Genius (80 page)

99 W
ILHELM
R
ÖNTGEN, THE DISCOVERER OF
X
RAYS
: Dresden 1987, 11.

100
EVEN NOW FEYNMAN DID NOT QUITE UNDERSTAND
: F-W, 230.

100 H
E PROPOSED—TO HIMSELF
: NL, 434.

100 S
HAKE THIS ONE
: Ibid.

101 I
T IS FELT TO BE MORE ACCEPTABLE
: Bridgman 1952, 14–15.

102
THE TENSION IN THE MEMBRANE
: Weinberg 1977a, 19.

102 W
HEELER, TOO, HAD REASONS
: Wheeler, interview.

102 H
E ENJOYED TRYING TO GUESS
: SYJ, 69–71.

103 A
LTHOUGH HE TEASED THEM
: F-L, for SYJ, 71.

104 “F
LEXAGONS” LAUNCHED
G
ARDNER’S CAREER
: Gardner 1989; Albers and Alex-anderson 1985.

104 S
IRS
: I
WAS QUITE TAKEN
: Quoted in Gardner 1989, 13–14.

104 F
EYNMAN SPENT SLOW AFTERNOONS
: SYJ, 77.

105 D
ON’T BOTHER ME
: F-L;
WDY,
56.

105
HUMAN SPERMATOZOA
: Maisel, interview.

105 T
HEY DECIDED THAT THEIR BRAINS
: WDY, 55–57.

105 W
E WERE INTERESTED AND HAPPY
: John Tukey, interview, Princeton, N.J.

105 H
E READ SOME POEMS ALOUD
: Maisel interview.

105 R
HYTHM IS ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL TRANSLATORS
: “Some Notes on My Own Poetry,” in Sitwell 1987, 131.

105 W
HILE A UNIVERSE GROWS IN MY HEAD
: “Tattered Serenade,” in Sitwell 1943, 19.

106 I
T’S CLEAR TO EVERYBODY AT FIRST SIGHT
: F-L.

106 W
HEELER WAS ASKED FOR HIS OWN VERDICT
: SYJ, 51; Wheeler 1989, 2–3.

106 T
HE
P
ALMER
P
HYSICAL
L
ABORATORY
:
Princeton University Catalogue: General Issue,
1941–42. PUL.

107 P
RINCETON’S GAVE
F
EYNMAN A SHOCK
: SYJ, 49–50.

107 T
HE HEAD OF THE CYCLOTRON BANISHED
F
EYNMAN
: Wheeler 1989, 3.

107 I
T DOES NOT TURN AT ALL
: A sound explanation—with a description of a safer experiment than Feynman’s—is in Mach 1960, 388–90. But physicists have never stopped arguing for either of the other answers, and there is an ongoing literature.

109 T
HERE IS NO SIGNBOARD
: Eddington 1940, 68.

109 U
NFORTUNATELY HE HAD MEANWHILE LEARNED
: F-W, 233; NL, 435.

110 A
BROADCASTING ANTENNA, RADIATING ENERGY
: Cf. Feynman’s later discussion of radiation resistance,
Lectures,
I-32–1.

110 H
E ASKED
W
HEELER
: F-W, 233–34; NL, 436.

111 T
IME DELAY HAD NOT BEEN A FEATURE
: Wheeler and Feynman 1949, 426.

111 T
HE WAVES WERE NOW RETARDED
:
Lectures, I
-28–2.

111 V
IEWED IN CLOSE-UP
: Morris 1984, 137.

112 S
HAKE A CHARGE HERE
: F-W, 237.

112 O
H, WHADDYAMEAN, HOW COULD THAT BE?
: Feynman 1965
b
.

112 T
HE WORK REQUIRED INTENSE CALCULATION
: He wrote his parents in November: “… last week things were going fast & neat as all heck, but now I’m hitting some mathematical difficulties which I will either surmount, walk around, or go a different way—all of which consumes all my time—but I like to do very much & and am very happy indeed. I have never thought so much so steadily about one problem … I’m just beginning to see how far it is to the end & how we might get there (altho aforementioned mathematical difficulties loom ahead)—
SOME FUN
!” Feynman to Lucille Feynman, November 1940, PERS.

112 F
OR THOSE WHO WERE SQUEAMISH
: Feynman 1941a, fig. 3 caption.

112 T
HEN THE EFFECT OF THE SOURCE
: Feynman 1948b, 941.

113 H
E DESCRIBED IT TO HIS GRADUATE STUDENT FRIENDS
: F-W, 237–38.

113 F
OR EXAMPLE, COULD ONE DESIGN A MECHANISM
: Wheeler and Feynman 1949, 426–27; Hesse 1961, 279.

113 A
S LONG AS THE THEORY RELIED ON PROBABILITIES
: Feynman 1941a, 20.

113 H
E CONTINUED TO CHERISH A NOTION
: Wheeler, oral-history interview, 17 November 1985, 12, AIP.

113 E
ARLY IN
1941
HE TOLD
F
EYNMAN
: Cf. Recommendation of Richard Phillips Feynman for Appointment as Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellow for 1941–1942, PUL.

