The Early Life of Dr. Richard P. Feynman
Richard
Feynman was a modern Renaissance man. Hailed as a scientist, musician, Nobel
Laureate, and teacher. He played in a street band in Rio de Janerio, deciphered
Mayan hieroglyphics, a fundamental contributor to quantum electrodynamics,
and one of two learned men of his time on Tanna Tuva, his experience and skill
were of a broad range and applications.
Born in 1918 in Far Rockaway, New York, Richard Feynman started working with and studying electronics at a young age. At eleven, he began to repair radio systems as a hobby, for hotels and homes alike. Because it was the Depression, and he worked for free, he received a good deal of demand. He wasn't trying to make a profit; he wanted to learn more about them, by repairing. His spare time was usually spent experimenting with various different electronics. He once crafted a radio that could pick up signals from Texas, and used it to "predict" radio shows, by listening to them a few hours before the local stations broadcast them.
At seventeen, he attended MIT, studying physics and graduating after four years as a physics major. During this time he met Arlene, whom he married in 1941. She shared a vigor for life with Feynman, and served as a point of constancy in his life. He went on to study at Princeton after graduating from MIT in 1943. Here he had another experiment; if you take a S-shaped sprinkler, submerge it in water, and vacuum water into it, which direction does it turn, the same as if it were spraying water into air, or the opposite? The debate for this question went on long enough, that Feynman decided to go out and DO it. By placing such a sprinkler into a large water bottle, and pressurizing the water to push water into the sprinkler, he could produce results. While this functioned well enough to answer the question, this resulted in the bottle exploding, scattering glass and water everywhere. While this did not harm anyone, it added to Feynman's repute as a researcher at heart.