Genius (79 page)

64 T
HE FEYNMANS LET HER PAINT A PARROT
: Lewine, interview.

64
SPARED
D
ICK THE NECESSITY
: SYJ, 18.

64 A
RLINE WATCHED UNHAPPILY
: Meyer, interview.

64
HIS SECOND PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE
: F-W, 302 and 122.

65
THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE IN AVIATION
: WDY, 31.

65 A
T ONE OF THE FATEFUL MOMENTS
: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 9 August 1945, PERS; Weisskopf, interview.

66
THE INSTITUTE JUSTIFIED
: F-W, 164 66
A PAIN IN THE NECK
: Ibid.

66 I
N ONE COURSE HE RESORTED
: He admitted it thirty years later, embarrassed—“I lost my moral sense for a while”—to a scholar taking oral history for a science archive. F-W, 164.

66 W
HY DIDN’T THE
E
NGLISH PROFESSORS
: Ibid, 165.

66 H
E READ
J
OHN
S
TUART
M
ILL’S
: F-L; SYJ, 30.

66 H
E READ
T
HOMAS
H
UXLEY’S
: F-W, 170–73.

66 M
EANWHILE IN PHYSICS ITSELF
: “Subjects taken in physics at Mass. Institute of Technology,” typescript, PUL.

67
WHOM
A
RLINE WAS READING
: F-W, 165–66.

67 H
E KNEW ALL ABOUT IMPERFECTION
: WDY, 29.

67 P
EOPLE LIKE
D
ESCARTES WERE STUPID
: F-W, 166.

67 H
E TOOK A STRIP OF PAPER
:
WDY,
29–30.

68 I
N THE DISCOVERY OF SECRET THINGS
: Gilbert, De
Magnete
(1600). 68
LIKE A PRIME MINISTER
: F-W, 167.

68
THE PRAGMATIC
S
LATER
: Schweber 1989, 58.

68 N
OT FROM POSITIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS
: Harvey,
De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis
(1628).

68 U
P IN HIS ROOM
: F-W, 169–70.

69 I
WONDER WHY
I
WONDER WHY
: Ibid., 170; F-L (SYJ, 33).

69 A
DISMAYED, DISORIENTED MOMENT
: F-L.

70 H
E DID DEVELOP A RUDIMENTARY THEORY
: SYJ, 36.

70 H
E SAT THROUGH LECTURES
: Ibid., 32.

70 S
O MUCH STUFF IN THERE
: F-W, 166.

70 S
PACE OF ITSELF AND TIME OF ITSELF
: Quoted by Feynman in Lectures, I-17–8.

72
A SMALL FABLE
: Dirac 1971.

72 M
Y WHOLE EFFORT IS TO DESTROY
: Quoted in Park 1988, 318.

73
OF COURSE QUITE ABSURD
: DiraC 1971, 41.

74
DURING A LATE EROTIC OUTBURST
: Pais 1986, 251–52.

74 T
HEY FILLED A NOTEBOOK
: Feynman and Welton 1936–37.

74 J
UST AS
S
CHRÖDINGER HAD DONE
: F-W, 146

76
BOTH BOYS WERE WORRYING
: Feynman and Welton 1936–37; F-W, 141.

76 W
ELTON WOULD SET TO WORK
: F-W, 210–11.

77 T
HE CHUG-CHUG-DING-DING
: Welton 1983; Welton, interview; F-W, 142–44.

77 T
HEY WORKED OUT FASTER METHODS
: F-W, 152–53.

77 A
LL
I’
VE DONE IS TAKE
: Quoted in “Bright Flashes from a Mind of Marvel,”
Washington Post,
6 January 1990.

78
UTTER CERTAINTY
: Heisenberg 1971, 11.

78
MORE THAN THAT OF ALL MANKIND
: Ibid., 10.

78 F
EYNMAN WANTED TO BE A SHOP MAN
: F-W, 154–56; F-L.

79 E
NRICO
F
ERMI MADE HIS OWN
: Segrè 1980, 204–6; Rhodes 1987, 210–12.

79 U
NEXPECTEDLY, THE SLOW NEUTRONS
: Enrico Fermi, “Artificial Radioactivity Produced by Neutron Bombardment,” in Weaver 1987, 2:74.

