Richardfeynman (1918-1988) was an American theoretical physicist, born in New York City and often remembered as one of the most brilliant and influential physicists of the second half of the 20th century. In 1965, Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discoveries in the field of quantum electrodynamics.
Richard Feynman's Formation
Richard Feynman graduated from physics, in 1939, in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In his graduation paper, he proposed a new way to calculate intermolecular forces. In 1942, he received his doctorate from the Princeton University.
His thesis involved an approach to quantum mechanics according to a principle of physics known as the principle of least action. The method developed by Feynman allowed us to calculate the odds of all the possible paths that a particle can take, based on the interactions between it and its surroundings.
scientific legacy
Richard Feynman's legacy is extensive. The physicist achieves several achievements that were crucial for the development of modern physics and contemporary. The most important of them concerns the corrections, made by him in 1948, to the first theoretical formulations of electrodynamicsquantum.
Quantum electrodynamics came to be used to describe the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and subatomic particles loaded, such as protons and electrons, and thus has become fundamental to understanding a wide range of physical phenomena.
Feynman Diagrams
Another great achievement of this physicist concerns a tool he created, known as the Feynman diagram. Feynman diagrams are relatively simple visual devices that greatly facilitate the visualization of extremely complex equations, greatly simplifying the resolution of problems related to interactions between particles.
Richard Feynman and the atomic bomb
During the 2nd World War, Feynman became one of the members of the Princeton University team studying the atomic bomb, then went on to study it in a secret laboratory in Los Alamos, in the state of New Mexico. In this lab, Feyman was chosen as the youngest in charge of the theoretical division of the Manhattan Project.
Lookalso: The relationship between Einstein and the atomic bomb
Feynman and the phenomenon of superfluidity
Circa 1950, as a professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Richard Feynman was able to explain, through quantum mechanics, the theory of superfluidity, proposed by Soviet physicist Lev Davidovich Landau (1908-1968). According to Landau's theory, liquid helium became superfluid when at temperatures close to the absolute zero (-273.15 °C).
radioactive decays
In 1958, together with the American physicist Murray Gell-Mann, Feynman developed a theory that explained radioactive decays related to one of the fundamental forces of nature, known as strengthweak.
While working at the Particles accelerator of Stanford University, Feynman created the concept of parton, a hypothetical nuclear particle, whose conception contributed to the modern understanding of quarks.
Lookalso: Some physics discoveries that came about by accident
1965 Nobel Prize in Physics
The classes taught by Feynman at Caltech have been transformed into a series of books covering topics ranging from basic physics to quantum electrodynamics. These books became a reference for students and reached the level of classics of scientific literature.
In 1965, Feynman received the Nobel Prize in Physics, together with physicists Sin-Itiro Tomonaga and Julian Schwinger, according to the award's official website:
“The Nobel Prize in Physics 1965 was jointly awarded to Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger and Richard P. Feynman for his fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with profound consequences for elementary particle physics.”|1|
Richard Feynman and NASA
Richard Feynman became known to the general public in 1986 when he was invited to join a commission that should investigate the accident occurred during the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded, causing the deaths of seven astronauts.
Richard Feynman demonstrated, in a television show, that the launch failure could have been avoided, if the very low temperature of that morning had been taken into account by the engineers of the Nasa.
Death
Feynman passed away in 1988, after a long battle with the cancer. However, its popularity continued to grow, in part, through the publication of two autobiographical collections in 1990.
See too: Who was and what did Stephen Hawking, one of today's greatest physicists
Grades
|1| The Nobel Prize in Physics 1965. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2020. Fri. 24 Jan 2020. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1965/summary/>
By Rafael Hellerbrock
Physics teacher
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/richard-phillips.htm