1939年,费曼本科毕业,进入普林斯顿大学读研究所,成为青年学者约翰·惠勒的学生。在他读研期间,同学们就一直传说有一个很厉害的新生在专业方面上积累的知识已经多到完全不用参加任何课程。[14]一位名叫H. H. Barschall的同学有一次碰到一道难题,问了几个教授后也还是算不明白,最后抱着试试看的心态去问了费曼,然后得到了费曼给出的又快又完整的解答。[14]Barschall甚至为此一度自卑,怀疑自己是不是选错了专业。[14]
英文:“He [Stueckelberg] did the work and walks alone toward the sunset; and, here I [Feynman] am, covered in all the glory, which rightfully should be his!”。[31]
在1959年的一次名为《底部还有大量空间》("There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom")的演讲中,费曼提出了纳米技术,并乐观地分析了其技术实现的可行性。他向学生们悬赏攻克相关技术难题,并在几年后向完成挑战的学生们兑现了奖励。在这次演讲中,他还预言了纳米医学的前景。[36]在另一次于日本召开的仁科芳雄纪念会上,费曼在题为《未来的计算机》的演讲中讨论了并行计算和量子计算机的可行性。[37]
费曼是一位杰出的教育家,主张教育应注重兴趣与方法的引导,而非直接罗列和灌输实用的知识。他认为平庸而沉闷的传统课程难以使学生真正接触到物理的引人入胜之处,他为此雄心勃勃地筹划了《费曼物理学讲义》,决心用全新、有趣而统一的观点展现出整个物理学基础。加州理工学院后来专门设立了一个“理查德·费曼杰出教育奖”(Richard P. Feynman Prize For Excellence In Teaching)。
费曼个性鲜明,是一个一反传统的特立独行的科学顽童。理论物理学家杨振宁评价费曼是一个“一个几乎任何事情都与众不同的人”。[62]杨振宁除充分肯定费曼的天赋和成就外,也认为过于忽视传统学习方法是费曼的短处。[59]里昂纳德·曼罗迪诺在《费曼的彩虹》一书中认为“对费曼而言,物理学和生活都是由本能与灵感主宰,因此他对规则和社会惯例才会不屑一顾。他忽视物理学的传统方法,发明自己的方法、自己的路径积分、以及自己的费曼图。他也忽视学术文化,发明自己的文化,和学生在“油腻”用餐,或在脱衣舞俱乐部研究他的物理学,他之所以做研究是出于热爱、而非抱负。如果他的行为不受认可,他根本也不会在乎别人怎么想。”[63]理论物理学家李奥纳特·苏士侃也曾在一次题为《我的好友理查德·费曼》的TED演讲上评价费曼是一个非常非常伟大的[注 3]科学家、很棒的演员和超群的教师。苏士侃认为费曼善于引人注目、性情急躁、无礼、不服输、爱攀比智力、自负但又有趣,还厌恶在学术研究中故弄玄虚、卖弄术语、做作和假大空的行为。[64]美国认知心理学家史迪芬·平克在致《Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science》一书的推荐辞中说费曼是上世纪最伟大的科学家;理论物理学家布莱恩·葛林也在同一本书的推荐辞中称赞费曼的成就是“具有穿透力的突破”(“突破”一词用的是复数)。[65]微软创始人比尔·盖茨认为,费曼的生动讲解使科学充满了趣味,而且绝无其他人能够比他做得更好。[66][67]Google创始人谢尔盖·布林从青年时代起就一直喜欢费曼,认为费曼对自己的人生轨迹影响很大,对他赞不绝口。[68][69][70]实验物理学家朱棣文受邀并见到自己的崇拜对象[71][72]费曼时,费曼想借助了解朱棣文的研究方向的机会,趁机跟他比一下谁更聪明[73]。朱棣文感叹很少有科学家在获得大奖后还能拥有费曼一样轻松和爱玩的生活态度。[73]大数学家迈克尔·阿蒂亚晚年在其“论证”黎曼猜想的发布会上引用费曼对精细结构常数的评论时,顺便称赞了费曼的杰出。数学家陶哲轩把费曼的名言“事实证明真相总比你想的简单。”(The truth always turns out to be simpler than you thought.)放在自己的主页名言栏中。[74]
