My Uncle Abe Bader was Feynman's high school physics teacher. I remember hearing him tell my father about a brilliant student he had taught, who could understand more physics in a weekend than he could understand in an entire summer. He mentioned that he had lent this brilliant student advanced books to study. I was a kid when I heard this story, and I didn't catch the name of who he was talking about. But the story stuck with me because of the idea that there could be someone that brilliant It was only when Feynman died, and my uncle had also died, that I found out, all those years ago, my uncle had been talking about Feynman.

I met Richard Feynman back at Caltech around 1980 or so -- he was a dinner guest at my student house and he shared all sorts of anecdotes about Los Alamos and helping to defend a strip club that the city of Pasadena was trying to shut down, and so on. He even taught an informal class on safe-cracking while I was there (I didn't take advantage of it). He loved the students so much that he participated in the various theater events usually playing the bongos. And even back then, he taught Freshman and Sophomore Physics -- unfortunately I missed him by one year (I was a Freshman in a year when he was teaching Sophomore physics, and vice versa). I was not a great physics student, but I still wish I could have taken his classes. He had a really great sense of humor and everyone really loved him there. I feel very lucky for the brief time our house got to spend with him.

"He had just written out the hardest math of the century, in a picture." ...then a smiling Feynman comes in on the bongos. That cracked me up. (; Feynman Lives!

I was lucky enough to have taken twp physics classes from him. MOST AMAZING TEACHER EVER!

I recently read a letter he wrote to his first wife and childhood sweetheart a year after she died of TB. It's one of the most moving and heartbreaking things I have ever read. He was a pretty special man with the mind of a scientist and the soul of an artist. A rare combination.

Math In strip clubs >> math in the library

"I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring."

Richard Feynman has long been my favorite scientist. His enthusiasm and curiosity and love of life instantly endeared him to me. I too wish I could have met him.

Having studied physics, studied particle physics and doing the math involved in Feynman diagrams all the praise of his intelligence is well deserved. Look up re-normalization, that's how he solved the problem about infinite possibilities in the checkers board analogy. Also turned out to be super useful in theoretical pure math so he was a double boss there. You know, just strolling down the street solving the biggest physics problem of the day with pictures and at the same time creating a new tool for mathematicians that they didn't even know they wanted or needed. Like a bawse.

You and your brother have given the rest of us an amazing gift. Through your own insights, through the experts you find or that flock to you, through simple speech and diagrams, you have become two more great explainers. The list of things you teach us grows by the day. I am so lucky to know about Crash Course and Sci Show. And grateful.

Leaving notes making physicists think their research has been stolen by spies.. Lololololololololol.. The best!

I have a cute shirt that has a bongo drum with a Feynman diagram shooting out of it, no one has gotten it yet but i still think it's adorable

So I watched this video when it was originally posted and found Feynman interesting. Since then I've probably watched every video on Feynman on youtube and can't get enough listening to him. Just wanted to thank you for introducing Feynman to me, as it's brought a lot of joy to this fan of science!

Your enthusiasm for the man is contagious. Great subject, great video.

What impressed me most was that he never stopped being curious.

Everyone, I repeat, everyone should read "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!". It's a sort of anecdotal autobiography of Feynman, which is more about his funny experiences and view on life than any hardcore physics.

When I was 7-years-old I was told, for the first time, that the whole world was made out of these little tiny solar systems called atoms (yes, I know atoms don't look like solar systems, in the second grade I was taught they do). It blew my mind and I spent the rest of the day squinting really closely at various objects, trying to see the atoms. That's how I feel whenever I watch Feynman's lectures. I often times watch videos of him when I'm feeling unmotivated in my studies, he reminds me why I'm getting a degree in mathematics (which, even to a math nerd, can feel boring at times).

"i don't know why we make these videos when feynman did it all already" -- how i feel as a science journalist

I watched a biography on Feynman years ago and it really struck a chord with me. The way he was devastated after his research ended up being used on a civilian population (twice) & his subsequent cathartic journey through his soul which led him to the throat singing monks of Touvre, and bongo playing; simple things. Peaceful things. I would have also liked to have gotten to know him. R.I.P.