113 A
S THE DAY APPROACHED
: F-W, 242–44; SYJ, 64–66.

115 P
AULI DID OBJECT
: Wheeler 1989, 26. Much later Feynman said of Pauli’s objection: “It’s too bad that I cannot remember what, because the theory is not right and the gentleman may well have hit the nail right on the bazeeto.” F-W, 244. Pauli also presumably saw that the theory could not be quantized.

115 D
ON’T YOU AGREE
, P
ROFESSOR
E
INSTEIN
: F-W, 244.

115
HIS OWN EQUIVOCAL BALANCE SHEET
: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 3 March 1940, PERS.

115
LECTURE HIS FRIENDS
: Simeon Hutner, telephone interview.

116
HOURS WHEN
I
HAVEN’T MARKED DOWN
: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, November 1940, PERS.

116 B
EFORE REVEALING IT TO ARLINE
: Paul Olurn, telephone interview.

116 S
HE SENT HIM A BOX OF PENCILS
: WDY, 43–44.

116 I
F YOU DON’T LIKE THE THINGS
I
DO
: Arline Greenbaum to Feynman, n.d., PERS.

117 T
HIS STYLE OF TREATMENT
: Teller 1988, 97.

117 A
N OLD FRATERNITY FRIEND PICKED HER UP
: Robbins, interview.

117 H
E CERTAINLY BELIEVES IN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
: Ibid.

117 S
TILL, HE WORRIED
: F-W, 252–53; Feynman 1941a is the manuscript on which he based the talk. Feynman and Wheeler 1941 is the published abstract.

117 T
HE ACCELERATION OF A POINT CHARGE
: Feynman 1941a.

118 W
HEELER NEEDED LITTLE ENCOURAGEMENT
: Feynman (F-W, 243) thought the visit to Einstein “probably” came before his lecture; Wheeler remembers it coming after, and the acknowledgments in Feynman 1941a and Wheeler and Feynman 1945 suggest that Wheeler must be right.

118 E
INSTEIN RECEIVED THIS PAIR
: Wheeler 1989, 27.

118 F
EYNMAN WAS STRUCK
: F-W, 254.

118
AN OBSTINATE HERETIC
: Quoted in Pais 1982, 462.

118
THE STRANGE LITTLE PAPER
:
Physikalische Zeitschrift
10(1909):323; Wheeler 1989, 27; Pais 1982, 484.

119 W
E MUST DISTINGUISH BETWEEN TWO TYPES
: Feynman 1941a, 13; Schweber 1986a, 459.

119 “P
ROF
W
HEELER,” HE WROTE
: Feynman 1941a, 13.

120 T
HE SUN WOULD NOT RADIATE
:
Zeitschrift für Physik
10(1922):317, quoted in Wheeler and Feynman 1945, 159–60.

120 L
EWIS, TOO, WORRIED
: Stuewer 1975, 485 and 499.

120 I
AM GOING TO MAKE
: Lewis, “The Nature of Light,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
12(1926):22, quoted in Wheeler and Feynman 1945, 159 n.

121 T
HESE WERE DEAD ENDS
: F-W, 260.

121 I
T PROVED POSSIBLE TO COMPUTE PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
: The first application of the least-action principle in this context came in work of which Wheeler and Feynman were not yet aware: a paper by A. D. Fokker in
Zeitschrift für Physik
58(1929):386.

121 I
N THE ABSORBER THEORY
: NL, 438–39.

121 T
HE MORE FEYNMAN WORKED
: Ibid., 440.

121 W
E HAVE, INSTEAD
: Ibid.

122
AN IMAGE, SO TO SPEAK
: Minkowski, “Space and Time,” in Weaver 1987, 2:156; Galison 1979.

122 F
EYNMAN
, I
KNOW WHY
: NL, 441.

122 I
T WAS THE FIRST ANTIPARTICLE
: Dirac, however, was reluctant to accept the idea of a new antiparticle; he first assumed that this positively charged particle must be the proton, despite the enormous discrepancy in mass.

123 E
INSTEIN HAD WORRIED ABOUT THIS
: Park 1988, 234.

123 A
PHILOSOPHER
, A
DOLPH CRÜNBAUM
: “The Anisotropy of Time,” in Gold 1967, 149; Adolph Grünbaum, telephone interview.

123 M
R.
X: Feynman was enraged at the postconference suggestion that the proceedings be published; he surprised the other participants by declaring that there was no such subject as “the nature of time.” Grünbaum said later: “Who was he worried about? If he was worried about people in the know then this device failed. I don’t see how a man of his towering eminence could feel his reputation would be jeopardized.” Grünbaum, interview.

