Джеймс Глик - Genius - The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

MIT, the memoirs of John C. Slater (1975) and Philip Morse (1977), and Schweber’s profile of Slater (1989); on the early development of American quantum physics, Kevles 1987, Schweber, forthcoming, and Sopka 1980; on the principle of least action. Lectures I -19, Park 1988, Gregory 1988, and QED; on anti-Semitism in science, Silberman 1985, Steinberg 1971, Lipset and Ladd 1971; Dobkowski 1979, and the remarkable correspondence between Feynman’s MIT professors and Harry D. Smyth (MIT and a confidential file at PUL).

52 IN THAT CASE YOU ARE COMPLETELY LOST : Heisenberg 1971, 15–16.

52 THE AMERICAN MIND: Menge 1932, 11.

53 FEYNMAN CHANCED: F-W, 131.

53 BUT THE DEPRESSION HAD FORCED: Kevles 1987, 250–51.

53 NIGHTMARE: Ibid.

53 FEEL THE CRAVING: Menge 1932, 10.

5 3 DESPITE ANTI-SEMITIC MISGIVINGS: Rabi, for example, recal ed Columbia’s reluctance in appointing him as its first Jew in 1929: “What happened in the American universities was [that] a department was in some sense like a club, very col egiate, family… and certainly the Jews were different, they didn’t fit in too wel . “Quoted in Schweber, forthcoming.

53 HE HAD BEEN ONE OF THE YOUNG AMERICANS: Slater 1975, 131.

53 SLATER KEPT MAKING MINOR DISCOVERIES: Ibid., 130–35.

54 I DO NOT LIKE MYSTIQUES: Slater, oral-history interview, AIP. Quoted in Schweber 1989, 53.

54 HE DOES NOT ORDINARILY ARGUE: Quoted in Schweber, forthcoming.

54 THEY STUDY CAREFULLY THE RESULTS: Ibid.

55 ASSEMBLING A PHYSICS DEPARTMENT : Karl T. Compton, “An Adventure

in

Education,” New York Times, 15

September 1935.

55 BARELY A DOZEN GRADUATE STUDENTS: Morse 1977, 125

56 THE INSTRUCTORS TOLD THE STUDENTS: Slater and Frank 1933, v-vii.

56 WHY DON’T YOU TRY BERNOULLI’S: F-W, 136

56 THE FIRST DAY EVERYONE HAD TO FILL OUT: Welton 1983; F-W, 137. 56 COOPERATION IN THE STRUGGLE: Ibid.

56 MR. FEYNMAN, HOW DID YOU: Ibid. Welton added that Feynman’s solutions were “always correct and frequently ingenious” and that “Stratton never entrusted his lecture to me or any other student.”

57 A LIFEGUARD, SOME FEET UP THE BEACH: QED, 51–52.

58 OUR FRIEND DIRAC, TOO: Quoted in Schweber, forthcoming.

58 THERE CANNOT BE ANY ATOMS: Descartes 1955, 264.

59 AT THE SAME TIME: Ibid., 299.

60 FEYNMAN WOULD RESORT TO INGENIOUS COMPUTATIONAL

TRICKS: F-W, 139

60 FEYNMAN HAD FIRST COME ON THE PRINCIPLE: Lectures, I -

19.

61 SEEMED TO FEYNMAN A MIRACLE: Ibid., I -19–2.

61 IT SEEMS TO KNOW: Gregory 1988, 32–33.

61 THIS IS NOT QUITE THE WAY: Park 1988, 250.

61 IT IS NOT IN THE LITTLE DETAILS: Quoted in Jourdain 1913,

61 IT IS NOT IN THE LITTLE DETAILS: Quoted in Jourdain 1913, 11.

61 PARK PHRASED THE QUESTION: Park 1988, 252.

62 LET NONE SAY THAT THE ENGINEER: The Tech, MIT, 1938, 275.

62 BUT AFTER THEY HAVE CONQUERED: Ibid.

62 ONE ENJOYED A WOOING PROCESS: SYJ, 17.

62 THEIR FRATERNITY BROTHERS DROVE FEYNMAN: SYJ, 19; F-W, 200–201.

6 3 OPPORTUNITIES TO HARASS FRESHMEN: Daniel Robbins, telephone interview.

63 THE SECOND AND THIRD FLOORS: Maurice A. Meyer, telephone interview.

63 SO WORRIED ABOUT THE OTHER SEX: SYJ, 18.

6 3 COURSE NOTES TO BE HANDED DOWN: Michael Oppenheimer, interview, New York.

64 DICK FELT HE GOT A GOOD BARGAIN: SYJ, 18.

6 4 LONG HOURS AT THE RAYMORE-PLAYMORE: Robbins, interview.

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

64 SPARED DICK THE NECESSITY: SYJ, 18.

64 ARLINE 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 AT ONE OF THE FATEFUL MOMENTS : Feynman to Lucil e Feynman, 9 August 1945, PERS; Weisskopf, interview.

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

66 IN 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 WHY DIDN’T THE ENGLISH PROFESSORS: Ibid, 165.

66 HE READ JOHN STUART MILL’S: F-L; SYJ, 30.

66 HE READ THOMAS HUXLEY’S: F-W, 170–73.

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

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

67 HE KNEW ALL ABOUT IMPERFECTION: WDY, 29.

67 PEOPLE LIKE DESCARTES WERE STUPID: F-W, 166.

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

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

68 THE PRAGMATIC SLATER: Schweber 1989, 58.

68 NOT FROM POSITIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS: Harvey, De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis (1628).

68 UP 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 HE DID DEVELOP A RUDIMENTARY THEORY: SYJ, 36.

70 HE SAT THROUGH LECTURES: Ibid., 32.

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

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

72 A SMALL FABLE: Dirac 1971.

72 MY 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 THEY FILLED A NOTEBOOK: Feynman and Welton 1936–37.

74 JUST AS SCHRÖDINGER HAD DONE: F-W, 146

76 BOTH BOYS WERE WORRYING: Feynman and Welton 1936–

37; F-W, 141.

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

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

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

77 ALL 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 FEYNMAN WANTED TO BE A SHOP MAN: F-W, 154–56; F-L.

79 ENRICO FERMI MADE HIS OWN: Segrè 1980, 204–6; Rhodes 1987, 210–12.

79 UNEXPECTEDLY, THE SLOW NEUTRONS : Enrico Fermi,

“Artificial

Radioactivity

Produced

by

Neutron

Bombardment,” in Weaver 1987, 2:74.

79 FEYNMAN AND WELTON, JUNIORS: F-W, 162.

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

80 THAT CLOUDS SCATTERED SUNLIGHT: F-W, 176.

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

81 ONE FOGGY DAY: F-W, 176.

82 FEYNMAN’S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK: Val arta and Feynman 1939.

82 A PROVOCATIVE AND CLEVER IDEA: “Suppose we consider a particle sent into an element of volume dV of scattering

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’ wil 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 YOU’RE THE LAST WORD: F-W, 178.

82 HE CAUGHT ONE CLASSMATE: Monarch L. Cutler, telephone interview and personal communication; F-W, 179; Cutler, “Reflection of Light from Multi-Layer Films,”