No Ordinary Genius 0393036219, 9780393036213

Table of contents :
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Preface
A Note on Contributors
1. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
2. Love and the Bomb
3. How to Win a Nobel Prize
4. Topless Bars and Other Ways to Have Fun
5. Imagine!
6. Doing the Physics
7. Crazy Ideas: Tiny Writing and Huge Computers
8. Challenger
9. The Quest for Tannu Tuva
10. Dying
Notes
A Feynman Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
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N O ORDI N ARY G E N I U S

NO ORDINARY GENIUS The I l l ust rat ed Ri c h ard Feynman Edited by Christopher Sykes

W. W. NORTON & COMPANV N e w \' o rk

•

L o ndo n

Copyright © 1994 by Christopher Sykes All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First Edition The text

0£ this book

is composed in Melior. with the display set in Britannic.

Composition by Crane Typesetting Service. Inc. Manufacturing by the Courier Companies, Inc. Book design by Charlotte Staub.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Feynman, Richard Phillips.

No ordinary genius : the illustrated Richard Feynman I edited by

Christopher Sykes. p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Feynman, Richard Phillips. Biography. QC16.F49A3

I.

2. Physicists-United States­

Feynman, Richard Phillips.

II. Title.

1994

530' .092-dc20 [B[

93-32449

ISBN 0-393-03621-9 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110 W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 10 Coptic Street, LondonWC1A 1PU 123456789 0

For my father and mother, Bernard and Dorothy

Contents

9

Preface

A Note on Contributors

13

1. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out 2. Love and the Bomb

17

41

3. How to Win a Nobel Prize

65

4. Topless Bars and Other Ways to Have Fun 5. Imagine!

89

125

6. Doing the Physics

143

7. Crazy Ideas: Tiny Writing and Huge Computers

8. Challenger

191

9. The Quest for Tannu Tuva

10. Dying

239

Notes

257

A Feynman Bibliography Illustration Credits Index

267

265

221

263

163

Preface

I fi rst m et Richard Feynman in 1 981 at Ca l tech i n Pasa­ d ena , where he had been a professor of physics for thirty years .

I

had read about him in a wonderfu l book ca l l ed

Disturbing the Universe by the English physicist and

mathematician Freeman Dyson . They had driven across America short l y after the Second World Wa r, and had spent a n ight together in a brot hel in V i n ita , O klahoma. That night t hey cou l d not sleep, and Feynman told Dyson about his first w i fe and great love, Arl i n e . about the b u i l d ­ i n g of the atom i c b o m b , about Hi rosh i ma and his deep con viction that the worl d was go ing to end rather soon . I wanted t o make a docum entary for B BC T V about

Feynm a n ' s l i fe and work, but over the phone he told me the i d ea d i d n 't i nterest him at a l l . He did agree to meet for ten m i n utes or so after his Thursday-morn ing l ecture for grad uate students " to see what you got to say."

I

went to

the lectur e . and al though I cou ld understand nothi ng at all of the physics ,

I

was fasci nated by something Feynman

d id n ear the end. He l ooked at the wa l l clock- 1 1 :50then at the blackboard , and told h i s students: "There are two ways of Ff--t-f.

=

(A)

aw:�!!� :: ��:::� :e��:�l':: j;��·�� c�•�:::; --itY (A), f rxJ ([¥ L OY

0

o,

'fl-", o..

tP

T'P

t - -

•

f1?-1::T, �

t.dx2.x%Xz end only values o!' r less t.han T appear in the intecrand, 'for all such valuea,

t-r > t-T

only terms in the f"irat integral.

��

infinity

shall aupp oso.

rapidly with increase in

t -o-

zero as t-T J1ecomea infinite. the sec:ond integre.l of

1Ui).

.

.�s

.