实验物理学家埃米利奥·塞格雷曾在1980年出版的《从X射线到夸克》(From X-rays to Quarks: Modern Physicists and Their Discoveries)一书中,把朗道与费曼以及杨振宁三人并列为近一二十年来少数能在许多不同领域都有杰出成就的全才物理学家。[75]数学专业出身的理论物理学家弗里曼·戴森评价说:“在遇到费曼之前,我已经发表过许多数学论文,这些论文充满了小聪明,但总的来说缺乏重要性。当我遇到费曼时,我立即知道我已经进入另一个世界。他对发表漂亮的论文毫无兴趣。他在为理解大自然的作品而奋斗,试图彻底重建物理学,我还从未见谁有过如此高昂的奋斗热情... 施温格和朝永振一郎已经各自独立地取得了成功,在计算相同的物理量时,他们使用了更为费力、更为复杂的方法,而费曼则可以从他的图表直接得出那些量。施温格和朝永振一郎没有重建物理学,他们在撞见物理学时也拿它来用,但是他们仅仅是介绍新的数学方法从物理学中析取数字... 我写了一篇为《朝永振一郎、施温格和费曼的放射理论》的论文,阐释为什么说这三个理论看起来不同而实质上一样。在我的文章中,我谨慎地待三个主角,给予他们同等的尊严和崇敬;但我心里知道,费曼是这三人中最伟大的一个... 这些重要的东西是诚实,独立,承认自己的无知。他憎恶等级制度,一生享受着人们的友谊。他像莎士比亚一样,是个有喜剧天赋的演员。”[76]费曼的老对手盖尔曼在费曼葬礼的讣闻中写了一些不服气的话;“在理查的风格中,我向来喜欢他不浮夸的表达方式。有些理论学家以华丽的数学语言或刻意虚饰的结构,装饰有时其实相当平庸的作品,令人生厌。但理查总是以直接的方式,表达强而有力、富有巧思与原创性的构想,令人激赏。但我对理查广为人知的另一个风格则不是那么欣赏。他总是把自己围在神话色彩中,花许多时间与精力创造有关自己的逸事……当然,许多逸事是经由理查自己所说的故事构成,在这些故事中他通常是英雄,而且只要有机会,他总是显得比其他人聪明。我得坦陈这些年来,身为他一直想超越的竞争对手,我一直感到不自在;而且我发现和他共事并不那么意气相投,因为他似乎比较喜欢把我们视为‘你’和‘我’,而不是‘我们’。或许对他来说,要跟一个不只是衬托他那些构想的人合作很难……”[77]据苏联理论物理学家和核武器专家维塔利·金兹堡回忆,在朗道的物理学家实力排名中,费曼被排在了“1.0”级(高于朗道本人,且和玻尔、维尔纳·海森堡和保罗·狄拉克等人齐平)。[78]金兹堡对于朗道把费曼列入“1.0”级比较意外。[78]金兹堡虽然称赞费曼是无可争议的拥有过人智慧的物理学家,但他还是认为费曼相比之下逊于被列入同一级别的其他人。[78]金兹堡猜测朗道可能是特别钟爱费曼图,而且觉得自己(朗道)没有能力创造出这样直观易懂的表示方法。[78]
Richard P. Feynman. Ralph Leighton , 编. What Do You Care What Other People Think? [你管别人怎么想?]. 诺顿出版社. 1988. ISBN 0-393-02659-0(英语).(主要含和第一任妻子,同时也是初恋女友的故事,以及调查挑战者号太空梭灾难的主要故事。)
中国汉译本:费曼. Ralph Leighton , 编. What Do You Care What Other People Think? [你干吗在乎别人怎么想?:充满好奇心的费曼]. 李沉简 (汉译者). 北京: 中国社会科学出版社. 1999. ISBN 7-5004-2263-6(英语).
台湾汉译本:费曼. What Do You Care What Other People Think? [你管别人怎么想:科学奇才费曼博士]. 尹萍、王碧 (汉译者). 天下文化. 2018. ISBN 978-986-479-483-6(中文(台湾)).
Richard P. Feynman. The Meaning of It All: Thought of a Citizen Scientist! [这一切的意义:公民科学家的思想]. Perseus Press. 1999. ISBN 978-0-7382-0166-5(英语).
