What Impossible Meant to Feynman | Hacker News Reader

What Impossible Meant to Feynman

nautil.us

325 pointsdnetesn42 comments

How fortune the author was to have had these interactions with him. Feynman was my greatest hero as an undergrad physics student (largely because of "Surely...", and the Feynman Lectures) and I was heartbroken when he died before I could meet him.

Among other things, he showed again and again how much economy and power was gained by attacking problems from different angles, and by building up and applying physical intuition, rather than relying solely on brute-force calculation. More importantly, he showed how much fun you could have solving hard problems, simply by playing -- lessons that I was able to apply well outside of physics.

After the description of quasicrystals in the submitted piece, I found this paragraph on the author's wikipedia page [1] quite interesting:

> Peter J. Lu and Steinhardt discovered a quasicrystalline Islamic tiling on the Darb-e Imam Shrine (1453 A.D.) in Isfahan, Iran constructed from girih tiles. [2] In 2007, they revealed a conceptual breakthrough that enabled early artists to create increasingly complex periodic girih patterns over a period of centuries, culminating in a nearly perfect quasi-crystalline Penrose pattern five centuries before their discovery in the West.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Steinhardt#Other_contribu...

[2] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/315/5815/1106

not long ago there was an article about Leibniz inspiration through geomancy. Which was also used for ages by humans, albeit not in a mathematical rigor setting.

That led me to some rant, I think most of the core of mathematics is absolutely natural to the layman of any place in space and time. Simplicity and regularity is quite obvious to any body, but the education systems blurs that off mathematics. Only advanced research can reconnect the two sadly.

What a beautiful text. It just made my day. I think, for most of scientists, these previously thought impossible outcomes is as, if not more, rewarding as aligned with theory outcomes. Certainly this is one of the reasons that encourage me to continue in science. Curiosity of course, but also the feeling that impossibility is only temporary.

Feynman was still doing Physics X when I was a student there, about 8 years after the time the author is describing.

One of my regrets is not taking advantage of that. It had been described as a weekly session where you could go talk to Feynman if you wanted help with physics, and since I was doing OK in freshman and then sophomore physics I didn't need help. I didn't realize at the time that you could do more than just ask about whatever was currently being covered in Physics 1 or Physics 2.

"The groups of atoms in crystals repeat at regular intervals, just like the five known patterns."

What is "five known patterns" a reference to? I found [1] but I don't see five of anything here.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_structure

I assumed that he was talking about the possible point groups in 2d (since his demo was a slide). In 2d lattices, the possible point groups are cyclic groups of order 2,3,4,6. Cyclic groups of order 5 cannot occur; one consequence is that regular pentagons cannot tile the plane. See

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallographic_point_group

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallographic_restriction_t....

I should add that I know nothing about crystallography, and am relying on decades-old knowledge from the last abstract algebra class I took.

The Platonic Solids: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid

Not all of those correspond to patterns of crystal structure (although some do: tetrahedron, cube, and octahedron, IIRC).

Quasicrystals are based on the symmetry system of the icosahedron/dodecahedron, in which it it is impossible to periodically tile space.

“Proper” crystal structures are periodic, and are not necessarily related to any Platonic solid. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_system (but I’m not quite sure where the 5 comes from in TFA).

Feynman was a brilliant man and quite the character. If you haven't read "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" I highly recommend you give it a read.

"The title derives from a woman's response at Princeton University when, after she asked the newly arrived Feynman if he wanted cream or lemon in his tea, he absentmindedly requested both." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surely_You%27re_Joking,_Mr._Fe...!

To be fair, she failed to use an exclusive or ;)

I liked that book and highly recommend it, but... by the end I got the impression that Feynmann was intentionally manufacturing interesting anecdotes in his life, not just randomly having all these interesting crazy coincidences happen to him.

Of course he was manufacturing them. He explicitly talks about the art of having an adventure in the book.

There's definitely an art to setting yourself up for suprising and interesting adventures in your life.

For a different source, Freeman Dyson's biography, Disturbing the Universe, is extraordinarily worthwhile. He has crazy Feynman stories too, and Dyson is a very sober witness to the bongo-drum-playing, picking-up-hitchhikers, getting-pulled- over-for-speeding Feynman that comes across in the books.

I read "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" during my high school days. In that book he mentions multiple times about Pasadena (where CalTech is located). I moved to US 3 years back and right now live in Los Feliz (close to Pasadena, Los Angeles). First thing which I did after moved to LA, was visiting CalTech. He made such a huge impact on my life.

Great read. What would be a good introduction to Feyman's writings for physics noobs such as myself?

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman and it's sequel for fun. The Feynman Lectures if you're interested in Physics. There are also some very interesting and fun lectures on Youtube.

Another good starting point might be "Six easy pieces"

QED is fantastic as well...

http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_01.html

The first of the referenced Feynman lectures. It's quite the fun read for an introductory physics text.

his writing/speech style is lovely, so down to earth, it's a pleasure

A really good read. Apart from the books that he has penned, I really like the videos ( available on youtube) in which Feynman explains the “why” behind many common sightings.

Just a sidenote: Coincidentally flying to Caltech today for a week of training. Wish he was still alive.

Oh just how fantastic!

Such great detail, I felt like a fly on the wall. Thank you for this.

from the article:

'''

I also learned that “impossible,” when used by Feynman, did not necessarily mean “unachievable” or “ridiculous.” Sometimes it meant, “Wow! Here is something amazing that contradicts what we would normally expect to be true. This is worth understanding!"

'''

But, a pretty good read none the less.

Thank you for the excerpt.

> Feynman thought a moment and, much to our surprise, replied “Yes!” So every week for the next two years, my roommate and I joined dozens of other lucky students for a riveting and unforgettable afternoon with Dick* Feynman.

I don't know if that's meant to be a typo or an intentional name-calling ? Can somebody confirm ?

Dick is short for Richard

I imagine during a regular class he was Professor Feynman, during Physics X he was just Dick Feynman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocorism#English

Good link, I didn't know that's what nicknames were called.

Nicknames seem to be a superset of hypocorisms, which are nicknames that are a shorter derivative or other modification of a person’s original name.

Back before Nixon, Dick was a perfectly allowable shortening of a first name for [edit: mostly] white American men called Richard. Dick Feynman, Dick van Dyke, Dick Sargent, even Dick Cheney. Only since the 70s / 80s has it become a perjorative among younger generations, perhaps because of the Liar in Chief.

only white?

I think this is a fair question. I think it was predominantly white men. Never heard of a black man named Richard being called Dick. I think they usually use Rick instead.

Richard ~= Rick == Dick

One exception was black comedian, author, and activist Dick Gregory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Allen

I never got used to Richie Allen requesting that he be called Dick Allen https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/allendi01.shtml. I had no preference, but as a Phillies fan I had heard him referred to as Richie Allen a zillion times his first few years on the team so Dick Allen always clanged off my ears.

The name Richard has significantly declined in popularity over the past century, and use of Dick as a nickname for it has declined even more.

Its use as a term of contempt predates Nixon by about 300 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_(slang)

Here's an interesting article on the history of shortening of Richard, Dick in particular [1].

[1] http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/how-dick-cam...

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