Dr. Richard P. Feynman :: Biographies Physics Essays

Dr. Richard P. Feynman There exists a man in the annals of modern physics who defies almost all description. His name is Richard P. Feynman, and he is equally known for dozens of accomplishments which often seem to have very little to do with physics. Bongo drummer is nearly as good a description as any, for playing the bongos was one of those accomplishments. In a feat of rhythmic skill that is rare amongst even the most prestigious classically trained musicians, Feynman taught himself to sustain two-handed polyrhythms of seven against six and even thirteen against twelve (Gleick, 16). He had a feeling for rhythm that allowed him to do everything from hold an audience spellbound with his improvisational bongo drumming (16), to annoy his college roommates with an incessant, almost absentminded drumming of his fingers (65). Richard Feynman was also much more than a bongo drummer, or even a mere physicist. He had the uncanny ability to see a puzzle and come to its inevitable solution in the time it takes an average person to blink. Feynman was asked to serve on the Rogers Commission investigation of the Challenger explosion in 1986 (Slone, Challenger). After reluctantly agreeing to join the commission, he began to truly sink his teeth into the problem. By going directly to the people who designed and built the shuttle, Feynman was able to learn just exactly how dangerous shuttle flight actually could be. The official NASA figure for the chance of shuttle failure was 1 in 100,000 (Challenger). In the course of his research, Feynman came to the conclusion that a more accurate number was actually 1 in 100 (Challenger). It was because of this willingness to do the necessary research and look beyond the management level of NASA to the guts of the engineering that Feynman was able to discover the true cause of the explosion. Cutting through political correctness and public relations concerns, Feynman conducted a simple experiment with a cup of ice water in front of a meeting of the commission, thereby proving that the material the O-ring was made of was incapable of handling the stress of takeoff at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature on the day of the launch (Challenger). It might be interesting to wonder about the origins of a man with such an incredible ability to isolate the truth and clearly relate it to others. To find those origins one need look no farther than the eastern coastline of the United States of America.