Thank you for making this. I was fortunate enough to have taken two undergraduate-level physics courses (acoustics and thermodynamics; relativity and quantum mechanics) personally taught by Feynman, when my employer brought him in to teach continuing education classes. He was an amazing character, and I had the privilege of having a number of conversations, getting my butt kicked in a philosophical argument about the nature of quarks (he called them "partons"), and striking up a minor friendship with him. He was the best teacher I ever had and his influence in shaping my thought processes persists to this day. One of the most surreal and bizarre moments of my life was sitting in a class where he was teaching the rules for constructing what he called "silly pictures". We call them "Feynman diagrams". On another occasion I heard him utter "Anyone who claims to understand any of this hasn't given it enough thought." which was his paraphrase of Bohr's famous comment. I miss him.

For some reason, I particularly like this guy.

A womanizing, bongo-playing genius who could explain anything? That's literally the perfect life for every STEM major in college.

I couldn't agree more with your assessment of this wacky and wonderful human being, a true delight!!

I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment of Mr. Feynman and recommend reading his autobiographical book "Surely you're joking mr. feyman" it's an amazing and fun adventure of a book and a glimpse into a playful and brilliant mind.

My friend was lucky enough to study at Caltech in 1965 when Feynman taught the intro physics course which later became the Feynman Lectures. He said it was the best experience of his life.

The bongos get me every time.

These bongo hits make a video. xD

Surely, you're joking Mr. Feynman!

Please please please do an episode on super genius and awesome humble guy John Bardeen, he was the only winner of two prizes in Physics, the transistor in the 50's and then super conducting in the 70's. He wasn't high profile like an Einstein or a Feynman, but he was so low key he would barbeque with his neighbors who knew he did something at the university but had no idea he was the father of the modern age of electronics. Oh please please please!! John Bardeen, John Bardeen John Bardeen! He's my DAD!!

Feynman was amazing. His pure enthusiasm was completely infectious.

The first genius troll

My Feynman moment was, about 1995 when I was following a good friend, I had not seen in a long while, to his house where I was joining he and his family for dinner and to catch up on things. As I followed Eric from big boulevards in Alta Dena into smaller side streets as we approached his house I got the very palpable feeling of peace and calm. By the time we stopped and I parked in front of his house I was practically overwhelmed by that feeling. I got out of my car and said loudly " What a great neighborhood, I love it here." I can't remember all of his reply but that last thing he said was "...oh yeah, and that house next door used to belong to some famous Physicist, I can't remem..." "You mean Richard Feynman!"( I already knew it in m bones) He couldn't believe I knew that. All I could think to do was walk over and touched the gate handle to at least have something like contact with my mentor and basically favorite human.

Feynman also, as a lark, broke the code to the Maya pictographs. A real all around Genius. Dan

Anyone else catch that at 7:50 the bongo sound bite they use is from an actual recording of Richard Feynman playing the bongos? Well done SciShow.

Richard Feynman's enthusiasm was something else. Watching videos of him talking to students, I just wish I had been there to see him in person. He was a bit like Les Paul, the guitar player and designer, he didn't have an off switch. He just carried on, bringing people along with the sheer force of his personality.

Best. Last words. Ever.

The Green brothers are the best example of science & history educators... we need more .... Thank you!!!!!

The reason I am so inspired by scientists is because it is one of the few professions where the vast majority of people are committed to finding the truth rather than being right or wrong. This rational approach vs an emotional approach to life I have found to be hugely beneficial.

i am not ashamed to say that i truly love that man, if you read his books and watch his lectures and cant agree i feel for you . He taught himself to remain lucid while directing his own dreams for gods sake.

My Dad was Caltech '38. In the 60's and 70's I would attend Caltech Seminar Days with him. Feynman was often a lecturer at these events which were always standing room only. His office door was also something not to be missed, with thesis proposals by future Nobel candidates and bets made, accepted or conceded.

"Shut up and calculate" -Richard Feynman

the guy sounds fantastic. doing math in a strip club. Now that's cool in my book. And pranking, just goes to show that even great thinkers can a have a sense of humor and still be human.