123 G
RÜNBAUM
: I
WANT TO SAY
: Gold 1967, 178–79.

124 W
HATEVER HIDDEN BRAIN MACHINERY
: Ibid., 183.

124 O
NE’S SENSE OF THE NOW
: Morris 1984, 146.

124 O
NE CAN SAY EASILY ENOUGH
: Park 1988, 234.

125 I
T’S A POOR MEMORY
: Gold 1967, 235.

125 T
HIS PROCESS LEADS
: Ibid., 4.

126
THREE ARROWS OF TIME
: Ibid., 13–14.

126 I
T’S A VERY INTERESTING THING
: Ibid., 186.

126 H
E HAD COME TO BELIEVE
: F-W, 301.

127 H
E READ UP ON TYPHOID
: Ibid., 303; WDY, 34–35.

127 F
EYNMAN HAD FELT FROM THE BEGINNING
: F-W, 246.

127 S
OMETIMES
W
HEELER TOLD
F
EYNMAN
: Ibid., 268. 127 “O
H
?” P
AULI SAID
: Ibid., 245–46; cf. SYJ, 66.

127 W
HEELER CANCELED THE LECTURE
: F-W, 255 (“Q: The culmination of this grand paper was what? A: The culmination was, his grand paper has never come out").

128 D
IRAC HAD PUBLISHED A PAPER
: Dirac 1933.

128 T
HE NEXT DAY
J
EHLE AND
F
EYNMAN
: NL, 443.

129 Y
OU
A
MERICANS!
: F-W, 272; Schweber 1986a.

130
HERE IS A GREAT MAN
: Robert R. Wilson, interview, Ithaca, N.Y.

130 N
OTEBOOK
O
F
T
HINGS
: Feynman 1940; F-W, 287–88.

130 F
EYNMAN WAS ASKED WHICH COLOR
: F-W, 289–90.

130 F
EYNMAN HAD BEEN FRUSTRATED
: Ibid., 220–21.

131 A
S
I’
M TALKING
:
WDY,
59.

132 I
N
F
EYNMAN’S MIND A SEQUENCE
: F-W, 273–74.

133 A
LEXANDER
F
LEMING HAD NOTICED
: Macfarlane 1984; Root-Bernstein 1989, 166–68.

134
THAT PATHOLOGICALLY LUXURIANT MORBID GROWTH
: Mann 1927, 286–87.

134 F
EYNMAN WAS BACK IN THE LIBRARY
: The account of Feynman’s relationship with Arline Greenbaum is based in part on two versions by Feynman: in F-W, 304; and in WDY, 35. Though more than twenty years apart, these are not independent versions; their wording is so consistent that Feynman must have reviewed his copy of the AIP interview before tape-recording the version that was then published, with further editing, in Feynman 1988.

135
GOODBYE LOVE LETTER
: WDY, 38.

135 W
HEN SHE CONFRONTED
R
ICHARD
: Cf. Arline Greenbaum to Feynman, 3 June 1941, PERS.

135 H
E WAS SUPPORTING HIMSELF
: Fellowship records, PUL.

135 W
HEN HE TOLD A UNIVERSITY DEAN
: F-W, 309.

136
A PHYSICISTS’ WAR
: Kevles 1987.

136 A
NUMBER IN THE AIR
: Wilson, interview.

136
THE
H
UNGARIAN CONSPIRACY
: Rhodes 1987, 308.

136 I
NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT
: Ibid., 305.

136 W
ILSON AND SEVERAL OTHER PHYSICISTS
: Wilson, interview.

137 T
HE
B
RITISH HAD INVENTED
: Rigden 1987, 130.

137 I
T’S SIMPLE—IT’S JUST A KIND OF WHISTLE
: Edward U. Condon, quoted in Kevles 1987, 304.

137
OFFERED TO JOIN THE
S
IGNAL
C
ORPS
: Feynman 1981.

137 F
ROM THEIR WINDOWS THE
B
ELL RESEARCHERS
: SYJ, 83–84.

137 I
T WAS A CHANCE TO SERVE
: F-W, 294.

138
ONE-FOURTH OF THE NATION’S SEVEN-THOUSAND-ODD PHYSICISTS
: Kevles 1987, 320. He estimates that the number included “three quarters of [the physics profession’s] eminent leadership.”

138
THE FIELD OF MECHANISMS, DEVICES:
Compton, “Scientists Face the World of 1942,” quoted in Schweber, forthcoming.

138
A PRIMITIVE SORT OF ANALOG COMPUTER
: F-W, 294–95; SYJ, 85–87.

138 F
EYNMAN FOUND HIMSELF DRAWN
: Mitchell Feigenbaum, interview, New York.

139 H
E CONSIDERED THE CASE OF TWO PARTICLES
: Feynman 1941b.