2. When Richard Feynman was a professor at Cornell University, he was asked to teach a weekly course at an aeronautics laboratory in Buffalo. One night, to make his trip to Buffalo a little more exciting, he decided to stop into a bar. Feynman enjoyed the bar, called the Alibi Room, and frequented it often. One night he ran into a drunk in the bathroom. When Feynman entered, the drunk boomed, I don't like your face. I think I'll push it in. Feynman retorted, Get out of my way... The drunk promptly punched him in the face, and before he knew what had happened, Feynman had punched back with equal strength! The drunk was dumbfounded, and backed out of the bathroom. But Feynman's troubles did not end there. Feynman stubbornly stayed in the bar and continued to drink his Coke [another story]. Later, the drunk, Curly, and his mob approached Feynman. They wanted to fight, but Feynman was still stubborn and didn't budge. So the mob backed away. Curly's temper flared again, however, and Feynman felt that he might have a fight on his hands. Luckily for Feynman, another man came into the bar and proceeded to introduce Curly to Feynman, after which Feynman quickly slipped out of the door. Richard Feynman: physicist, drummer, safecracker, boxer (?).
3. During all of World War II, Richard Feynman was deferred from the army because he was working on the bomb at Los Alamos. After the war, however, he was required by the government to get a physical. Feynman passed quickly through most of the procedures: checking vision, hearing, etc. However, when Feynman arrived at the next booth he was confronted with one of his most hated foes: a psychiatrist. After the psychiatrist talked with an angry Feynman for 25 minutes, he called another colleague in. During their talk, Feynman did not answer the psychiatrist's questions directly, giving extensive, and sometimes almost silly answers. When the other psychiatrist was done speaking to him, Feynman handed his papers to an army officer. The officer handed Feynman's papers back with 'REJECTED' stamped in large red letters. It turns out that Feynman had received a 'D' [deficient] on the psychiatric portion of the examination. Upon writing a letter to the army explaining his situation, Feynman received the following result: Deferred. 4F. Medical Reasons. Much of this information was taken from the book Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman
4. Richard Feynman was obviously a remarkable
person as an adult, but what was he like as a child? It is no surprise that
the young Feynman was an overachiever. Even his friends sensed that he was extremely
smart when, in his senior year, they named him not 'Most Intelligent' or anything
of that sort, but 'Mad Genius'. Throughout his high school years he made it
no secret that he was intelligent. He set up a small chemistry 'lab' which consisted,
mainly, of a chemistry set and a few other tools. Unfortunately, his lab was
burnt down by a few vile children in his neighborhood. Searching for another
hobby, Feynman turned to math. Possibly his most favorite events during his
high school career were math team meets. Feynman enjoyed the competitive intensity
of the New York High School math meets, and of course, he always performed well.
But then, he did have a head start on the rest of his colleagues. By the age
of 15, Feynman had mastered trigonometry and calculus, both integral and differential.
He then quickly moved on to understanding conics and complex numbers. It was
no surprise when, in his senior year, he won the annual New York University
Math Championship. Thus, Feynman went through high school as triumphantly as
he went through the rest of his life. Who would believe that this incredible
man, a genius for sure, maybe more, scored a mere 125 on his grade school IQ
test?