Although American physicist Richard Feynman won the Nobel prize in 1965, it was his books of anecdotes (" Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?") and his appointment to the presidential Challenger disaster investigation commission in 1986, that raised him to icon status. Feynman was an independent thinker, extremely intolerant of stupidity. Learn why Feynman fans are so devoted at today's website picks.
Feynman liked to remind physicists that they were not nearly as close to discovering the meaning of it all as they sometimes believed. "Indeed, Feynman has said, physicists ought to put a special sign in their offices to remind themselves of how much they don't know. The message on the sign would be very simple. It would consist entirely of one word, or, rather, number: 137." Visit Charles Mann's site to learn the significance of this special number, which physicists call alpha.
To keep himself "focused on Life's important questions," twenty-five year old Erik Madsen created a collection of writings from a handful of great thinkers. The Feynman page delivers a short bio and eight articles, excerpted from three of his books. Because I find them most accessible, my favorites are the three stories from "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! " Other featured thinkers include authors Mark Twain and J.R.R. Tolkien, and physicist Robert Oppenheimer.
This Feynman fan site (part of the Feynman Web Ring) has a message forum, and good collection of Feynman anecdotes. Best clicks are the personal stories found in the Guest Book and Anecdotes, and the articles (both onsite and off) in Life & Science. Don't miss the two Feynman Think Different posters created by Apple as part of their 1998 ad campaign. You'll find them under Other Good Stuff.
In 1979, Feynman delivered a series of lectures introducing his Nobel-prize winning concepts of quantum electrodynamics (QED) to the physics department of Auckland University, New Zealand. Those lectures are presented here in four streaming video segments. Don't let yourself be intimated by the subject matter. Click on the first video, and give it a try. They are noteworthy because they show Feynman's renown style and enthusiasm.
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or try a FREE trial of the Printables ClubThe following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!
Al Seckel's Richard FeynmanFriends of Tuva: Richard Feynman | Richard Feynman and Bill GatesRichard P. Feynman Physicist |
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