I went to his grave site in Altadena today. Since then, I fell in love and realized how much his work has impacted the world.

Years ago when I was a kid I read a book on the development of the Manhattan Project (yes I was and still am a geek). In it they had a section on the unique security challenges of dealing with civilian scientists. They said that one in particular would open safes if they had a key he needed. His wife would send letters on a sheet of aluminum foil with holes in it, or a letter written on the back of a jigsaw puzzle, disassembled. Decades later I would find out it was Feynman.

My mother took a few lectures from Feynman when she was in graduate school, and said that in retrospect, it was one of the greatest experiences of her life.

Captured in several ways what I consider the spirit of the man. Thank you. I too in a way miss never having had the opportunity to actually have know him. One of my favorites (there are many) was what I believe was his take on anti-gravity devices, "You're sitting in one." Or maybe that was someone else, still it embodies his joy at seeing things a little differently than most of us might. The simple joy in just questioning why any particular thing might happen and/or be seen as it is and/or does.

It's like 1 o'clock in the morning where I am, and I've been watching scishow for 2 hours, and I'm low on sleep, and this video literslly gave me goosebumps and made me cry. Thank you Hank. Thank you, Richard Feynman. For educating the world and being a beautiful, fantastic awesome person.

I was one year too early (having skipped a grade) for the Feynman lectures on physics. I did attend one and his Physics X seminars. I watched him hold forth at the student hall with a great crowd of students and others. He was amazing in person and loved explaining things. I don't know whether Feynman's reputation had anything to do with it, but every Caltech freshman learned how to pick locks. That knowledge helped me once when I was a postdoctoral fellow. It's also the basis for an anecdote when I was a graduate student at Columbia. He was amazing in being smart and humble, weird and approachable. Losing him was a blow to humanity.

"... because i find it delightful." KICK THE TABLE! PLAY THE BONGO!

Nice lecture on Feynman, though. People might also be curious to know he won the Putnam Award in math in college, the contest prize John Nash longed to win but could not; and Nash was a math major, while Feynman was a physics major. Also, Feynman's unprecedented double perfect scores in the math & physics GRE before going to Princeton...

“Q.E.D., a theory that had been established but not completely resolved” i really love you guys

Great episode. But it is worth noting that Feynman was lead by a General friend of his (iirc) to discover that the o-ring was the problem that caused the crash, because the engineer who made the discovery couldn't disclose it because politics.

They say, if you can't explain it, you don't understand it well enough.

I was introduced to Richard Feynman through a book one of my uncles sent me. The book was, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman," sent to me about the time Feynman died. I suppose that my love of science was well-known to my extended family, so it wasn't too odd that my uncle mailed me the book, with a note saying that he thought I would enjoy it.

Feynman was just awesomesauce. His books and his about him are my favorite scientific biography and history of science books. His "Lost Lecture" is a great example of his teaching complex subjects clearly.

I know this is so old, but since I just saw it, I have to say that I didn't know there was someone else on earth who felt as I do about Richard Feynman. I've read all his lectures and seen all his video lectures. Truly and amazing man. I too would have liked to have met him. I'm especially sorry since I was around for much of his life, I got married for the second time in 1988 when he died. Without the internet I did not know about him when he was alive. You did a great video and a very nice tribute to a great man.

This guy is my hero. Richard Feynman was an incredible man.

"I'd hate to die twice. It is so boring." - Richard Feynman

I read his books many years ago and was amazed that he was so human. He liked the Carnaval in Brazil, also enjoyed lock picking and safe cracking. I guess QED was just another hobby for this great mind.

I know this is old and might never be seen. You have been a great explainer. Wish you the best.

I wish I could like this video ten more times! Feynman was the best. He and Sagan have made such a wonderful contribution to science by bringing complex ideas to the laymen in interesting and exciting ways.

Back in the 80's, my dad roomed in apartment with Carl Feynman in Cambridge while Carl went to MIT. I'm pretty sure my dad got to meet Richard Feynman once or twice too. Learning more about this guy is really interesting.

Totally AGREE! I am crazy about Feynman too! Learned about him via my obsession with Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project...and am now nuts about both. Glad he lived long enough to make a big difference on the Rogers Commission and resolving/explaining the Challenger disaster. If I had a time machine, I'd definitely want to hang out with Richard Feynman a lot!

