Richard Feynman — I love this man’s brain and johy for life.
It’s like if Einstein had a love child with Mister Rogers.
I jumped down the Feynman rabbit hole to find the best documentaries on this genius.
Yes, he’s a genius.
For the uninitiated, Feynman was on Robert Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project team from 1942 to 1946 (he’s the one playing bongos (played by Jack Quaid) in the movie “Oppenheimer”); won a Nobel Prize for Physics (1965); and single-handedly solved the reason for the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (1986).
For my list below, I include Feynman interviews and lectures. They often document the man’s life better than a formal documentary.
I give a big joyful thanks to Tim Ferriss for first pointing Feynman out (see #3) on his podcast.
Like Feynman, Tim is all about curiosity (I can call him “Tim” cuz we once ate lunch together (with the great Eben Pagan) before Tim was famous.
And how about Lex Fridman (see #8)? How cool is it that he edited one of Feynman’s lecture Q&A on his take on A.I.!
I researched Feynman a bunch but would have missed that one. Thx, Lex!
Enjoy!
1) Fun to Imagine
Feynman uses plain english to explain 8 different things about physics.
I (a physics idio) immediately taught my 8 year-old son about atoms using the coffee example!
Here are the 8 puzzles Feynman covers:
- Jiggling Atoms: Using coffee as an example, Feynman explains how atomic motion relates to heat and temperature. He uses the analogy of a bouncing ball to illustrate energy transfer between atoms.
- Fire: He describes fire as a chemical reaction between oxygen and carbon atoms, releasing stored solar energy. Feynman compares this process to a ball rolling into a deep hole.
- Rubber Bands: The molecular basis of rubber band elasticity. He explains how stretching affects molecular order and generates heat.
- Magnets: He explores magnetic forces and fields, touching on their invisible interactions. Feynman also mentions the challenges of visualizing atomic behavior in magnetism.
- Electricity: He explains electric currents, electromagnetic effects, and their interrelationship. He highlights how this understanding underpins many modern technologies.
- Mirror and Train Puzzles: He presents thought experiments about reflections and relative motion. Feynman explains why mirrors seem to reverse left and right but not up and down.
- Seeing Things: He describes the process of vision and perception. He discusses how our eyes and brain work together to create the images we see.
- Big Numbers: He explores the concept and significance of very large numbers in science. Feynman uses examples to illustrate both the fascination and challenge of comprehending enormous quantities.
You can watch the full “Fun to Imagine” documentary for free on Vimeo by clicking the video embed above.
If you want other streaming options, I dedicate an entire web page for Fun to Imagine with 5 ways to watch it here:
https://dailydoc.com/fun-to-imagine/
That link has some extra notes I took while watching.
2) The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
“The Pleasure of Finding Things Out” is a 50-minute interview of Richard Feynman from the 1981 BBC Horizon TV series.
Highlights of the Documentary
Childhood and Early Influences
Feynman reminisces about his childhood, where his father played a pivotal role in nurturing his curiosity. He shares delightful stories about exploring the world together, questioning everything from the composition of a flower to the principles of inertia.
The Manhattan Project
Feynman’s involvement in the Manhattan Project during World War II. He recounts the excitement and moral dilemmas of working on the atomic bomb.
Nobel Prize and Scientific Method
Feynman discusses his journey to winning the Nobel Prize in Physics, including his famous quote: “The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it—those are the real things.”
Teaching Philosophy
Feynman criticizes rote memorization and advocates for a more hands-on, inquiry-based approach to learning. His teaching philosophy is a call to educators to inspire curiosity.
Watch “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out” by clicking the video embed above.
I also include 2 other free links to watch it here (along with some more of my notes):
https://dailydoc.com/the-pleasure-of-finding-things-out/
3) The Fantastic Mr Feynman
I love “The Fantastic Mr Feynman” — it’s arguably the most comprehensive biographical doc on Feynman.
