Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2018
Volume 63, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 14–17, 2018; Columbus, Ohio
Session S06: The Legacy of Richard FeynmanInvited Undergraduate
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Sponsoring Units: FHP Chair: Alan Chodos, American Physical Society Room: B130 |
Monday, April 16, 2018 1:30PM - 2:06PM |
S06.00001: Learning Through Teaching, Thinking By Drawing, And Distilling Truth From `Crazy Ideas:' John Wheeler's Lifelong Influence On Richard Feynman. Invited Speaker: Paul Halpern In this talk I will argue that Richard Feynman's graduate years at Princeton under the mentorship of John Wheeler had an indelible influence on his later career, not only in his research topic, what became known as the Wheeler-Feynman absorber theory, but also on his teaching and research styles. Like Wheeler, Feynman came to believe that diagrams were instrumental to physics calculations, that often the best way to learn something was to teach it, and that nature possessed an underlying simplicity in its rules and components. Feynman found that 'crazy ideas,' such as Wheeler's one-electron universe proposal, might contain seeds of truth that germinate into important findings. I'll explore examples of `Wheeleresque' moments throughout Feynman's career. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 16, 2018 2:06PM - 2:42PM |
S06.00002: Feynman after 40 Invited Speaker: John Preskill Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize for his seminal contributions to quantum electrodynamics during the 1940s, but he also made many enduring contributions later in life to science and science communication. I'll focus on Feynman's activities after age 40, emphasizing in particular The Feynman Lectures on Physics and his visionary ideas about quantum computation. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 16, 2018 2:42PM - 3:18PM |
S06.00003: Richard Feynman in Song and Story Invited Speaker: Virginia Trimble If I am remembered on my 100th birthday, it will be for the Life Magazine article, my year as Miss Twilight Zone, and because I modeled for Richard Feynman when he was learning to draw. Other speakers, both Saturday morning and today, have reminded you of his enormous achievements in science and some interesting near misses. These things are obviously important; also relatively easy to find. But physics, at least Feynman physics, could also be fun and friendly, so I want to share some stories with you. Many appear in "Surely You're Joking" and later books; these will all be first hand. We remained friends beyond the drawing days. Richard came to my PhD party, making it the astronomy graduate students' social event of the year (1968), and we "did lunch" occasionally after my 1971 return from England until not long before his death, as well as encountering at symposia, conferences, and all. There was the time a computer program was mistaken for RPF; the lunch at which he told a colleague, "Oh, go look for neutrinos or something," and the colleague did; his views on the new math (what happens when a girl has to ask her father for help with her algebra homework?); QED and the black box with the green switch; the New Yorker cartoon that reminded him of his second wife; and, well, we'll see how many there is time for. A final exhortation to the young if there be any among us: first, beware the Jocelyn Bell effect, "There comes a time when you no longer remember what happened, but only how you told the story the last time," and, second pay attention to what is going on around you, because there may come a time when you are the last living person who remembers. [Preview Abstract] |
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