You have the knack of explaining this stuff as if you’re just like me, you understand the jist of the subject at hand you merely fell asleep half an hour ago & need a nudge in the right direction.

He was a genius, a great teacher and a wonderful character.

Richard Feynman was like the coolest person ever!!!

I recently read "Surely you must be joking" and am now on a mission to discover more about this great man. Thanks for the great video.

One of my favorite SciShow episodes about one of my favorite people. Thanks Hank.

Richard Feynman has long been one of my personal heroes. What a great man.

This Episode is Awesome!!!! Thanks Scishow!!

i have the same feeling... thank you so much for sharing with us. i wish i could have the honor to meet him, to attend his classes... be one of his bff... :) i love to watch him on videos over and over again ...the world would be a much better place if he could stay here with us... he is a legend... genius... unforgetable..

When I'm overwhelmed with my studies, I often watch this video as inspiration. Thank you, SciShow.

3:43 if he got Bohr-ed, he'd go aound los alamo

The Gleck biography is really really amazing. His correspondance with his first wife is heartbreaking and really romantic.

I think Feynman and Dennis McKenna have something in common. They have a vocal quality that just makes whatever they are saying, extremely interesting along with focusing your attention. Both could read phone books and I would have a smile on my face while I'm listening.

Professor Feynman is also a genius to reckon with in his own right, his uniqueness is his ability and emphasis on breaking things down to simple form and he emphasis on that! I'm still amazed why most world innovators and great minds are mathemticians and I hope I can get there too as a Mathematician! Thanks for this bro!

Will you please do an episode on Karl Friedrich Gauss, the German mathematician? That would be awesome

Great video, especially the bongo gag at 7:43 lol

Thats what i like about him most he can actually give you what he is trying to teach in a clear way

SciShow is worth a thousand Feynmans of understandable and interesting explanations of nature and widespread exposure of science to the public.

when he said abstruse - i thought he was combining abstract and obtuse - turns out it's a real word

Richard Feynman was a party, prank and math king in that order.

I love this man!!! His autobiography "surely you can't be serious mr feyman?" is amazing!!! I highly recommend it!!

I love those random bongo sequences! Too funny... Feynman, in all do respect to the other great minds of the world, gives me the utmost aspiration for wanting to know more about this universe and everything in it! I really wish I could have met him...

What an awesome human being! It must have been something to know him on a personal or professional level! Thank you for your contributions to man kinds understanding of the universe!

That was great. I'd like to see a SciShow on Von Neumann as well.

I've used the opening 2 minutes of this video many dozens of times to introduce the topic of 'particles'/'kinetic theory' to my physics high school classes. I'm about to do it again today. Thank you for such a great video - it piques the minds of students about kinetic theory, and gives them a desire to know more about Feynman and other physicists.

I've always thought that it would be so cool to have Richard Feynman as a friend or teacher, too!

Feynman was truly a giant of science and a wonderful human being.

I always thought I was weird until I realized I have the same motivations as this guy. I hope one day I can be as smart as him :)

We used Feynman's text as a reference when I studied undergraduate physics. It was great!

“Hail Richard Feynman, King of physics, and my heart”. Lol.. word brotha... word.

I looover your passion for my main man of Physics: Richard Fyneman! What a brilliant piece. In an ideal world, I'd be his wife! We'd do lot's of mathematics together and physics of course! I'm glad he did many video lectures, intervies and wrote the most amazing books. Keep up your great work. :D

Feynman 2016

It's good to see you so passionate about him, Hank.

I like the way Feynman explained physics. Even in his books, it seemed like he is speaking to us directly.

Feynman, my favorite physicist all the time

8:55 is now my catchphrase.

Science Teacher which could enchant any dancer with the beats & sounds of bongos & blow the mind of any enlightened sentience with his ability to explain the smallest parts of the Universe. Best Physics Teacher Ever.

I'm honestly bummed that I never really learned about Richard Feynman when I was growing up, so now, should I ever have any, I'm going to be sure to introduce my children to the wonderful tale that is this man.