Whereas the #1 and #2 docs above center on footage of Feynman himself, “The Fantastic Mr Feynman” is a more traditional documentary (other talking heads talking about Feynman). .
You get to hear from relatives and teammates of Feynman as well as modern day scholars.
Perhaps that’s why you hear Tim Ferriss recommend this doc so often (on his podcast and 5-Bullet Friday newsletter).
Warning: If you have already watched “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out”, you’ll see some overlap here.
For example, you get the same footage of Feynman’s stories about his dad (the T-Rex story and the one about the bias people have when they see men in uniform); and interview footage about the Los Alamos Atomic Bomb test.
But “The Fantastic Mr Feynman” brings those interview clips more to life through fun visuals (“The Pleasure of Finding Things Out” is mostly just Feynman in front of a camera).
Watch The Fantastic Mr Feynman for free on Archives.org by clicking the video embed above or go to https://archive.org/details/thefantasticmrfeynman (no ads)
I include other ways to watch it on this page I created: https://dailydoc.com/the-fantastic-mr-feynman/
4) The Quest for Tannu Tuva
“The Quest for Tannu Tuva” follows Richard Feynman and Ralph Layton’s 10-year obsession with the remote region of Tuva in Russia.
Despite many setbacks, including rejection letters from Moscow, they remained determined to visit this country “where the reindeer meets the camel”.
This doc (from BBC TV’s Horizon) got remade with an American narrator in an almost-identical documentary called “The Last Journey of a Genius” (aired on PBS’s NOVA).
Watch it for free on YouTube by clicking the video embed above.
5) Horizon: No Ordinary Genius (Parts 1 and 2)
I couldn’t find an official trailer for No Ordinary Genius but I found this whacky excerpt
“No Ordinary Genius” is a two-part Horizon documentary on Feynman.
The series (directed by Christopher Sykes) aired on consecutive Mondays – Part One on January 25, 1993, and Part Two on February 1, 1993.
Each 50-minute episode offers an intimate portrait of Feynman through personal accounts from colleagues, family, and friends as well as Feynman’s own words.
You can watch it for free on Vimeo here:
- Part 1: https://vimeo.com/345201385
- Part 2: https://vimeo.com/344623617
You can also watch part 1 for free on Archive.org here: https://archive.org/details/horizon-29-5-no-ordinary-genius-part-1-richard-feynman-25-jan-1993
6) Feynman’s Messenger Lectures (aka “Character of Physical Law”)
The video embed above starts with the first series and rolls into the other 6.
Cornell has put on 80 talks called the “Messenger Lectures” since it’s creation in 1924.
The most popular was the “Character of Physical Law” lectures by Richard Feynman.
The 7 lectures are:
- The Law of Gravitation (55:26), November 9, 1964
- The Relation of Mathematics and Physics (55:28), November 11, 1964
- The Great Conservation Principles (55:54), November 12, 1964
- Symmetry in Physical Law (56:51), November 16, 1964
- The Distinction of Past and Future (46:12), November 17, 1964
- Probability and Uncertainty (56:09), November 18, 1964
- Seeking New Laws (57:53), November 19, 1964
Watch Feynman’s Messenger Lectures for free on YouTube by clicking the video embed above or here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04-LIXIOH-M&list=PLxakStyxIWCN8fQOvPiq0k8R_GQU8KTQl
7) The World from another point of view
Richard Feynman frequently spent holidays in England. His third wife, Gweneth Howarth, hailed from West Yorkshire, leading the Feynman family to visit her hometown of Ripponden or the nearby hamlet of Mill Bank each year.
In this 36 min. gem from 1973, Yorkshire public TV does a short documentary of one of his visits.
British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle interviews Feynman.
He reinforces how his father’s greatest gift to him was not what to think but how to think.
This includes his famous take on names of names of birds and how it’s the least important part of understanding a bird.
The doc also covers Feynman’s attempt to understand unconsciousness. He recalls his father’s hypothetical questions, like “How does it feel to get unconscious?” which led Feynman to ponder and research sleep in college.
