[One Sip of a Book] Reading Physics from a Tray Thrown into the Air

Editor's NoteSome sentences encapsulate the entire content of a book, while others instantly resonate with the reader’s heart, creating a connection with the book. We excerpt and introduce such meaningful sentences from books.

Richard Feynman, regarded as a genius physicist. He discovered that the behavior of electrons (e) follows the principle of least action at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton, bridging quantum mechanics and relativity theory. At Cornell, he devised the Feynman diagram, simplifying the way particles interact, and at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), he completed quantum electrodynamics, which forms the foundation of today’s semiconductor technology. Even when cancer cells had spread throughout his body and he underwent multiple major surgeries, he continued his research on string theory and revealed the truth behind the Challenger disaster until just before his death. He was the first to propose the idea of nanotechnology and provided clues to uncovering the mechanism of DNA mutation in the laboratory of his friend, molecular biologist Max Delbr?ck. This delves into his life.

There are various types of scientific knowledge, and among them, Feynman’s specialty was practical knowledge. To Feynman, knowledge was not ‘describing’ but ‘acting and achieving.’ While many physicists were educated and raised under the tradition of European civilization, Feynman had never appreciated art, listened to music, or read not only popular books but even scientific books. When other scientists tried to explain things to him in detail, he would strongly dislike it, often leaving them quite perplexed. Nevertheless, his learning ability was astonishing, and he would learn whatever he needed to by any means. This means he pursued knowledge without prejudice. During sabbaticals, he took an interest in biology and made small but meaningful contributions necessary for geneticists to understand DNA mutations. Once, he publicly offered a $1,000 prize for anyone who could “make an electric motor smaller than 1/64 of an inch in length” (and he actually paid the prize). Thanks to his early vision of miniature machines, he became the intellectual father of those who call themselves nanotechnologists. - page 28

As an adult, Feynman asked scientists, “Suppose a great catastrophe occurs and all scientific knowledge is lost. If you had to convey the most information to the next generation in a single sentence, what would you say? What would you leave behind to best communicate what we understand about this world?” Feynman’s exemplary answer was as follows: “All things are made of atoms, which are tiny particles constantly in motion. These particles attract each other when they are a certain distance apart but repel each other when they get too close.” He then added this explanation: “With a little imagination and reasoning, you will realize how much information about the world is contained in this one sentence.” - page 67

A few days later, Feynman was eating in the student cafeteria. Suddenly, someone threw a tray engraved with the school emblem into the air. At the moment the tray flew, he experienced what he felt was the key to a long-standing mystery. As the tray rotated, it wobbled. Because of the school emblem, Feynman could tell that the rotation and wobbling of the tray were not simultaneous. Yet at that moment, these two forms of rotation seemed related to him (perhaps due to his intuition as a physicist). Feynman muttered to himself, “Now it’s time to play.” So he tried to calculate the problem on paper. The problem was surprisingly complex, but using the Lagrangian and the principle of least action, he found that the relationship between wobbling and rotation was in a 2:1 ratio. - page 379

Feynman Biography | Written by James Gleick | Translated by Yang Byeongchan and Kim Minsu | 756 pages | 44,000 KRW