Richard P. Feynman. 杰弗里·罗宾斯 (编辑) , 编. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: the Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman [发现事理的乐趣:费曼最佳短篇作品集]. Perseus Press. 1999. ISBN 978-0-7382-0108-5. (内容与《别闹了!费曼先生》有大量重复)
中国大陆汉译本:Richard P. Feynman. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out [发现的乐趣]. 走进费曼丛书. 张郁乎 (译者); 吴炜 (责任编辑); 贾平静 (责任编辑) 第1版. 湖南科学技术出版社. 2005. ISBN 7-5357-4415-X.),
Ralph Leighton. Tuva Or Bust!: Richard Feynman's Last Journey [前往图瓦或者选择认输:理查德·费曼最后的旅程] 1. W W Norton & Co Inc. 1991. ISBN 9780393029536(英语).
台湾汉译本:Ralph Leighton. Tuva Or Bust!: Richard Feynman's Last Journey [费曼的最后旅程] 1. 新新闻文化事业股份有限公司. 1998. ISBN 9578306040(中文(台湾)).
中国大陆汉译本:拉夫·莱顿. Tuva Or Bust!: Richard Feynman's Last Journey [费曼的最后旅程]. 走近费曼丛书. 台湾新新闻编译中心 (翻译); 张中爱 (修订) 1. 湖南科学技术出版社. 2005. ISBN 9787535742742(中文(中国大陆)).
Silvan S. Schweber. QED和創造它的人:戴森,費曼,施溫格,朝永振一郎. 普林斯顿物理学系列 (英语).
John Gribbin(英语:John Gribbin); Mary Gribbin. Richard Feynman: A Life in Science [迷人的科学风采——费恩曼传]. 江向东 (译者). 世纪出版集团, 上海科技教育出版社. 2005. ISBN 9787542859013(中文(中国大陆)).
Laurie M. Brown; John S. Rigden. Most of the Good Stuff: Memories of Richard Feynman [满载美好:对理查德·费曼的回忆] (英语).
1987年,英国广播公司《地平线》和PBS《新星》又制作了50分钟的纪录片《一个天才的最后旅程——探寻在唐努之滨的图瓦》(Last Journey of a Genius -- The Quest for Tannu Tuva),费曼的好友兼同事拉尔夫顿也有参与其中。
英国广播公司《地平线》和PBS《新星》制作了2集纪录片《非凡天才》(No Ordinary Genius)。1993年,此片又被改为一个多小时的纪录片《自爱因斯坦以来最好的头脑》(The Best Mind Since Einstein)播出,时长1个小时。其中涉及关于费曼的生活和工作的两方面的纪录片,有采访同事、朋友和家人。
“积分符号内取微分”的技巧常见于基础数学分析教材有关“含参变元的积分”的章节中,可细分为“在积分限不变的积分符号内取微分”和“在积分限变动的积分符号内取微分”。这个技巧属于莱布尼兹积分规则(Leibniz integral rule)。现在的数学教材一般采用纯分析学方法(不画图)证明此技巧;但伍兹的书更强调几何直观,所以伍兹用的是半图解的证明方法。这个技巧还可利用控制收敛定理(如勒贝格控制收敛定理)在积分限无界的黎曼积分和含瑕点的勒贝格积分中推广;控制收敛定理本身也给出了一种在积分号下求极限(不是求导数)的方法。
Fay Dowker. Stephen Hawking at 70: still the brightest star in the scientific universe [70岁的史蒂芬·霍金:科学宇宙中依旧最耀眼的明星]. 2012年1月1日 [2018年4月18日]. (原始内容存档于2021年4月21日) (英语). As an impressionable young student, it was a tremendous thrill to meet so many celebrities and renowned physicists. One of the great excitements of visiting Caltech, where Stephen was a Fairchild scholar in 1975, was meeting the brilliant physicist Richard Feynman, who was regarded almost like a god there. He used to visit our office quite often and, since Stephen's voice was already quite weak, I would act as interpreter.
Joseph Polchinski. Memories of a Theoretical Physicist [一位理论物理学者的回忆](pdf). arxiv. 2017年8月31日 [2018年4月28日](英语). With Caltech, the dominance of two charismatic professors, Feynman and Gell-Mann, had slowed the reaction to the discovery of asymptotic freedom and all that it implies.","In Feynman’s Nobel speech, he tells the story of poor Slotnick, whose just-finished Ph.D. dissertation Feynman had reproduced, and more, in a single night.","At the time we met, Feynman was a star, Thorne was a rising young star, and Zajc was, like me, a young whippersnapper setting his first steps on the Caltech campus.
