Who is Richard Feynman, the pioneer of quantum electrodynamics?

Richard Feynman It had a number of features that made it unique. He was born on May 11, 1918 in New York City, United States of America. scientist He was endowed with a strange, quick mind and a free spirit. He was an extraordinary man, storyteller, musician, writer, teacher, artist, and physicist.

Encouraged to be a scientist from an early age, Feynman He received his physics degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After graduation, he attended a master’s program at Princeton University, where he served as a research assistant at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1940-1941, and received his doctorate. in 1942.

With the growing rumors that Germany was developing a nuclear bomb during World War II (1939-1945), the American government created the Manhattan Project with the aim of developing an atomic bomb. Thanks to the prestige he gained during his time at Princeton, Richard Feynman was invited to join the project and studied under Hans Bethe, leader of the project’s theoretical physics group.

By helping to develop calculations that estimate the amount of energy released by a bomb explosion, Feynman He witnessed the first explosion test, which took place at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.

A very interesting fact happened during his participation in the Manhattan Project. Richard Feynman He developed an incredible skill at breaking safes. Project files were top secret and kept locked for security purposes. But he would break into them and leave messages inside to prove the safes weren’t that secure. Yes, as I said at the beginning of this text, Feynman Besides being good-natured, he was a very strange person.

However, there was also a personal tragedy during this period. Feynman He lost his first wife, Arline Greenbaum, to tuberculosis. He was married twice and had only children with his third wife, Gweneth Howarth, with whom he lived for the rest of his life.

Feynman’s Nobel Prize

With the end of World War II, Feynman He went on to other projects and was a professor at renowned institutions such as Cornell University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). And at Caltech, he developed the Quantum Electrodynamic Theory (QED) along with other researchers. His research earned him the Nobel Prize in 1965. He also conducted research in the fields of superfluids and the weak force.

Feynman and the Rubber Ring

In 1986, seconds after the launch of the space shuttle defiant, an accident caused the spacecraft to explode, killing all 7 crew members. A commission was specially selected to investigate the causes of the accident and Richard Feynman was among the chosen ones.

While some said the causes could never be clarified, Feynman explained the accident using one of the rubber seals used by the space shuttle and a glass of ice water. In a simple experiment, he showed that such materials lose their flexibility at low temperatures.

On the day of the accident, the ambient temperature was very low, which may have caused the sealing tires to freeze. When the engines were ignited, the tires did not have sufficient time and expansion capability, resulting in an explosion in the engine stages, resulting in a lack of sealing. The statement was broadcast on television.

The end of a brilliant story

Richard Feynman He was diagnosed with a rare form of abdominal cancer in the 1970s. He underwent surgery to remove the tumor, which was successful. But he remained with sequelae in the internal organs of the Organs. He lived with the disease for many years. In 1987, doctors saw the disease was progressing and performed more surgeries, but his overall health deteriorated significantly. Choosing not to undergo further procedures, Feynman passed away on February 15, 1988.

Feynman was an exceptional physicist, not only because of the wealth of his work as a theorist, but also as a professor. It was his concern with the training and upbringing of new scientists that encouraged him to go to Caltech and even visit Brazil between 1949 and 1966.

New researchers, scientists, and professors are being produced at our universities every day, but Feynman’s concern has always been: What is the quality of these professionals? The privileged are those who can live with this unique person. We are alone with his works such as his “Lessons de Física” books, which brought together the lessons he gave to undergraduate students in the 1960s.