U'(8cc)

t-T

approachPs infinity, t..hen

that ¥;.�

-r

t:

for which

c

approaches

decr eru:; s sufficiently

that the integral of it eoao. to

app lies to , ... ;;;;i �

A similar ft1l8lyais Hero

the

quantity

approaches zero because of our o.sswnption

(1'1}--

, and we 6hall auppose

thh approach aurficiently rapid that. the intecral vuniah �·4'

Thua we have shown To

pro

v

1

-� o

e the corresponding relation for T-t

�'JJJ

same

that -��j

one

may

/,._..j_

t· · r �� • a:tau�

calculate

h t

L

- ( .q, - ,q• • � ·"�� , 1.

9' -· ( · .-..�••

) ... s ..r.1 1

+&,.[(A•+ rra�)tn(-.•111 1 -I- 1 ) -l.A'l

" Feynman diagrams" in his

(Jl:1)

1·111. H 'I hr i1llr111 l11111 l..·1"1'\'11 In 11 rk\'tr111K 1•1 1111lr1 C�.'hf tl1H· 111lil• llll' r1111l11l1"li1111 11I """'>' l1a:nrc i11,11h·i11J: 1m1 w-irlual •111n111111 A111,,.111h:1 IJ,

1949 paper "Space-Time Approach to

Quantum Electrodynamics . "

In the time before Feynman, we would do it a ll longhand on paper, i n algebra, and we would have to consider elec­ trons and positrons separately. This was a very lengthy affair. Feynman was able to combine this, so that only one diagram needed to be calculated . Why didn 't everyone do that? That's the genius! To get that idea. It never occurred to any of us to put the calculations so graph ically, and to combine the electrons and the positrons in thi s ingenious way. That's just why he was a genius! 79

N O O IW I N A H V G E N l l) � Dyson p l ayed a very i m portant ro le, m uch more than what he t o l d you. H e was closest to Feyn ma n , and he l istened very cl osel y . He also understood Schwinger. A n d t h e n he, Dyso n , showed that the t w o a r e equiva l en t . Dyson shou l d have much more recogn ition .

Freeman Dyson

Feynman m ade the b ig d i scoveries , a n d I was j ust rea l l y a p u b l i ci zer. I got wel l rewarded for my part i n t h e busi­ nes s - I got a beautiful job here at the I n st itute, set u p for l ife, so I ' ve nothing to com p l a in abou t ! No,

I

t h i n k that it

was entire l y right and proper. Feyn m a n ' s was one of the best-earned Nobel Prizes there ever was , I wou l d say.

Feyn m

� t o -/ h

� nt. .l. " W hen my calculatio s

·

ld n 't

work out, I would

Uch the girls," Richard

-.Feynman told a M u nici. Court jury hearing arges against the pro­ etor and seven women ngelo G i a n o n . �. v non e s eak o u s e, 1453 N. Lake 've., i s accused of permitling lewd performances �nd the women with giv­ !Vg such performances. "' J udge ,John F. Hassler � ti n ounced at the close uf .. riday's te�t imony that urt w o u l d reron\·ene ondav a t �1 at G ianone's w i tness the dancers' rformances. • r-evnman, \•;ho said he sited G i a none's fl\·e to x time� a week over a ng period of time, tesli­ _d , '' I 'd l ike to use the ace t o work i n "

November 1 96 9 . Feyn man h e l p s o u t h i s friend G ianone.

,,

!'ii 0 0 ltn I N A H \' Cl F N l l �

C H I H UA H U A , MEXICO

I NCREDIBLE ADVENTURE T h e Ch i h uah u a-Los Moc h i s ra i l road ru ns a l ong the rim of the vast Caiion de Cohre com­ p lex, home of the Tara hu mara (or Raram uri ) Ind ians.

