Feynman: The Universe In A Glass of Wine

[lleichtman]

Happy Birthday Tom. I always wanted to meet Feynman as I read everything he wrote. Glad you did.

[BobMilton]

My Feynman story - I was a sophomore at Caltech. Halloween came and several of us decided to go tric or treating at professor’s houses. Struck out twice, but Feynman had us in and we sat and drank some of his wine and listened to his stories. At that time he had traded physics lessons for art lessons from a local artist. Don’t know how well the artist did physics, but Feynman was a more than competent artist. Will never forget that night.

[dsGriswold]

This may be the best thread on the forum.

[Jayson_Cohen]

@Siun o'Connell

Happy Birthday Tom - and thanks for giving us the gift of this memory and the poem.

I have no physics background but Feynman’s Surely You’re Joking as well as his post-Challenger book are favorites – and as said above, I’m jealous you got to meet him and so glad he did not disappoint in person!

These are great books for insight into his personality. Also, with a little but not too much Physics knowledge, his book QED is a pretty good intro into how Feynman thought about and his contributions to the subject for which he won the Nobel.

[Faryan_Amir-Ghassemi]

Incredible thread!

[TomHill]

@BobMilton

My Feynman story - I was a sophomore at Caltech. Halloween came and several of us decided to go tric or treating at professor’s houses. Struck out twice, but Feynman had us in and we sat and drank some of his wine and listened to his stories. At that time he had traded physics lessons for art lessons from a local artist. Don’t know how well the artist did physics, but Feynman was a more than competent artist. Will never forget that night.

Uhhhh, Bob…surely you’re going to share with us what the wine was??
Sounds pretty much like Feynman.
Tom

[BobMilton]

@TomHill

@BobMilton

My Feynman story - I was a sophomore at Caltech. Halloween came and several of us decided to go tric or treating at professor’s houses. Struck out twice, but Feynman had us in and we sat and drank some of his wine and listened to his stories. At that time he had traded physics lessons for art lessons from a local artist. Don’t know how well the artist did physics, but Feynman was a more than competent artist. Will never forget that night.

Uhhhh, Bob…surely you’re going to share with us what the wine was??
Sounds pretty much like Feynman.
Tom

I would be glad to share the wine. But I wasn’t much into wine then and about all I remember was it was red and rather good. Wish I know more.

[Kim_Z]

@BobMilton

My Feynman story - I was a sophomore at Caltech. Halloween came and several of us decided to go tric or treating at professor’s houses. Struck out twice, but Feynman had us in and we sat and drank some of his wine and listened to his stories. At that time he had traded physics lessons for art lessons from a local artist. Don’t know how well the artist did physics, but Feynman was a more than competent artist. Will never forget that night.

Sophomore at age 21?

My favorite is Feynmann’s commencement speech “Cargo Cult Science”. The topic is scientific integrity…more timely than ever:

http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm

[PeterH]

Happy 75th, Tom,

If anyone wants to understand better what Tom is talking about, this should help-

https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/47062/1.522788.pdf?

http://www.engr.psu.edu/cde/courses/nuce521/nuce521_chapter1_reading.pdfhttps://

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/1807308_Application_of_the_theory_of_Linear_Singular_Integral_Equations_and_Contour_Integration_to_Riemann_Hilbert_Problems_for_determination_of_new_decupled_expressions_of_Chandrasekhar’s_X-_and_Y-_function

-or probably not.


P Hickner

[Jayson_Cohen]

@PeterH

Happy 75th, Tom,

If anyone wants to understand better what Tom is talking about, this should help-

https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/47062/1.522788.pdf?

http://www.engr.psu.edu/cde/courses/nuce521/nuce521_chapter1_reading.pdfhttps://

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/1807308_Application_of_the_theory_of_Linear_Singular_Integral_Equations_and_Contour_Integration_to_Riemann_Hilbert_Problems_for_determination_of_new_decupled_expressions_of_Chandrasekhar’s_X-_and_Y-_function

-or probably not.


P Hickner

Actually try this: https://www.atticusrarebooks.com/pages/books/915/richard-feynman/three-papers-tracing-feynmans-path-integral-formulation-of-quantum-mechanics-space-time

[Randy_Bowman]

Happy Birthday Tom. Now I understand why your tasting notes are written in a simplified manner. How many times do you have to rewrite them so the majority of us would comprehend them? Actually, though I wouldn’t understand it, it would be fun to have you do a full on scientific/mathematical descriptor of one of the wines post.

[TomHill]

@PeterH

Happy 75th, Tom,

If anyone wants to understand better what Tom is talking about, this should help-

https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/47062/1.522788.pdf?

http://www.engr.psu.edu/cde/courses/nuce521/nuce521_chapter1_reading.pdfhttps://

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/1807308_Application_of_the_theory_of_Linear_Singular_Integral_Equations_and_Contour_Integration_to_Riemann_Hilbert_Problems_for_determination_of_new_decupled_expressions_of_Chandrasekhar’s_X-_and_Y-_function

-or probably not.


P Hickner

Thanks for the links, Peter. The first article, with PaulZwiefel as the principle author, was the stuff I was really interested in and did two half-theses on but never completed, with two visiting professors from kInstituteJosefStefan/Ljubljana. In my finally completed thesis, I had a chapter on that stuff, though I didn’t really understand it. At my thesis defense, I had an Applied Mech mathematician who was reknowned for ripping apart student’s theses. When he raised his hand for a question, my heart sunk…I knew I was dead meat. His question…”Tom, how do you spell ‘forward’???” Yup …I’d spellejd it “foreword” thru the entire thesis. And that was it from DrKirmser…passed with flying colors. Remember…no SpellCheck in those days.
Zweifel was an interesting guy in the Feynman sense. In his Case&Zweifel book (one of my bibles), he referred to an obscure paper authored by one “C.Lingus”. People spent yrs trying to track down that paper afore it became common knowledge in the Transport field that Paul was just jerking their chain.
Tom

[TomHill]

@BobMilton

I wasn’t much into wine then and about all I remember was it was red and rather good. Wish I know more.

So…the $64,000 question. What was the name of the iconic wine shop just west of the CalTech campus where Feynman would have bought his wine?? Catycorner across from Peet’s Coffee. They would fly a pennant on the flagpole out front when they were open. Truth be told…I’ve forgotten it. But I would shop there sometimes. Tiny but incredible selection.
Tom

[Z_Scheiner]

Happy Birthday TomHill! Love the Feynman lectures even though physics was never my strong suit. This thread has made me nostalgic for them. May have to re-read the Gleick biography.

Glad to see you continue to drink well and post notes here.

Zach

[Glenn_L_e_v_i_n_e]

Happy B-day, love all the stories. Uncork anything grand?

[TomHill]

@Glenn L e v i n e

Happy B-day, love all the stories. Uncork anything grand?

Nope, Glenn…nothing grand. I’ve had so many BD’s now that they’re no big deal any more.
I uncork something grand now to celebrate cleaning out the fridge or mopping
the kitchen floor.
Tom

[BobMilton]

@Kim Z

@BobMilton

My Feynman story - I was a sophomore at Caltech. Halloween came and several of us decided to go tric or treating at professor’s houses. Struck out twice, but Feynman had us in and we sat and drank some of his wine and listened to his stories. At that time he had traded physics lessons for art lessons from a local artist. Don’t know how well the artist did physics, but Feynman was a more than competent artist. Will never forget that night.

Sophomore at age 21?

My favorite is Feynmann’s commencement speech “Cargo Cult Science”. The topic is scientific integrity…more timely than ever:

Cargo Cult Science

I didn’t say it was legal! And I figure the statute of limitations has long since passed.

[Peter_Kleban]

@Jayson Cohen

If you are not careful, physicists will take over the board.

…

Heh-heh.





Lawyers, don’t worry. You still have us greatly outnumbered.

[dsGriswold]

And just as controversial as politics in this day and age.