Richard P. Feynman was born May 11, 1918 to Melville and Lucille Feynman. His father, Melville, never had a chance to endulge his interests in science, so he engulfed Richard in science from a young age. Even at a young age Richard's interest in science and mathematics was extraordinary. He taught himself basic mathematics before entering school. He would also read the Encyclopedia Britannica and he gained much insight into science form that. He even experimented with electronics building his own burglar alarm.
At school Richard excelled at math and science. On his own he taught himself trigonometry and calculus. He even won the New York University Math Championship. While his grades in math and science were exceptional, Feynman had poor grades in art, social sciences, and literature. This fact made him less likely to get into the college of his choice. He was rejected from Columbia University, so he went to MIT.
While at MIT he changed majors from mathematics to physics after finding the mathematical courses too easy and rigid. He took Theoretical Physics (a graduate class) his second year. Since there was no quantum mechanics courses offered at MIT (a subject that Feynman was extremely interested about) he and a friend taught themselves what they could from the available texts. Feynman received his B.Sc. in 1939 and then moved to Princeton for his doctorate.
At Princeton he went on to develop a new approach to quantum mechanics. He made new models of electromagnetics using particle interactions in space-time. He also worked on the Manhattan project while at Princeton. This was a great distraction and slowed the progress of his thesis greatly. In 1942 Feynman received his doctorate.
In 1945 Feynman became the professor of theoretical physics at Cornell University. There he devoted himself to teaching and did not do any research. In 1950 he received a job as a professor at CIT (Cal Tech) There he did more work that contributed to the field of quantum mechanics. In 1959 talk at the meeting of the American Physical Society at Cal tech. In this speech he basically sparked the new science of nanotechnology. In 1965 he jointly won the Nobel Prize for physics. His research also led to the theory of 'partons' which later led to the current theory of quarks which are a fundamental part of particle physics.
Feynman continued to teach at caltech until his death in 1988. His research and innovation have pushed physics forward over the last century.
When he graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925 after that he attended Lincoln College at Oxford.
After being educated at Trinity College Dublin he moved to Queens University in Dublin where he worked as the Secretary of the Administrative Headquarters of the Queens Colleges. It was then when he produced his most important conceptions and calculations. His particular theory was that electrical charges in atoms are comprised of negatives which he would call electrons. He calculated the magnitude of a particle of electricity, or Stoney Unit which he would later name the electron in one of his papers in the Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society in 1891. The path taken to get to Stoney Units utilized the Stoney Scale which was the mathematical equation he developed to get his desired answer when
This is where most of his work occurred and came from. He worked at the University of Berlin from 1927-1929. In 1932 he worked with Hilbert on quantum mechanics. He published the book ‘The mathematical foundations of Quantum mechanics’ (Poundstone). This book pleased many well known physicists such as Niels Bohr and Heisenberg and played a huge role in the quantum theory. In 1928 Neumann published the book “Theory of parlor games” (Poundstone). This book began his long legacy in game theory. He mostly focused on the game of poker. Game theory explained what bluffing was and defined it. He came up with the Minimax theorem. This asserts that for every finite, two-person zero-sum game, there is a rational outcome in the sense that two perfectly logical adversaries can arrive at a mutual choice of game strategies, confident that they could not expect to do better by choosing another strategy (“Von Neumann and the development of game theory.”). Von Neumann from 1930-1933 was appointed a visiting professor at Princeton University after he made a guest speech to students and professors. He wasn't known as a good professor. His lectures were fast and students did not like him well (Poundstone). After his time at Princeton in 1933 Von Neumann became the first professor at Institute for advanced study at Princeton. This is when Adolf Hitler took power in Germany and the war would soon take
In our educational system, students are not taught fully about a subject. While in Brazil, Feynman asked a student some questions after his exam that regarded his exam responses and he could not apply his calculations
Carl Sagan: astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, skeptic, and visionary. The middle of the twentieth century was clad in scientific advancements that opened up the realm of our universe to the world. At the head of this exploration was Carl Sagan, a pioneer of sorts. Aside from his countless contributions to the scientific community, he backed a new understanding of the cosmos to the more pedestrian population of the world.
Nash earned a full scholarship to the Carnegie Institute of Technology. After starting his college career with a major in chemical engineering, he later switched to chemistry and eventually mathematics. He later graduated with a bachelor of science in mathematics and a master of science in mathematics in 1948. After graduation he started his graduate studies at Princeton University.
in the world including Niels Bohr and Max Born. Like many of the top physicists
Another of his most famous contributions is his work in the Challenger investigation when it crashed in 1986. His notorious demonstration of the O-rings to cold was during this research, an experiment that required no more than a glass of ice water. However, less known to the public was Feynman’s efforts on the California State Curriculum Committee in the 1960’s when he fought against the mediocrity of current textbooks. Sadly, Richard Feynman died on February 15, 1988, in Los Angeles.
Later in his life, Feynman attended college as a physics major. He finished his first four years in 1939 at MIT, and then moved on to Princeton for graduate school. While at Princeton, Feynman proposed to Arline. The two planned to be married after hecom...
Carl Sagan is known as one of the most famous scientists of all time. He revolutionized how the world looked at space and the search for intelligent life beyond our planet. The author of many books, he is most known for Contact (which was adapted into a movie) and for the PBS documentary Cosmos. As one of America's most famous astronomers and science-fiction writers, Carl Sagan turned a life of science into one of the most critically successful scientific careers of the 20th century.
Sir Isaac Newton had a great scientific community, and many of his principles are still being used today. Isaac Newton’s life, education, and personal life, have all effected contributions to science.
He conducted experiments on sunlight and prisms. He discovered that sunlight was made up of different colors. This lead to his work on reflecting telescopes. At the same time he was working out his ideas of planetary motion. He returned to Cambridge in 1667 and became the a fellow, earned his MA and the following year became the chair of the math department. he then wrote a book on optics. Newton worked cooperatively wiht other scientists such as Robert Hookeand Edmund Halley on planetary motion. But he was later bitter and resentfull not wanting to give other any credit for their contributions to his work. Newton went on to serve in government positions such as a member of Parliament and later as Warden of the Mint. His only words spoken as a member of parliament were "shut the window." He had a mental breakdown of sorts resulting in thoughts of persecutiojn mania later in life.
In 1740 entered the University of Konigsberg as a student of theology and was a student of Martin Knutzen, who introduced him to the rationalist philosophy of Leibniz and Wolff, and he likewise imbibed interest in natural science, in particular the mechanical Newton.
Nikola Tesla is regarded as one of the most brilliant inventors in history. His work provided the basis for the modern alternating current power system, as well as having developed both radio and the fluorescent light bulb. He worked with Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, among others. He was also widely misunderstood by his peers and the public at large.
In 1959, at 17 Hawking entered Oxford University. The college his father went to. This father had intended for him to study medicine but Hawkings was more focused on getting a degree in Mathematics. Unfortunately, Oxford University didn’t provide what he was looking for. So, he decided he would study natural science and phy...