79 F
EYNMAN AND
W
ELTON, JUNIORS
: F-W, 162.

80 T
HERE WAS JUST ONE ESSENTIAL TEXT
: Bethe et al. 1986.

80 T
HAT CLOUDS SCATTERED SUNLIGHT
: F-W, 176.

81 I
T CAME JUST ONE STEP PAST
:
Lectures,
I-32–8.

81 O
NE FOGGY DAY
: F-W, 176.

82 F
EYNMAN’S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK
: Vallarta and Feynman 1939.

82
A PROVOCATIVE AND CLEVER IDEA
: “Suppose we consider a particle sent into an element of volume
dV
of scattering matter in a direction given by the vector R. Let the probability of emerging in the direction R’ be given by a scattering function
f(R,R’)
per unit solid angle. Conversely a particle entering in the direction R’ will have a probability
f(R’,R)
of emerging in the direction R. Let us assume that the scatterer (magnetic field of the star) has the reciprocal property so that
f(R,R’) = f(R’, R).
In our case the property is satisfied provided the particle’s sign is reversed at the same time as its direction of motion. That is, the probability of electrons going by any route is equal to the probability
of
positrons going by the reverse route….” Ibid.

82
SUCH AN EFFECT IS NOT TO BE EXPECTED
: Heisenberg 1946, 180.

82 Y
OU’RE THE LAST WORD
: F-W, 178.

82 H
E CAUGHT ONE CLASSMATE
: Monarch L. Cutler, telephone interview and personal communication; F-W, 179; Cutler, “Reflection of Light from Multi-Layer Films,” senior thesis, MIT, 1939. The professors were Hawley C. Cartwright and Arthur F. Turner.

83
THE
P
UTNAM COMPETITION
: Joseph Callian, Andrew Gleason, telephone interview.

83 O
NE OF
F
EYNMAN’S FRATERNITY BROTHERS
: Robbins, interview.

83 F
EYNMAN LEARNED LATER
: F-W, 191.

83 H
IS FIRST THOUGHT HAD BEEN TO REMAIN
: Ibid., 193–94.

83
PRACTICALLY PERFECT
: John C. Slater to Dean of Graduate School, Princeton, 12 January 1939, PUL. 83
THE BEST UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
: Philip Morse to H. D. Smyth, 12 January 1939, PUL.

83
DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
: Wheeler 1989.

84
HAD NEVER BEFORE ADMITTED
: Ibid.

84
THE PHYSICS SCORE WAS PERFECT
: Individual Report of the Graduate Record Examination: Feynman, Richard P., 1939, PERS. Besides achieving a perfect physics result, he scored high in the 99th percentile in mathematics; on the other hand, 69 percent of those taking the test outscored him in verbal skills, 85 percent in literature, and 93 percent in fine arts.

Feynman also applied to the University of California at Berkeley; the department there made it clear that he would be accepted but approved him only as the eighth alternate for a $650-a-year fellowship. Robert Sproul to Feynman, 30 March 1939, and Raymond T. Birge to Feynman, 1 June 1939, PERS.

84 I
S
F
EYNMAN
J
EWISH?
: H. D. Smyth to Philip Morse, 17 January 1939, MIT.

84 F
EYNMAN OF COURSE IS
J
EWISH
: Slater to Smyth, 7 March 1939, PUL.

84
PHYSIOGNOMY AND MANNER, HOWEVER
: Morse to Smyth, 18 January 1939, MIT. Princeton was persuaded. Smyth later heard about Feynman’s success in the Putnam competition and wrote: “My colleagues keep insisting that Feynman is not coming here next year because he took an examination and won a prize fellowship at Harvard. My position is that as long as I have his acceptance and no further word from him he is coming here even if he has been offered the
presidency
of Harvard.” Smyth to Morse, 8 June 1939, MIT.

85 W
E KNOW PERFECTLY WELL
: Quoted in Silberman 1985, 90.

85 T
HEY TOOK OBVIOUS PRIDE
: Francis Russell, “The Coming of the Jews,” quoted in Steinberg 1971, 71.

85 B
ECAUSE, BROTHER, HE IS BURNING
: Thomas Wolfe,
You Can’t Co Home Again
(New York: Dell, 1960), 462. Quoted in Kevles 1987, 279.

85 I
T WAS ALSO UNDERSTOOD
: Sopka 1980, 4:105.

85 N
EW
Y
ORK
J
EWS FLOCKED OUT HERE
: Davis 1968, 83.

85
A FRUSTRATED
O
PPENHEIMER
: J. R. Oppenheimer to Raymond T. Birge, 4 November 1943, 26 May 1944, and 5 October 1944, in Smith and Weiner 1980, 268, 275, and 284.

85 I
F
F
EYNMAN EVER SUSPECTED
: Silberman 1985, 91–92; F-W, 198.

86
HALF A LINE
: F-W, 182.

87 I
NSTEAD OF SPINNINC
: Ibid., 180.

87 A
SCIENCE OF MATERIALS
: C. Smith 1981, 121–22.

87 M
ATTER IS A HOLOGRAPH OF ITSELF
: Ibid., 122

88 A
S
F
EYNMAN CONCEIVED THE STRUCTURE
: Feynman 1939a and
b.

90 I
T IS TO BE EMPHASIZED
: Feynman 1939a, 3; Conyers Herring, telephone interview.

90 H
E COMPLAINED THAT
F
EYNMAN WROTE
: Robbins interview.

90 S
O HE WAS SURPRISED TO HEAR
: F-W, 186. Slater, in his textbooks, preferred “Feynman’s theorem” as late as 1963, though he had found that a German, H. Hellmann, had made the same discovery two years earlier. Slater 1963, 12–13; H. Hellmann,
Einführung in die Quantenchemie
(Leipzig: Deuticke, 1937).

