Dr. Richard P. Feynman :: Biographies Physics Essays

Dr. Richard P. Feyn gay There exists a man in the memoir of modern physics who defies almost all comment. His name is Richard P. Feynman, and he is equally known for dozens of accomplishments which often seem to have very teeny-weeny to do with physics. Bongo drummer is nearly as good a description as any, for playing the bongos was one of those accomplishments. In a feat of Sapphic skill that is rare amongst even so the most prestigious classically instruct musicians, Feynman taught himself to sustain two-handed polyrhythms of seven against six and even thirteen against xii (Gleick, 16). He had a feeling for rhythm that allowed him to do everything from hold an audition spellbound with his improvisational bongo sound (16), to annoy his college roommates with an incessant, almost absentminded drumming of his fingers (65).Richard Feynman was also much more than a bongo drummer, or even a mere physicist. He had the uncanny ability to see a puzzle and come to its inevitable so lution in the time it takes an reasonable person to blink. Feynman was asked to serve on the Rogers Commission investigation of the Challenger plosion in 1986 (Slone, Challenger). After reluctantly agreeing to join the commission, he began to truly swallow up his teeth into the problem. By going directly to the people who designed and strengthened the shuttle, Feynman was able to learn just exactly how dangerous shuttle leak actually could be. The official NASA figure for the chance of shuttle failure was 1 in 100,000 (Challenger). In the course of his research, Feynman came to the conclusion that a more blameless number was actually 1 in 100 (Challenger). It was because of this willingness to do the prerequisite research and look beyond the management level of NASA to the guts of the engineer that Feynman was able to discover the true cause of the explosion. Cutting through governmental correctness and public relations concerns, Feynman conducted a simple experiment with a cup of ice water in front of a brush of the commission, thereby proving that the material the O-ring was made of was incapable of handling the stress of takeoff at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature on the day of the prove (Challenger).It might be interesting to wonder about the origins of a man with such an incredible ability to isolate the truth and clearly partake it to others. To find those origins one need look no farther than the eastern coastline of the United States of America.