Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman was an American physicist known for being very smart and very funny. He was born in New York City in 1918. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He was also famous for making science fun and easy to understand.

Early Life

Feynman loved taking things apart as a child. He fixed radios in his neighborhood as a teenager. He studied physics at MIT and then Princeton. He was one of the youngest scientists to work on the Manhattan Project.

Big Discoveries

Feynman developed a way to understand how tiny particles behave, called quantum electrodynamics. He created simple drawings called Feynman diagrams to explain his ideas. He also helped figure out why the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986.

Fun Facts

• Feynman learned to play bongo drums and loved performing with bands.
• He once learned to crack safes as a hobby.
• He taught himself to draw and had his artwork shown in galleries.

Did You Know?

Feynman was known as the Great Explainer because he could make hard ideas simple. His lectures at Caltech were so popular that other professors would sneak in to listen.