NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF COLOMBIAMathematics

and science
workshopProfessor: Maurizio De Sanctis
Subject: Richard Feynman
Members:
Geferson Alfonso Noriega Perales (Physics)
Andrés Felipe Villalba Cortes (Physics)
Daniel Esteban Ortegon Caceres (Physics)

Summary Abstract

Feynman has been one of the most Feynman has been one of the most
important scientists in the history of important scientists in the history of
physics in the 20th century. Not only for physics in the 20th century. Not only for
his discoveries, but for being a great his discoveries, but for being a great
fighter against dogmatic and fighter against dogmatic and
pseudoscientific positions. While a pseudoscientific positions. As a student
student at Princeton, he continued his at Princeton, he continued his research
research. For example, using desire. For example, with the elements
microscope elements, he made from a microscope, he made
observations on the habits of ants that observations about the habits of the
came into his room and devised ants that entered his room and devised
experiments to determine how they experiments to determine how they
discover things. He obtained his discovered things. He obtained a Ph.D.
doctorate in Physics in 1942, with work in Physics in 1942, with a paper on
on electromagnetic waves supervised electromagnetic waves supervised by
by American nuclear physicist John American nuclear physicist John
Wheeler. Wheeler.

Introduction

Feynman was a genius who was able to see the simplicity of apparently complicated
things. He had an extraordinary ability to appreciate the obvious. He was incapable of
solving anything until he understood it down to the smallest detail, and above all he
was incapable of sitting still if he discovered that he did not understand something.

Few people in history have won the Nobel Prize for their achievements in theoretical
physics, have painted a nude female bullfighter on commission, have broken into
army safes, have explained physics to Einstein, have played the frigideira in Brazil
and have been declared unfit for military service due to mental incapacity.
All who knew him remember his simplicity, honesty, sense of humor and wit.

Childhood and education

On May 11, 1918, Richard Phillips Feynman was born in the Queens borough of New York.
Lucille Phillips and Arthur Melville Feynman, of Russian-Polish descent with Jewish religious
beliefs, were his parents who strongly influenced and determined Richard's character
throughout his life: From his mother he inherited a characteristic sense of humor and from his
father a questioning of statements in every field (from the mathematical to the imaginative).
As a teenager, he already demonstrated his unique, creative and curious ability while
repairing radios in his garage and making burglar alarms for fun, not to mention that he was
self-taught in subjects such as trigonometry, advanced algebra, analytical geometry and
calculus.
After graduating from a regular school in his neighborhood,
thanks to his outstanding grades he enrolled at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a
bachelor's degree in 1939. Later, despite having had a
relatively low grade in history and English, he obtained a
perfect score in the physics and mathematics sections of the
entrance exams to graduate school at Princeton University,
where he obtained his doctorate for his thesis entitled The
Principle of Least Action in Quantum Mechanics. A curious
fact is that at the time of giving his first lecture, among the
guests were Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli and John Von Neumann.

Participation in the Manhattan Project

Eager to develop the atomic bomb before Nazi Germany, Feynman decided to participate in
the Manhattan Project developed by the US Army at Los Alamos. He was directly put in
charge of the theoretical division and quickly became group director. It was here that he
developed the Bethe-Feynman formula for calculating the yield of a fusion bomb and
supervised the safety of the uranium enrichment plants. At this time, the members of the
project were allowed few trips abroad to avoid information leaks to the Soviet side, so
Feynman was bored during his stay and found various ways to distract himself: Deciphering
safes in which there were plans and important instructions for the atomic bomb to expose its
weak points.
As is well known, the bomb was developed quickly and tested with the Trinity bomb. The only
curious person who ruled out the damage that ultraviolet radiation could cause and who saw
the explosion without protective glasses was Richard Feynman, who momentarily perceived
an immense glow with a purple trail. Despite being one of the hundreds of scientists, engineers,
chemists and other participants in the project, it is known that his contributions were very important in
its development.

Contributions
Partón Model: It was a contribution formulated in the titles published
in his study of nuclear interactions. This contribution adds to
particle physics the theory of quarks as components of hadrons, a
theory that can be considered a catalyst for its experimental
verification, and will lead to the study of quantum chromodynamics;
the origin of the parton model described by Feynman.

Path integral formulation: Feynman presented this formulation

Space-Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics in 1948, under two
fundamental postulates; which are the cornerstone for the possible path of a particle,
seen from the quantum approach; defined as follows: "If the Connection between real and complex line integrals

amplitude of a wave on a given surface is known, the

amplitude at a nearby point can be obtained as the sum of
the contributions from all the points on the surface, where
each contribution suffers a phase shift proportional to the
time it would take for the light to reach the point from the
i fu(x,y)dy+v(x,y)dr i C .
surface following the shortest light ray in geometric optics."
Development of the parallel computer: Feynman's contribution was crucial in the
development of the first massively parallel computer and in the search for innovative
uses in numerical calculations. In addition, from this new ideas were forged for neural
networks as well as physical simulations using cellular automata.

«We are at the very beginning of the era of the human race. It is not illogical
that we have or encounter problems, but there are tens of thousands of years in
the future. It is our responsibility to do what we can, learn what we can,
improve the solutions and pass them on to our successors. It is our responsibility to
free our hands for future generations.
-Richard P. Feynman

Conclusions
Richard Feynman dazzled as a personality and intellect full of wit; once again
providing an immeasurable growth of scientific and human achievements to physics,
in a long historical column of names just as recognizable as his; column endowed
with the evolution of science, and evolution of knowledge and understanding of
phenomena throughout time of the human being as a conscious being, which
permeate it; for which he is credited with the value of one of the scientists who gives
free rein to the voracity of human beings to interact with their environment, to
influence even more and preeminently that tree of many forests that is science.
So that language, every scientist or physicist, every effort to understand and every
learning; is a verb or an intellection that formulates our present in a word, or perhaps
a mathematical formula, or perhaps a network; a network in which Feynman
supposes for the world a bridge beyond, towards the future.

References
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