Richard Freyman

1
Richard Freyman
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Early Life

• Born May 11, 1918
• From Queens, New York
• His family originated from Russia and Poland
  both of his parents were Jewish
• By his early youth, however, Feynman described
  himself as an "avowed atheist.

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Education

• He attended the MIT, where he received a
  bachelors degree in 1939. While there, Feynman
  took every physics course offered, including a
  graduate course on theoretical physics while only
  in his second year.
• He obtained a perfect score on the graduate
  school entrance exams to Princeton University in
  mathematics and physics.
• He received a Ph.D. from Princeton in 1942
• Feynman's thesis applied the principle of
  stationary action to problems of quantum
  mechanics, laying the groundwork for the "path
  integral" approach and Feynman diagrams, and was
  entitled "The Principle of Least Action in
  Quantum Mechanics".

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Famous Accomplishments

• Known for his work in the path integral
  formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of
  quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the
  superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as
  well as in particle physics (he proposed the
  parton model).
• Received the Nobel Prize Physics in 1965
• He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb
  and was a member of the panel that investigated
  the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster.
• Feynman has been credited with pioneering the
  field of quantum computing, and introducing the
  concept of nanotechnology.

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Beliefs on the World

• You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and
  uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much
  more interesting to live not knowing than to have
  answers which might be wrong. I have approximate
  answers and possible beliefs and different
  degrees of uncertainty about different things,
  but I am not absolutely sure of anything and
  there are many things I don't know anything
  about, such as whether it means anything to ask
  why we're here . . . I don't have to know an
  answer. I don't feel frightened not knowing
  things, by being lost in a mysterious universe
  without any purpose, which is the way it really
  is as far as I can tell. It doesn't frighten me.
• -Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988)

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Beliefs in God

• I don't think that the laws can be considered to
  be like God because they have been figured
  out.-- Richard P Feynman
• God was invented to explain mystery. God is
  always invented to explain those things that you
  do not understand. Now, when you finally discover
  how something works, you get some laws which
  you're taking away from God you don't need him
  anymore. But you need him for the other
  mysteries. So therefore you leave him to create
  the universe because we haven't figured that out
  yet you need him for understanding those things
  which you don't believe the laws will explain,
  such as consiousness, or why you only live to a
  certain length of time -- life and death -- stuff
  like that. God is always associated with those
  things that you do not understand. Therefore I
  don't think that the laws can be considered to be
  like God because they have been figured out.--
  Richard P Feynman

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Beliefs in Science

• As you know, a theory in physics is not useful
  unless it is able to predict underlined effects
  which we would otherwise expect.-- Richard P
  Feynman
• Science is a way of trying not to fool
  yourself.-- Richard P Feynman