Richard Feynman :: biography biographies bio

Early Years * Richard Phillips Feynman was natural May 11, 1918 to Melville and Lucille Feynman. His sister, Joan, followed later, March 31, 1928. * Richards life was charted for science before he was even out born. Melville decided while the child was still in the womb that if the fumble was a boy he would grow up to be a scientist. Richard, in fact, was a boy and his precocious young mind caught on quickly to his fathers earliest scientific teaching. His fathers practice of teaching Richard to ask fact-finding questions began a lifetime devoted to the wonder and mystery of the universe. * It was this process, learned too soon in life, of questioning and observing, the classic scientific method, that Richard credited his discoveries by. As he stated in an address to science teachers in 1966, I work out it is very important--at least it was to me--that if you are going to teach people to build observations, you should show that something wonderful can come from them. I learned so what science was about it was patience. If you looked, and you watched, and you paid attention, you got a great reward from it--although mayhap not any time. As a result, when I became a more mature man, I would painstakingly, hour after hour, for years, work on problems--sometimes many an(prenominal) years, sometimes shorter times many of them failing, lots of stuff going into the wastebasket--but every once in a while there was the gold of a new understanding that I had learned to expect when I was a kid, the result of observation. For I did not learn that observation was not worthwhile (What Is Science?). * In high school, Richards aptitude for learning was most evident. He excelled at math, building a solid foundation for his physical science calling ahead. In fact, he won first prize in the juvenile York University math competition in his final year in utmost Rockaway high school (Wikipedia). * After high school, Richard go along his education at Ma ssachusetts Institute of Technology graduating with a degree in physics in 1939 as well as receiving the pretigious Putnam Fellow reward (Wikipedia). As an undergraduate, Feynman took every physics course offered at the university. He then continued his education, moving on to Princeton to study for his Ph.D. Once again, Feynman showed his facility with all things mathematical, receiving a perfect score on the mathematical and physics portion of the Princeton catch up with exam.