About this title: Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, Richard Feynman was one of the world's greatest theoretical physicists, but he was also a man who fell, often jumped, into adventure. An artist, safecracker, practical joker and storyteller, Feynman's life was a series of combustoble combinations made possible by his unique mixture of high ...
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books (Mm), Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780553276640ISBN:0553276646
Description: Good. 0553276646 Mass market paperback, previously read used book in good condition, varying degrees of shelf wear, some spine creases, m..._ read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Edition: First Paperback Edition
Binding: Softcover; Third Printing
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, New York
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780393316049ISBN:0393316041
Description: Good with no dust jacket. 9780393316049. 0.94 x 8.19 x 5.51 Inches; 350 pages; Soft Cover Paperback, No Dust Jacket, Shows Wear; Rubbed. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780393316049ISBN:0393316041
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Clean, tight softcover--light tanning at bottom, but othewise as new--no marks on text or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 350 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Unwin
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780045300235ISBN:0045300232
Description: Good. EXCELLENT value for money and ready for dispatch. Delivery usually within 3/5 days. Our reputation is built on our Speedy Delivery Service and our Customer Service Team. read more
"This was disappointing, because I've been wanting to read this for a while because he is so renown for being quite the hilarious character as well as a Nobel prize-winning physicist. This is a collection of essays that serves as a memoir; many are not directly related to physics, but that's definitely the theme. After reading this, my conclusion is that Feynman was mostly a world class knob. He lost me fairly early into it, when he described how you could see physics in action in the everyday world by messing with a waitress's tips. How very droll of you, Mr. Feynman. He is certainly quite the character in the same sense your annoying neighbor is quite the character, the kind who sees you unloading your groceries from the car and saunters over to give you pointless advice about his expert analysis on the best way to unload groceries without helping you, driving you to grit your teeth and nod as you flee toward your door because anything you might say in response, such as "shut UP, annoying guy!" would result in him saying "Aw shucks, I can't help it that I'm smarter than you." Many demerits for egregious overuse of the exclamation point.
Grade: C- Recommended: Not really, although the essays set during his time at Los Alamos are somewhat interesting given the historical context. I suppose it's possible he really was charming and amusing in real life, but you wouldn't know it from his writing."
There can be no argument that Richard P Feynman was a genius. He has been a hero of mine since I was very young, probably because my father also greatly admires him and spoke to me about Feynman and his unique personality from time to time.
There are some great stories in this book and they will make you laugh out loud. Feynman was always so full of life and he was curious about absolutely everything from a very early age. He would always want to know, "How does that work?" or "Why is that the way it is?" or "Is there another way to do that?" He would also latch onto something and decide that he wanted to do it, and to do it really well. For example, witnessing the bongo-playing in Brazil inspired him to learn to play like that and not like some studio-taught purist. He achieved it through dedication to his objective and sheer passion.
What made Feynman a genius? Well, there were lots of factors that contributed to his status, many of them discussed in other reviews of this book, but, my reason for putting him into that classification was that he was capable of explaining the most complex of matters to a five-year-old. That is TRUE genius.
I have read this book many times. It is a short book and will remain amongst my collection until the day that I die. If you haven't read it already, you should. You really need to read this book. I can guarantee that it will change at least one aspect of your life!"
"I just recounted to my 16 year old three stories from this book, then went and fetched it from my bookshelf. I read it in 1985. The three stories were:
RF as the supervisor of the "computer room" at Los Alamos. "These army privates would rather be fighting overseas. Let me tell these soldiers what they are doing and why its important." Soon the soldiers were running the place better than he could.
RF's first visit to the Y-12 Plant. Sees test vats of UF6 without concern for avoiding arrangements that would cause critical mass." RF: "Aren't your afraid the real stuff will explode?" "Explode?!?!" No one had told them what they were doing other than processing a chemical.
RF's second visit to the Y-12 Plant: Blueprints everywhere. Safeguards builtin everywhere. No criticality possible anywhere. But its all coming way to fast. RF does not understand the blueprints. Is that square thing a valve or a window? It's way to late to ask now. Points to a square on the diagram (hoping to find out what it is), "What happens if that valve is closed?" 30 seconds of bable, then "Oops! We'll fix it and get back to you.""
"Richard Feynman is certainly a curious character.
He won the Nobel prize for physics in 1965 and was also noted for many other revolutionary insights into the world of theoretical particle physics and also his work on the Manhattan project during the second world war. This book - a series of transcripts of taped conversations with his friend Ralph Leigton - forms an autobiographical sequence and gives a fascinating insight into the mind of a true genius.
As well as his academic work, Feynman amused himself by playing practical jokes on colleagues and indulging a passion for safecracking using a combination of guile and theory to undo combination locks - a hobby that could have landed him in a lot of hot water in the high security world of Los Alamos. He certainly had an eye for the ladies and was married several times, and one particularly amusing segment describes his application of scientific analysis to the art of chatting up bar girls in Las Vegas. He also developed unexpected talents for such diverse subjects as playing the drums in a samba band in Brazil and putting on an exibition of his paintings. He had always believed that he had no aptitude for drawing, but undertook a bet with an artist friend to teach each other science and art, respectively.
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