then you can ta kn the boat across the Gu lf of Cal i forn ia to La Paz. "Oh, that's great! Let 's do that ! " t hey both sai d . Then, right ou t of the blue, Richard sai d , " You know, I've never been anyplace you can 't get to by car. " So we decided we wou ld try to find some community down there that you had to walk into. Gweneth was pretty good at setting up the l ogi stics. Richard knew some Spanish, so he sai d he'd be the inter­ preter. I sai d I 'd be the beast of burden. Then Richard recru ited one of his students . Arturo , in Mexico. and that chap brought us some Mexican maps of the area-very detai led maps, difficult to get hold of. We pi cked out a place that we'd have to walk to. It was called Ci snegu ito, which, as I understand it, means " l ittle swan. " We would have to get off the railroad and work our way down into the canyon , and make a two-or three-day walk to get there. We got off the train and stayed in some little mote l . That night, we could hear tom-toms all over the place, and we wondered what was going on. It was like an old John Wayne movie, or Dru ms of the Mohawk or whatever it was cal led . We had the i dea it had someth ing to do with Easter, or some other great celebration. We never did fi n d o u t what it was , although later on w e s a w a b o y walking along beat ing a d rum and we asked him, "Why do you beat the dru m ? " The boy sai d , "Makes me feel good ! " In the end . we got to Cisneguito. I don't know how. Feynman had a lot of pluck, because shortly before this backpack tri p he'd fallen down in Chicago and broken a kneecap. So walking wasn't very easy for him. It was a beautifu l little community, elevation about six thousand fee t . Gweneth and I i magined it was what Scotland was like back in the early eighteenth century. There was a little house, and Feynman and Arturo talked to the people and they invited us to come and stay on their patio. We spent a fair amount of time there. They had a couple of boys , just as wonderful as could be. They showed us a burial ground-more a buria l cave, rea l ly, ful l of skeletons. I think Feynman l i ked to go to places where the people had to live close to the soi l . He al ways felt the same way 114

T 011 l uss Bars a n cl Otlrnr Ways lo Havl� f 1 1 11

about t hat-how you ca n go a l l over the worl d , and every­ body a l ways wants to take you to the richest µlace in town. and show you a l l the big hags . They're essent ial ly the sa me everywhere. But when people have to live off the soi l , they are different. A m a n who has t o live off a bare rock is differen t to a man who lives near the ocean . That's the sort of thing that interest ed him a l ot , to get close to that. These people in Mexico were li ving a very marginal exis­ tence. and necessari ly they a l l had to cooperate, or they coul d n't make it at a l l . They had a few chickens, and a l ittle bit of grain. There's another thing he found i nterest­ i ng and we laughed about it: same as peo ple a l l over the world, they didn't like the government . We asked them whether they voted and they said i t was an awful long way to go. They never spoke of distance, they always talked of time-twelve hours. They meant t welve hours ' fast walk t o get t o the pol l i ng place. S o i t was a little bit difficu lt to be a voter under t hose circumsta nces . The kids showed us the minuscule schoolhouse, but they sai d a schoolhouse wasn't any good because they didn't have a professor. Wel l , Feynman begins to talk to them , and he gets off into the subject of optics. He hor-

Fey nman and Gweneth in Mexico, 1 9 7 3 .

115

1\ 0 O IW I N l\ U V G F N l l i '-,

Tara h u rnara i n Cisncgu i t o - " a pl ace you can't get to by car. "

rowed a litt le magnifying glass from me to illustrate how the rays go through the lens and how they bend , and so on. He was getting more and more worked u p , as he always did in a lecture , whether it was at Caltech or any other place. So he built up a lot of momentum, with his arms going off this way and that, while Gweneth and I were lying back, laughing at the idea that he's forever the Profes­ sor, no matter where he is. Suddenly he tu rns to me and shouts. " Why couldn't you bring a better magnify ing glass? " I don 't know if he ever could ta ke a complete holi day from physics. We were stuck in a monsoon one time and we ta lked about physics through three days of ra in. We might flip off into world pol itics or some o ther subject, but physics , I th ink, was al ways in the back-wel l , the front of h is m ind . When we left C isneguito. there was one hard walk to do. It was getting late , and where were we going to stay? We d i d n 't want to sleep in the middle of a steep trai l . Then we spotted a l ittle cabin down near the river. To get there we had to p low through a whole l ot of brush. but we d i d it. Richard threw his gear down , opened h is sleeping bag, flopped down, and said , " Why d id I ever 1Hi

