Chapter 20. Infinitesimal Machinery

Richard Feynman^[1]

^[1] This manuscript is based on a talk given by Richard Feynman on February 23, 1983, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. It is reprinted with the permission of his estate, Carl Feynman executor.

The author, deceased, was with the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

Introduction of Richard Feynman by Al HibbsWelcome to the Feynman lecture on "Infinitesimal Machinery." I have the pleasure of introducing Richard, an old friend and past associate. He was educated at MIT and at Princeton, where he received a Ph.D. in 1942. In the War he was at Los Alamos, where he learned how to pick combination locksan activity at which he is still quite skillful. He next went to Cornell, where he experimented with swinging hoops. Then, both before and during his time at Caltech, he became an expert in drumming, specializing in complex rhythms, particularly those of South America and recently those of the South Pacific. At Caltech, he learned to decode Mayan hieroglyphs and took up art, becoming quite an accomplished draftsmanspecializing in nude women. And he also does jogging.

Richard received the Nobel prize, but I believe it was for physics and not for any of these other accomplishments. He thinks that happened in 1965, although he doesn't remember the exact year. I have never known him to suffer from false modesty, so I believe he really has forgotten which year he got the Nobel prize.

When Dick Davies asked me to talk, he didn't tell me the occasion was going to be so elaborate, with TV cameras and everythinghe told me I'd be among friends. I didn't realize I had so many friends. I would feel much less uncomfortable if I had more to say. I don't have very much to saybut of course, I'll take a long time to say it.