Richard Feynman
Uploaded by hosaman on Oct 11, 2000
Richard Philip Feynman was born in New York City on May 11th 1918 to a middle class family that lived on the Southern tip of Manhattan. He grew up in a household where both of his parents poured into him their best qualities. His mother, Lucille, instilled in Richard a powerful sense of humor, which would be essential in forming his magnetic personality and eccentric lecturing style. His father, Melville, decided before Richard was born that if he were a boy, he would grow up to be a scientist, something that Melville himself had always wanted to be. And so guided subtly by his father, and given the power to laugh by his mother, Richard was set on a course that would eventually lead him to become a legend.
At a young age it was apparent that he was scientifically inclined. In school, he was interested in all things scientific and loved math. At one point he even gave thought to becoming a mathematician. After high school, he went to MIT to study physics, and after four years of that he went to Princeton as a graduate student. During this time in his life, he became engaged to his high school sweetie, Arline Greenbaum. Halfway into his education at Princeton, Arline was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and was not given many years to live. So Richard married her and put his doctoral thesis on hold.
Shortly after their marriage, a friend of Richard, Robert Wilson, came to Richard and told him that the government of America was looking for the finest physicists to help construct the atomic bomb. Otherwise known as the Manhattan project. At first Richard said no, but eventually his patriotism won over and he agreed to join the project.
Upon agreeing to join the project, he moved to Los Alamos, where the research facility was located and Arline could move to a hospital in Albuquerque. In July 1945, Arline, the love of Richards life, finally succumbed to the dreaded tuberculosis she had been fighting all of this time. To escape the pain, he immersed himself in his work and the 1st atomic bomb ever was ready for detonation very quickly.
With his work at Los Alamos done, Richard took a teaching position at Cornell University where he became depressed and believed that his life's work was behind him. But as he was stewing in his own depression, more and more...