To1)less Hars a n d Other Ways to H ave F u n

think the Dirac equation was so important'?" He went off, and snored. I woke him u p next morning, and I sai d , " Hey ! How important is the D i rac equation?" He put his head up, and he sai d , " Damned i mportant ! " I n September and October o f 1 97 4 we decided to go back. This time we decided we woul d get a little plane to take us to the bottom of the canyon, and we would climb out of the canyon to see our friends in Cisneguito on the way back. Beforehand , Feynman had decided he wou l d spend a little t i m e o n t h e language o f t h e Raramuri . He went over to UCLA and stud ied , and he learned a few hundred words. We set off on the tri p, and we got i nto some very remote p laces. I remember going through a tiny vi llage, so smal l I don't know why it had a name, but it was called Serro Colorado, and a long came one of these Tarahumara , or Raramuri , fel lows, carryi ng some boards across his shoulder. I stopped him because he was such a handsome fel low, and I hoped we cou l d talk to him. Feynman came u p , and I sai d , "Well?" Feynman says , " What do I say?" I thought about it, and I said , "Why don't you count to ten?" So that's what he d i d , and this fel low broke out in tremendous laughter as

O n the second t r i p Gweneth took a Polaroid camera.

117

N O I N A U V I N !\ H \' (J E N l lJ �

Michelle Feyn man

M i c h e l l e Feynman in 1 99 2 , age twen ty-four.

Marcus Chown3

I never really knew when I was a chil d that some people could leave their jobs at the office, and come home. You could never separate my father from physics-the two were always together. He doodled all the time-on the edges of newspapers , on Kleenex boxes in the car. I didn't realize that he was working on someth ing, and that all the bits of paper could have anything to do with it. If they were so i mportant, why didn't he ever keep them , or cata­ logue them in some way? It seemed very strange, you know, almost a stream-of-consciousness kind of physics, pouring out of him. He had to write it down, and then he could go on to something else. So yes, every Kleenex box, every spare scrap of paper, had some sort of physics on it. I don't know anything about physics, and I 'm not inter­ ested at all in physics . He knew that, and he thought it was fine. He d i dn't expect me to. Had I expressed a desire to learn a great deal about physics , he would have sup­ ported me wholeheartedly, there's no question about it. But I wasn't. I don't think many parents would let it go like that. I don't think he had any expectations for us at all-he left it completely o pen. O nce I tried to shock him by saying I wanted to be a pol itician , sort of his most hated kind of person, and he sai d , "Oh, great ! I'm sure you'll do fine ! " " Don't take anything at face value"-! don't know i f he ever said exactly those words, but that 's what I got from him. He wanted us to be happy, and that sounded like the easiest, but it m ight be the hardest . "Go to college, be educated, learn all you can," but no "I want you to follow in my footsteps. " Nothing like that. I think he real ized they were awfully large footsteps. I n 1 981 , the BBC screened a profile of Feynman in its Horizon series , and my mother watched from beginning to end . Now, there's nothing extraordinary about that, except that my mother had never shown interest in any science program, or in anything to do with science for that matter. (I have never been able to explain to her satisfaction why people in Australia don't fal l off into space.) Later, when 1 60

Doing t h e Physics

Her fat her, photographed by M ichel le.