J. J. O'Connor, E. F. Robertson. Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg [恩斯特·卡尔·格拉赫·斯蒂克尔堡]. 圣安德鲁斯大学. 2008年7月 [2016年12月31日]. (原始内容存档于2019年11月3日) (英语). A big advance in theoretical physics was the renormalization programme in quantum field theory. At the 1948 Solvay congress, Oppenheimer insisted on preserving covariance in all steps of the calculation if one wants to eliminate the infinities which otherwise occur. He then quoted Stueckelberg's 1934 paper as giving an example of such a covariant theory. This was not Stueckelberg's only contribution to the renormalization programme, however, for in the early 1940s he wrote a long paper outlining a complete and correct description of the renormalization procedure for quantum electrodynamics. He sent it to the Physical Review, but it was rejected.","He then set about filling in all the details but Schwinger and Feynman published their version first and Stueckelberg received no recognition for his remarkable contributions.","After receiving the Nobel Prize, Feynman lectured at CERN to an audience which included Stueckelberg. Jagdish Mehra writes: After the lecture, Stueckelberg was making his way out alone ... from the CERN ampitheatre, when Feynman - surrounded by admirers - made the remark: 'He [Stueckelberg] did the work and walks alone toward the sunset; and, here I [Feynman] am, covered in all the glory, which rightfully should be his!'
Physicist Paul Dirac Is 'The Strangest Man'. The Rakyat Post. 2009年10月4日 [2016年10月2日]. (原始内容存档于2020年5月8日) (英语). Dr. FARMELO: 'I mean, as I said, people like, you know, Richard Feynman and - these have gone on the records saying he was their hero. He was the person they looked up to.'","Dr. FARMELO: 'Yeah. Well, I think the picture you're talking about is - was taken in Poland. And that was one of the times where Feynman tried to pin Dirac down, something he often wanted to do, because as I said earlier, Dirac was a hero to Feynman. Feynman was working on a theory in photons, electrons, building on Dirac's great work in the mid-1920s. But he found as he - Feynman often said to friends - extremely difficult to get anything out of Dirac. He was a person of such - he was so inward, so to speak...' FLATOW: 'Yeah.' Dr. FARMELO: '...so unwilling to open up that Feynman found it virtually hopeless.'
Koh Aik Khoon. Dirac vs Feynman: Two different physicists. 2014年11月11日 [2016年10月1日]. (原始内容存档于2017年1月14日) (英语). Dirac asked Feynman point blank: “I have an equation, do you have one, too?”
Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Rochester. Kenneth M. Case 1923–2006 [肯尼斯·M·凯斯 1923–2006](pdf). 美国国家科学院官方网站: 5. 2013年 [2018年4月28日]. (原始内容存档(PDF)于2021年3月22日) (美国英语). ... however, because Murray Slotnick had described his Ph.D. thesis at the same meeting the day before Case was scheduled to speak. Slotnick had found finite results for the pseudo-scalar case, but infinite results for the pseudo-vector one. Oppenheimer was in the audience and challenged Slotnick's results as “violating Case's theorem.” (It is unknown why Case was not present.) Richard Feynman also was there, and he spent the whole night repeating Slotnick's calculations using some of the new methods he was in the process of developing. He proved that Slotnick was correct and challenged Case the next day, after Case's talk. Feynman, using his new methods, had repeated in one night a calculation that had taken Slotnick six months, and he had done it with more generality—Slotnick assumed zero momentum transfer, but Feynman did not. The penultimate paragraph of Case's corrected paper read: “Thanks are due to Dr. R. P. Feynman for pointing out an error in the original manuscript.”
托尼·黑(英语:Tony Hey). Celebrating Richard Feynman at TEDxCaltech [在技术、娱乐、设计扩展版加州理工学院歌颂理查德·费曼]. 微软研究院. 2011年2月4日 [2018年4月28日]. (原始内容存档于2021年4月21日) (美国英语). My next story starts in 1948 at the Pocono Conference where all the great figures of physics—Niels Bohr, Paul Dirac, Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, and so on—had assembled to try to understand how to make sense of the infinities in QED. Feynman and Schwinger were the star speakers, but Feynman was unable to make his audience understand how he did his calculations. His interpretation of positrons as negative energy electrons moving backwards in time was just too hard for them to accept. After the conference, Feynman was in despair and later said, “My machines came from too far away.”","Less than a year later, Feynman had his triumph. At an American Physical Society meeting in New York, Murray Slotnick talked about some calculations he had done with two different meson-nucleon couplings. He had shown that these two couplings indeed gave different answers. After Slotnick's talk, Oppenheimer got up from the audience and said ... Feynman said, “No problem, we can just set Q equal to zero in my formulas!” Feynman found that he had obtained the same answer as Slotnick. After Case had presented his theorem, Feynman stood up at the back of the audience and said, “Professor Case, I checked Slotnick's calculations last night and I agree with him, so your theorem must be wrong.”
