Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman was born in Queens, New York on May 11, 1918. By the age of 15, he had mastered all the aspects of calculus. He attended MIT in 1936 and developed a great interest in physics. His interests in subatomic physics led him on a life-long quest to clarify the mathematics of this field. After he received his PhD, he married Arline Greenbaum, his childhood sweetheart. She was terribly ill with tuberculosis.

In 1942, he was sent to Los Alamos, New Mexico to aid in the development of the atomic bomb. He was promoted to group leader of the theoretical division at Los Alamos, where he worked on estimating the amount of uranium needed to achieve critical mass. He was required to develop many experimental devices to test his hypothesis without blowing up the Los Alamos facilities. Later in the developing process of the atom bomb, Oakridge, another experimental atom bomb facility, ran into safety problems separating the uranium for the atomic bomb. Feynman then devised the procedures to protect the staff from radiation poisoning.

After the war, Feynman went to Cornell University. There, he developed a simple explanation that described the complex behaviors of subatomic particles. This explanation became known as Feynman Diagrams. In the 1950s, Feynman moved to the campus of Cal Tech. In 1965, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Julian Schwinger and Shinichiro Tomonaga for their work in the field of quantum electrodynamics. The popular lecture series given by Feynman were published in "The Feynman Lectures."

Feynman also worked for NASA in the investigation of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. His work enabled NASA to identify the fault in the O-rings of the solid rocket boosters. This information and Feynman's demonstration of the booster failure shocked the world. This was probably the last great accomplishment of Feynman's illustrious life. He passed away on February 15, 1988, at the age of 69. He died of several rare forms of cancer.

Japh and Jack think that Richard Feynman is a great hero because of his monumental accomplishments in many areas of physics. He helped tremendously in the construction of the atomic bomb, which, along with other events, ended World War II and stopped the slaughter of men of many nationalities. His work in the atomic field led to America's present nuclear state. We use lots of nuclear machinery and energy to run things in our daily lives. These are things like nuclear power plants, rockets, submarines, and battleships.