91 T
HAT’S ALL
I
REMEMBER OF IT
: F-W, 196.

91 I
T SEEMED TO SOME THAT
S
LATER
: Silvan S. Schweber, interview, Cambridge, Mass.

91 M
Y SON
R
ICHARD IS FINISHING
: Morse 1977, 125–26.

91 M
ORSE TRIED NOT TO LAUGH
: Ibid. Although Morse did not say so, part of Melville’s concern was whether anti-Semitism would block a career in physics; he expressed this in a similar conversation with John Wheeler a few years later (Wheeler 1989).

PRINCETON

Wheeler and many of his later students gave me some understanding of the relationship between Wheeler and Feynman. Wheeler 1979a and Klauder 1972 are sources of recollections. Wheeler shared the draft of his talk for a 1989 memorial session (Wheeler 1989). H. H. Barschall, Leonard Eisenbud, Simeon Hutner, Paul Olum, Leo Lavatelli, and Edward Maisel provided recollections of Feynman and the Princeton of the late thirties and early forties. John Tukey and Martin Gardner illuminated the history of Hexagons. Robert R. Wilson discussed the isotron project and Feynman’s initiation into the Manhattan Project, as well as much later history. The declassified documentary record of the isotron project, including a series of technical papers by Feynman, is in the Smyth papers at the American Philosophical Society.

93 A
BLACK HOLE HAS NO HAIR
: Wheeler and Ruffini 1971.

93 T
HERE IS NO LAW EXCEPT THE LAW
: In Mehra 1973, 242.

93 I
ALWAYS KEEP TWO LEGS GOING
: John Archibald Wheeler, interview, Princeton, N.J.

93
IN ANY FIELD FIND THE STRANGEST THING
: Boslough 1986, 109.

93 I
NDIVIDUAL EVENTS
: Quoted in Dyson 1980, 54. As Dyson says, “It sounds like Beowulf, but it is authentic Wheeler.”

94
SOMEWHERE AMONG THOSE POLITE FAÇADES
: In Steuwer 1979, 214–15.

94 W
HEN HE WAS A BOY
: Bernstein 1985, 29; Wheeler 1979a, 221.

94 S
LATER AND
C
OMPTON PREFERRED
: Slater 1975, 170–71.

94 W
HEELER STILL REMEMBERED
: Wheeler 1979a, 224.

94 W
HEN WHEELER MET HIS SHIP
: Ibid., 272.

95 I
T WAS THIS LAST IMAGE
: Bohr and Wheeler 1939.

95
THEY SPENT A LATE NIGHT TRYING
: Bernstein 1985, 38.

96 W
HEELER SAID THAT HE WAS TOO BUSY
: H. H. Barschall, telephone interview.

96 Y
OU LOOK LIKE YOU’RE GOING TO BE
: F-W, 209; Leonard Eisenbud, telephone interview.

96 T
HE NEXT TIME
F
EYNMAN SAW
B
ARSCHALL
: Barschall, interview.

96 W
HEELER’S POINTED DISPLAY
: F-W, 194 and 215–16.

97
LAZY AND GOOD-LOOKING
: Mizener 1949, 34 and 38.

97 A
QUAINT CEREMONIOUS VILLAGE
: Einstein to Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, 20 November 1933, quoted in Pais 1982, 453. 97
THE OBLIGATORY BLACK GOWNS
: SYJ, 49.

97
WHEN THE MATHEMATICIAN CARL LUDWIG SIEGEL RETURNED
: Dyson 1988b, 3.

97 S
URELY YOU’RE JOKING
: F-W, 209; SYJ, 48–49.

97 I
T BOTHERED HIM THAT THE RAINCOAT
: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 11 October 1939, PERS.

98 H
E TRIED SCULLING
: Ibid.

98 W
HEN HE ENTERTAINED GUESTS
: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, [?] October 1940, PERS.

98
HE EARNED FIFTEEN DOLLARS A WEEK
: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 3 March 1940, PERS.

98 T
HEY LISTENED WITH AWE
: Edward Maisel, telephone interview; cf. F-W, 254.

98 A
S
W
HEELER’S TEACHING ASSISTANT
: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 11 October 1939; Feynman notes on nuclear physics, H. H. Barschall papers, AIP.

99 I
N CHOOSING A THEME
: Schweber, forthcoming.

99 I
T SEEMS THAT SOME ESSENTIALLY NEW
: Dirac 1935, 297; NL, 434.