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Re: tuesday funny-- something to make you smile -- I hope :>)



I agree. The story fits Feynman's personality much more than it does
Bohr's. But I suspect that the story is too old even for Feynman.

I heard a talk some years back by one of Feynman's long-time
colleagues, David Goodstein, presently a vice-president of CalTech,
in which he told of a facet of Feynman's personality that might cast
doubt on attributing this story to Feynman. I won't recount the story
because it is rather lengthy and I don't recall all of the details,
but the upshot was, that rather than being playful about physics,
Feynman was deadly serious. While he was willing to joke about almost
anything else, he never joked about physics. He derived joy from
using physics (mostly, but other sciences as well) to find out about
the world, and would not joke about something that he found such a
source of pleasure to him.

Given this bit of information, what Feynman would likely have done,
given the question, would be to give all the answers the first time,
including several that no one has ever mentioned in connection with
this question. That is, he would not make jokes about the subject or
toy with the professors, he would simply overwhelm them with his
ability, without even thinking about it.

So, while the joke superficially seems to fit Feynman's personality,
it is not likely that it was about him, either. Valuable as it is as
an insight to scientific thinking, it is probably not an anecdote
about anyone, just a good physics joke.

Hugh

My Mom says it sounds more like Richard P Feynman; is this story about
65 years old?

Thank you
Lisa Gardner (age 9)

--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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