I was at Caltech, I had an idea. I would go to Feynman , explain that my mother had watched him on TV, and ask him whether he would help me out by dropping her a note. If he did , I reasoned naively, then perhaps the next time I tried to explain to my mother why the sky is blue, she m ight be more receptive.

r n1

November 1 960. Fey n m a n exa m i nes McLe l l a n ' s m icromotor-one m i l l ionth of a horsepower . s i x thou­ sandths of a n i nch i n d i a m eter. " Now don't start wri t i ng smal l . . . . "

C H A PT E R S EV E N

Crazy Ideas: Ti ny Writi ng and H uge Com pute rs I ' m going to talk about how small can you make machi nery, okay? That 's the subject. I 've heard people around the place muttering, "Tiny machines? What's he talking about-tiny machines ! " And I say to them , " You know: very-small-mach ines . ' ' B u t first, before I start o n machi nes , I ' d like to talk about very small writing. How small can we make writing. or numbers? What's the smallest you can possibly make them? I don't mean if you're very delicate with your fingers how small you can make them; I mean with s peci al machinery, and so on-what is the ultimate limit? You say, "Any size, any size. " But you can't make it smaller than atoms. You can 't wri te on an atom. You can 't mark the atom, because marks, you see, are just more atoms spread over other atoms-black atoms on top of white ones , or whatever. There's a laboratory at Cornell that 's doing this particu­ lar research-the micro-somethi ng-or-other laboratory. Now, I have a friend, Tom Van Sant. who's an artist. He loves art and sci ence, and commerce, and everything else too. He's a real man of the present era, and not one of those artists who sneer at science and don't understand the world they are in! 1 63

Feynman 1

The eye on a gra i n of salt .

Tom made a drawing which is the smal lest drawing ever made by anybody i n the world. It's supposed to be an eye, on a sa lt crystal, and a beam was moved around to make holes-to dig away the salt, so as to make the image. Then the image is looked at through an electron microscope. Com pared to a normal human eye. this drawing is a hundred thousand times reduced ! It's very beautiful . Th ere is a sl ight flaw in the d rawing that was caused by a truck that went by. shaking the apparatus and the beam a little-even the tiniest vibration at this scale is a big movement. To get some idea of the scale, the distance across this picture of the eye is approximately a hundred atoms, which is as small as anythi ng has been made yet . Tom wa nted it a hundred thousand times smaller than a human eye. for a reason that I 'll explain in a moment. Wel l , the people at the lab at Cornell were disappointed , because they said they cou ld make the dot about half as big, and the lines about half as thick, so that the whole drawing wou ld be about half the size. But Tom insisted. You see, he had anot her drawing of an eye, which I would like to show you . 1 64

Crazy I d eas: Tiny Wri t i n g and H u ge Com1m t e rs

The eye in t h e desert.

It's the largest p i cture in the world that has ever been drawn-one hundred thousand ti mes larger than a normal human eye, and it's out there in the desert , northeast of the city of Los Angeles. Now I'd like to tell you a little bit about how the p i cture was made. It i s , of course, a picture from t he Landsat satellite. Thi s drawi ng's so big you can't just look at it­ you've got to go up six hundred mi les i nto the sky and look down with the Landsat satellite to see it! What happens with the Landsat satell ite i s this. It has a beam, and it looks down as it sai ls over the grou nd. The beam goes back and forth, and it's computed-the light that comes at any moment into the cell, moment after moment, it's all computed . And an image, a spot, a little square, is made, for that area, at that moment. Each little square i s called a pixel. They are too small to see in a normal picture, but if you magnify it, they are big enough to see. Each p ixel covers about an acre of the earth below. Now how d i d Tom Van Sant have the energy to cover all these acres with white, over a d istance of two and a half kilometers , which is what this drawi ng, this picture, corresponds to? Thi s is the way he d i d it. He set up twenty-four m irrors 1 65

NO OHDINAHV GENIUS

Landsa t i mage w i t h burned-o u t pixels.

in the desert. The Landsat people gave Tom the timings for the satellite. and he exactly calculated the angle for each mirror, so that at the preci se moment that the Landsat beam went to look at his particular acre, the angle was just right such that the sun was reflected straight up into the camera , and saturated it , so that a whole one-acre pixel wou ld come out white.

l. ,.

o .

. 'i-� · i>' \