida. In Chinese  it’s a Chung-long-tah, and in Japanese it’s a Katano Takeda. You  can know the name of that bird in all the languages of the world, but when  you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely  nothing  whatever about  the  bird.  You’ll only know  about  humans  in  different places,  and what they call the bird. So let’s look at the  bird and see what it’s doing - that’s what counts!

Since his childhood he developed a habit of not taking any thing granted, to question everything, to go after the bottom  of any  mysteries. Here again he was helped by his  father.  Feynman later recalls that on being asked about the odd behaviour of ball left lying in a playing wagon, his father replied: "That,  nobody knows.  The  general principle is that things which  are  moving tend to keep on moving, and things which are standing still  tend to stand still, unless you push them hard. This tendency  called ‘inertia’, but nobody knows why it’s true."

What  he  learned from his mother  (Lucille  Phillips)?  In Richard  Feynman’s words: "My mother taught me that the  highest forms of understanding that we can achieve are laughter and human compassion".

Feynman  was  awarded Nobel Prize in Physics  in  1965  with Julian  Schwinger and Shinitro Tomonaga for their development  of quantum  electrodynamics (QED), a theory describing the  interaction of charged subatomic particles within electric and  magnetic fields.  QED combines quantum theory and relativity and  asserts that charged particles interact by the exchange of photons.  The theory not only describes all interactions involving photons  and electrons but any interaction between light (photons) and charged particles.  Feynman is best known for his invention  of  Feynman diagrams,  which  illustrate  the  interaction  between  charged particles  by  the exchange of virtual photons.  "The  diagrams", Feynman pointed out "were intended to represent physical process  and the mathematical expressions used to describe them.  Each diagram signified a mathematical expression. Mathematical quantities  were  associated with points in space and  time. Feynman explained the superfluid behaviour of liquid helium. When  liquid helium  cooled  below 2.2 degrees Kelvin it  behaved  differently than  the  liquid helium above this temperature.  It  behaves  as superfluid. It can move through capillary tubes effortlessly that is without experiencing any frictional resistance. It even climbs up  the walls of the container to escape through pores which  do not  allow gas to pass through. He was a key figure in the  Manhattan Project to develop the atom bomb.

To consider Feynman simply as one of the greatest physicists of this century would mean undermining his true achievements. He was  one  of  the greatest teachers that the  20^th  century  ever produced. The Feynman Lectures on Physics have inspired generations  of students worldwide and continue to do so. There is  no parallel to it not only in Physics but also in other  disciplines of  science.  These  lectures described  Feynman’s  approach  to physics.

What  made  Feynman a great teacher? To quote  David  Goodstein:  "For  Feynman, the lecture hall was a theater,  and  the lecturer  a performer, responsible for providing drama  and  fire works as well as facts and figures". This was true regardless  of his audience, whether he was talking to undergraduates or  graduate students, to his colleagues or the general public."

His  lectures were self-contained, they had a beginning,  a middle  and an end. The lectures not only provided a great  mass of  information  but  also opportunity to go  beyond  the  formal teaching.

In  the long run what is the importance of Feynman’s  scientific achievements. To quote David Goodstein : "His  scientific contributions were profound. They are not ordinary. They are not similar  to  other people’s. He imposed his personality  and  his view on the world of science; he reformulated quantum  mechanics, he  virtually reinvented it. And gave it to us in a  form  that’s still widely used throuhout theoretical physics, in every field.

Feynman died on 15 February 1988.

Richard Feynman by John Gribbin and Marry  Gribbin, Universities Press (India) Ltd., 1998; Surely You’re Joking,  Mr. Feynman!  by Richard Feynman & Ralph Leighton, W.W.  Norton,  New York, 1985; What Do You Care What Other People Think? by  Richard  Feynman  & Ralph Leighton, W.W. Norton, New York,  1988; No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman by  Christopher Sykes  (Editor),  W.W. Norton, New York,  1994;   Genius:  Richard Feynman  and Modern Physics by James Gleick, Pantheon, New  York, 1992;  The Beat of a Different Drum by Jagdish  Mehra,  Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994; The Feynman Lectures on Physics (3 Vols)  by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton & Matthew Sands, Addison-Wesley, Redding,  Massachussets, 1963; QED: The Strange Theory  of  Light and  Matter,  by Richard Feynman,    Princeton  University  Press, Princeton,  1985; The  Art of Richard P.  Feynmann  by  Michelle Feynman, Gordon & Breach, Basel, 1995.