Genius_ The Life and Science of Richard Feynman - James Gleick [269]
73 OF COURSE QUITE ABSURD: DiraC 1971, 41.
74 DURING A LATE EROTIC OUTBURST: Pais 1986, 251–52.
74 THEY FILLED A NOTEBOOK: Feynman and Welton 1936–37.
74 JUST AS SCHRÖDINGER HAD DONE: F-W, 146
76 BOTH BOYS WERE WORRYING: Feynman and Welton 1936–37; F-W, 141.
76 WELTON WOULD SET TO WORK: F-W, 210–11.
77 THE CHUG-CHUG-DING-DING: Welton 1983; Welton, interview; F-W, 142–44.
77 THEY WORKED OUT FASTER METHODS: F-W, 152–53.
77 ALL I’VE DONE IS TAKE: Quoted in “Bright Flashes from a Mind of Marvel,” Washington Post, 6 January 1990.
78 UTTER CERTAINTY: Heisenberg 1971, 11.
78 MORE THAN THAT OF ALL MANKIND: Ibid., 10.
78 FEYNMAN WANTED TO BE A SHOP MAN: F-W, 154–56; F-L.
79 ENRICO FERMI MADE HIS OWN: Segrè 1980, 204–6; Rhodes 1987, 210–12.
79 UNEXPECTEDLY, THE SLOW NEUTRONS: Enrico Fermi, “Artificial Radioactivity Produced by Neutron Bombardment,” in Weaver 1987, 2:74.
79 FEYNMAN AND WELTON, JUNIORS: F-W, 162.
80 THERE WAS JUST ONE ESSENTIAL TEXT: Bethe et al. 1986.
80 THAT CLOUDS SCATTERED SUNLIGHT: F-W, 176.
81 IT CAME JUST ONE STEP PAST: Lectures, I-32–8.
81 ONE FOGGY DAY: F-W, 176.
82 FEYNMAN’S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK: Vallarta and Feynman 1939.
82 A PROVOCATIVE AND CLEVER IDEA: “Suppose we consider a particle sent into an element of volume dV of scattering matter in a direction given by the vector R. Let the probability of emerging in the direction R’ be given by a scattering function f(R,R’) per unit solid angle. Conversely a particle entering in the direction R’ will have a probability f(R’,R) of emerging in the direction R. Let us assume that the scatterer (magnetic field of the star) has the reciprocal property so that f(R,R’) = f(R’, R). In our case the property is satisfied provided the particle’s sign is reversed at the same time as its direction of motion. That is, the probability of electrons going by any route is equal to the probability of positrons going by the reverse route….” Ibid.
82 SUCH AN EFFECT IS NOT TO BE EXPECTED: Heisenberg 1946, 180.
82 YOU’RE THE LAST WORD: F-W, 178.
82 HE CAUGHT ONE CLASSMATE: Monarch L. Cutler, telephone interview and personal communication; F-W, 179; Cutler, “Reflection of Light from Multi-Layer Films,” senior thesis, MIT, 1939. The professors were Hawley C. Cartwright and Arthur F. Turner.
83 THE PUTNAM COMPETITION: Joseph Callian, Andrew Gleason, telephone interview.
83 ONE OF FEYNMAN’S FRATERNITY BROTHERS: Robbins, interview.
83 FEYNMAN LEARNED LATER: F-W, 191.
83 HIS FIRST THOUGHT HAD BEEN TO REMAIN: Ibid., 193–94.
83 PRACTICALLY PERFECT: John C. Slater to Dean of Graduate School, Princeton, 12 January 1939, PUL. 83 THE BEST UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT: Philip Morse to H. D. Smyth, 12 January 1939, PUL.
83 DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH: Wheeler 1989.
84 HAD NEVER BEFORE ADMITTED: Ibid.
84 THE PHYSICS SCORE WAS PERFECT: Individual Report of the Graduate Record Examination: Feynman, Richard P., 1939, PERS. Besides achieving a perfect physics result, he scored high in the 99th percentile in mathematics; on the other hand, 69 percent of those taking the test outscored him in verbal skills, 85 percent in literature, and 93 percent in fine arts.
Feynman also applied to the University of California at Berkeley; the department there made it clear that he would be accepted but approved him only as the eighth alternate for a $650-a-year fellowship. Robert Sproul to Feynman, 30 March 1939, and Raymond T. Birge to Feynman, 1 June 1939, PERS.
84 IS FEYNMAN JEWISH?: H. D. Smyth to Philip Morse, 17 January 1939, MIT.
84 FEYNMAN OF COURSE IS JEWISH: Slater to Smyth, 7 March 1939, PUL.
84 PHYSIOGNOMY AND MANNER, HOWEVER: Morse to Smyth, 18 January 1939, MIT. Princeton was persuaded. Smyth later heard about Feynman’s success in the Putnam competition and wrote: “My colleagues keep insisting that Feynman is not coming here next year because he took an examination and won a prize fellowship at Harvard. My position is that as long as I have his acceptance and no further word from him he is coming here even if he has been offered the presidency of Harvard.” Smyth to Morse, 8 June