Mr. Feynman Reaction

Richard Feynman is one of the most celebrated physicists of our time. His work has inspired and done much to propel the study of physics further. However, in a sense, Richard Feynman was not a normal physicist. He was not one to spend all day and night writing formulas and rigorously studying theories and ideas. Rather, he studied what he found to be interesting. Whether it is radios, bloodhounds, or hypnotists, Feynman attacked each subject or idea he found intriguing with vigor and enthusiasm. He had the curiosity of a young child and a desire to learn that made him learn everything he could possibly know about a subject. Not only that, but his quirky personality got him into many socially awkward situations. What was normal to him was almost never normal to the people around him. From these observations, I see a lot of my life in the accounts found in Mr. Feynman’s book. There were many situations in the book in which I could see myself or someone I know acting just as Feynman did. By examining certain portions of the book and Feynman’s character in general, it will be easy to see how he relates to my life and how truly unique his character was.

One of my favorite passages in the book is the one in which Feynman has to receive a physical for military purposes. After he passes the physical portions of the test, he decides that he despises the psychologists and, consequently, has more fun than he should during the mental part of the exam. His resulting conversations with the various psychologists are some of the funniest things I have ever read in my life. He answers every question they propose in a non-serious, yet truthful way. Needless to say, Feynman failed his exam but still managed to find it hilarious. Personally, I believe that this says a lot of who Feynman was as a person. He had no interest in the psychologists and wrote them off from the beginning as nonsense. Therefore, instead of talking with a curious, professional Feynman, the psychologists were greeted with the sarcastic yet humorous one. In this way, Feynman reacted much like my grandfather would have. He too would have taken a sarcastic, almost disrespectful tone with the psychologists. Not only that, but I can literally see him responding in the exact way Feynman did during his interviews. I have been alive long enough to know that most people would not respond in the way that Feynman did. This type of behavior makes him unique. While he may have viewed his behavior as normal, most everyone else would not.

To say that Feynman was a curious would person would be a drastic understatement. He is quite possibly the most inquisitive person I have ever heard of. However, in a way, we are lucky he was as curious as he was. Many of his discoveries in the field of physics were made because he was simply curious. A situation that I believe put this curiosity on full display was the section about bloodhounds. Feynman, shortly before visiting his hospitalized wife, read an article on experiments being done with bloodhounds. These experiments were designed to test and study the bloodhound’s innate ability to smell and track. This was tested by having the dogs correctly choose an item that had recently been handled by a scientist without them having seen it. The idea of this really blew Feynman away. Consequently, he decided that he wanted to test this experiment on himself. Therefore, when he arrived at his wife’s hospital room, Feynman designed a similar experiment. He would leave the room, have his wife touch one of many items, and he would