"Ричард Фейнман. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!/Вы, конечно, шутите, мистер Фейнман! (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

could invent so much innocent mischief in one life is surely an inspiration!
Ralph Leighton



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Introduction


I hope these won't be the only memoirs of Richard Feynman. Certainly
the reminiscences here give a true picture of much of his character - his
almost compulsive need to solve puzzles, his provocative mischievousness,
his indignant impatience with pretension and hypocrisy, and his talent for
one-upping anybody who tries to one-up him! This book is great reading:
outrageous, shocking, still warm and very human.
For all that, it only skirts the keystone of his life: science. We see
it here and there, as background material in one sketch or another, but
never as the focus of his existence, which generations of his students and
colleagues know it to be. Perhaps nothing else is possible. There may be no
way to construct such a series of delightful stories about himself and his
work: the challenge and frustration, the excitement that caps insight, the
deep pleasure of scientific understanding that has been the wellspring of
happiness in his life.
I remember when I was his student how it was when you walked into one
of his lectures. He would be standing in front of the hall smiling at us all
as we came in, his fingers tapping out a complicated rhythm on the black top
of the demonstration bench that crossed the front of the lecture hall. As
latecomers took their seats, he picked up the chalk and began spinning it
rapidly through his fingers in a manner of a professional gambler playing
with a poker chip, still smiling happily as if at some secret joke. And then
- still smiling - he talked to us about physics, his diagrams and
equations helping us to share his understanding. It was no secret joke that
brought the smile and the sparkle in his eye, it was physics. The joy of
physics! The joy was contagious. We are fortunate who caught that infection.
Now here is your opportunity to be exposed to the joy of life in the style
of Feynman.
Albert R. Hibbs
Senior Member of the Technical Staff,
Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology



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Vitals


Some facts about my timing: I was born in 1918 in a small town called
Far Rockaway, right on the outskirts of New York, near the sea. I lived
there until 1935, when I was seventeen. I went to MIT for four years, and