Another funny Feynman observation is that we might one day look at brushing our teeth (which he says lacks any scientific evidence) with how people looked at witches 200 years earlier.
You can watch it “The World from another point of view” for free on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNhlNSLQAFE
8) Richard Feynman: Can Machines Think?
Thx, Lex Fridman!
He found this Q&A excerpt on the topic of AI from a lecture by Richard Feynman from September 26th, 1985.
It was part of the Douglas Robb Memorial Lectures held at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
At the lecture, they asked this question of Feynman:
Do you think there will ever be a machine that will think like human beings and be intelligent than human beings?
The video is Feynman’s answer.
Remember: this is 1985.
Feynman starts by challenging the idea that machines will ever think like humans.
“If we would like to make something that runs rapidly over the ground, we could try to make a machine that runs like a cheetah,” he says, “but it’s easier to make a machine with wheels.”
This analogy underscores that AI will develop differently from human intelligence, optimized for different efficiencies.
But he is confident computers will do many things better than humans:
He gives an example where he asks an audience member to repeat a series of numbers backward, highlighting human limitations:
“One, seven, three, nine, two, six, five, eight, three, one, seven, two, six. Anybody got it? Can anyone do that?”
And AI will excel in something like weather prediction, explaining that computers, with their ability to process vast amounts of data rapidly, will likely excel here.
“It’s not inconceivable that the machine could do weather prediction faster and more effectively than we do.”
-Feynman
He gives the audience an exercise. He asks them to try to count backwards:
“One, seven, three, nine, two, six, five, eight, three, one, seven, two, six. Anybody got it?”
(no one in the audience got it)
While he predicts A.I. will be better than humans at many things, he says it will still struggle with nuanced human-like recognition and understanding.
He gives the example of how a human can identify a friend from afar by their unique gait or hair flip, a task currently beyond machines’ capabilities.
“You see his hair flip just a little bit, and you know that’s Jack. We haven’t figured out how to teach machines that.”
— Feynman
Knowing what we know today (I’m writing this July 13, 2024), I can’t think of anything Feynman brought up in this lecture Q&A that is not accurate.
Watch “Feynman’s Can Machines Think?” for free on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipRvjS7q1DI
9) Strangeness Minus Three
Strangeness Minus Three” is a 1964 episode of the BBC’s Horizon series, detailing the discovery of the Omega minus particle. This 44-minute science documentary provides insights into the theoretical and experimental work leading to this groundbreaking find.
It features 3 prominent physicists like Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, and David Lutyens.
Feynman, renowned for his parton model, laid foundational work that later helped confirm the existence of quarks within protons.
His theoretical contributions, though not directly tied to the Omega minus particle, provided critical insights into the subatomic world.
Gell-Mann, a key figure in particle physics, introduced the concept of “strangeness” and developed the “Eightfold Way” classification, crucial for predicting the Omega minus particle.
Lutyens, another notable physicist, played an essential role in the collaborative efforts that validated the quark model through the discovery of the Omega minus particle at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
This discovery was pivotal in enhancing our understanding of the universe’s fundamental building blocks, marking a significant milestone in particle physics.
Watch Strangeness Minus Three for free on Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/bbchorizon3102whispersofcreation14nov1994/BBC+Horizon+01-04+Strangeness+Minus+Three+(25+Jul+1964).mp4
In the U.K., you can watch it on BBC at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01z4p1j/horizon-19641965-strangeness-minus-three
10) The best teacher I never had
This two and a half minute video tribute to Feynman is from Bill Gates.
He calls Feynman “the best teacher I never had”.
He has an excerpt from Feynman’s Messenger Lectures series from Cornell and the “Fun to Imagine” documentary.
Gates admires Feynman so much that he purchased the rights to Richard Feynman’s “Character of Physical Law” lecture series (mentioned above) at Cornell University in 1964 .
You can watch “The best teacher I never had” for free on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOoJh6oYAXE
Thanks for reading!
-Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc