But the thing that I like about him, and about reading about him is that he seems like he was a cool (but quirky) guy. Sure he could do calculus in his head, but he was also really funny, and almost...like a kid. He wasn't arrogant, nor did he act super intellectual. He was just a big curious kid that happened to be good at math!
The part of the book I am reading now is about his time in Los Alamos when he was working on the bomb. And the story I just read was so funny I just have to share it with you!
So the way things were back then was that all the scientists were in Los Alamos, but the location of the plant where the Uranium was to be processed was elsewhere, and the people handling the stuff had no idea what they were doing. At the time the Army didn't want the two groups to mix, because they were afraid it would become easier for secrets to get out. They wanted the plant people to be in the dark. But it became apparent that they had to learn at least a little bit about what was going on in order to design the plant properly and not blow themselves to smithereens accidentally. So they sent Feynman up there to explain it all to them. Apparently they were amazed by him. In his own words "So I sat down and told them how it works...yak yak-all stuff which was elementary primer stuff back at Los Alamos, but they'd never heard any of it, so I turned out to be a tremendous genius to them. So from being rather primitive back there in Los Alamos, I was a super genius on the other end."
After he explained everything and everyone was amazed, the contractors etc. said they understood and asked him to come back in a month so they could show him their plans. So a month later he goes back and they take him into a giant room with a huge table covered in tons of blueprints (which he, Feynman, doesn't know how to read). They started explaining their strategy to him how all these valves and ventilators work but because he is such a "genius" they didn't bother to explain to him how to read the plans assuming he already knew. Of course he did not. Feynman tried to follow, but he had no idea what the little boxes with crosses that were all over the plans were. Clearly they were important. At first he thought they were windows but that didn't work because some were not on walls, then he thought they might be some sort of valves. But he'd waited too long to ask! In his words "I want to ask them what it is. You must have been in this situation like this- you didn't ask them right away, right away would have been OK. But they have been talking a little bit too long. You hesitated too long. If you ask them now they'll say what are you wasting my time for?"
He looks at all the plans spread out everywhere. What was he going to do?! So he came up with a plan. He decided to point to one of the little boxes and ask "What happens if this valve gets stuck?" That way they would say either "nothing" which confirmed it was a valve, or they would say "That's not a valve that's a...whatever" and then he would know what it was.
So he chose a random box and cross and pointed to it. In his words "What happens if this valve gets stuck? figuring they're going to say "That's not a valve sir, that's a window." So one looks at the other guy and says "Well, if that valve gets stuck," and they go up and down on the blueprint, up and down, the other guy up and down, back and forth, and they both look at each other and they turn around to me and say "You're absolutely right sir." So they rolled up the blueprints and away they went and we walked out."
Isn't that hilarious? He found the one mistake on the entire plan set by accident!
As he was leaving the Lieutenant that he was with said "You're a genius. I want to know how, how you do something like that." And Feynamn responded " You try to find out whether it's a valve or not."
The book is filled with stories like that! There is another one about how he stole top secret papers to prove that the security was less than stellar, or he used his wife's lingerie to secure a room for himself instead of sharing like everyone else did. He really just seems like a fun-loving likable brilliant guy.
The book before this one is called Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! and also has some great stories in it. His books have very little to do with describing physics. They are more a memoir of his life while he was doing physics. If you are looking for some light and fun reading, I highly recommend either of these books!
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