斯蒂芬·沃尔夫勒姆. A Short Talk about Richard Feynman (2005). 沃尔夫勒姆研究公司. 2005 [2015-11-04]. (原始内容存档于2021-04-21) (英语). Some scientists (myself probably included) are driven by the ambition to build grand intellectual edifices. I think Feynman—at least in the years I knew him—was much more driven by the pure pleasure of actually doing the science. He seemed to like best to spend his time figuring things out, and calculating... And often he'd come up with one of those classic Feynman straightforward-sounding explanations. And he'd never tell people about all the calculations behind it. Sometimes it was kind of a game for him: having people be flabbergasted by his seemingly instant physical intuition. Not knowing that really it was based on some long, hard calculation he'd done.
劳伦斯·克劳斯. Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science (Great Discoveries). amazon.com. [2016年10月1日]. (原始内容存档于2021年4月21日) (英语). “A lively and engrossing biography of a lively and engrossing man. Krauss recounts the life and ideas of one of the century's greatest scientist with a deep understanding of both the physics and the man, presented with great lucidity and charm.” (Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works)","“Seamlessly entwining colorful episodes of physics' most ‘curious character’ with wonderfully clear descriptions of Feynman's penetrating breakthroughs in quantum theory, Krauss's account is both entertaining and masterly. A great read.” (Brian Greene, author of The Hidden Reality and The Elegant Universe)
Timothy Prickett Morgan. Microsoft hosts Feynman lecture series --Actual fun with physics. The Register. 2009年7月15日 [2015年11月4日]. (原始内容存档于2020年4月11日) (英语). The BBC filmed the Cornell lectures, known as the Messenger Series, and Gates recently bought the rights to them with the intent of making them available free to the public, as a means of making science interesting. 'No one was more adept at making science fun and interesting than Richard Feynman,' Gates said in a statement announcing that the lectures are now available for free. 'More than 20 years after first seeing them, these are still some of the best science lectures I've heard. Feynman worked hard during his life to popularize science, so I'm sure he'd be thrilled that now anyone, anywhere in the world, can just click a button and experience his lectures.'
Celebrating Richard Feynman --Are you the next big thinker?. 微软. [2015年11月4日]. (原始内容存档于2016年5月6日) (英语). 'I think someone who can make science interesting is magical. And the person who did that better than anybody was Richard Feynman,' says Bill Gates, chairman, Microsoft Corporation. 'He took the mystery of science, the importance of science, the strangeness of science, and made it fun and interesting and approachable. And I think these Messenger Series lectures he gives are the best science lectures I’ve ever seen.' Through the technology of the Microsoft Research Project Tuva enhanced video player, you can view these historic lectures with searchable video, speaker transcripts, user notes, and interactive extras that provide related information.
Richard Feloni. Google cofounder Sergey Brin says these 2 books changed his life. businessinsider.com. 2015年7月21日 [2015年11月8日]. (原始内容存档于2021年4月21日) (英语). ...Brin revealed some of the books that inspired him to dedicate his career to blending technology and creativity... 'Aside from making really big contributions in his own field, he was pretty broad-minded,' Brin told the Academy of Achievement. 'I remember he had an excerpt where he was explaining how he really wanted to be a Leonardo [da Vinci], an artist and a scientist. I found that pretty inspiring. I think that leads to having a fulfilling life.'
维塔利·金兹堡. Vitaly L. Ginzburg - Biographical. 诺贝尔奖官方网站. 2009年11月8日 [2016年10月1日]. (原始内容存档于2018年8月11日) (英语). Put into class 1 were Bohr, Dirac, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, de Broglie, Feynman.","By the way, I am surprised that Landau put Feynman higher than himself and in general put him into the 1st class. There is no doubt that Feynman was a brilliant physicist and lecturer but it seems to me that his accomplishments cannot be compared with those of other "first-class" physicists. Probably, Landau especially valued the diagrammatic technique, thinking that he himself would not have been able to hit upon it.