[ ^Top ]

Product Description

The best-selling sequel to "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"--funny, poignant, instructive. One of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman possessed an unquenchable thirst for adventure and an unparalleled ability to tell the stories of his life. "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" is Feynman's last literary legacy, which he prepared as he struggled with cancer. Among its many tales--some funny, others intensely moving--we meet Feynman's first wife, Arlene, who taught him of love's irreducible mystery as she lay dying in a hospital bed while he worked nearby on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. We are also given a fascinating narrative of the investigation of the space shuttle Challenger's explosion in 1986, and we relive the moment when Feynman revealed the disaster's cause by an elegant experiment: dropping a ring of rubber into a glass of cold water and pulling it out, misshapen. A New York Times bestseller.

Amazon.com Review

A thoughtful companion volume to the earlier Surely You Are Joking Mr. Feynman!. Perhaps the most intriguing parts of the book are the behind-the-scenes descriptions of science and policy colliding in the presidential commission to determine the cause of the Challenger space shuttle explosion; and the scientific sleuthing behind his famously elegant O-ring-in-ice-water demonstration. Not as rollicking as his other memoirs, but in some ways more profound.

[ ^Top ]

Feynman was a great man        Rating:

Not quite as funny as "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman", but just as touching. A pleasure to read. This books makes us like not only the man, but it also inspires us to join his quest for scientific knowledge and rational thinking.

An adventurous and curious character.        Rating:

"The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty--some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain.
Now, we scientists are used to this, and we take it for granted that it is perfectly consistent to be unsure, that it is possible to live and not know. But I don't know whether everyone realizes this is true." Feynman, The Value of Science

The book's title relates to Feynman's telling of his relationship and experiences with his first wife, Arlene, a victim of Hodgkin's disease. But the subtitle of this book would have made a better title than the one used. Feynman was indeed a curious sort, and he begins by telling how his father encouraged his curiosity.

Feynman achieved a measure of celebrity that few scientists do, and as a result, he sometimes found a forum for his thoughts outside of strict science. He was a fun and likeable man, and an innovative thinker as regards certain scientific difficulties; he wasn't much of a philosopher (evidenced by the fact that he thought Voltaire was a good philosopher), and in fact didn't like philosophy. While he was intelligent enough to admit that his views on art, culture, history, religion, and politics should not be taken too seriously, he was generally happy, and perhaps anxious, to offer such of his views anyway, and they are usually entertaining: "I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy--and when he talks about a nonscientific matter, he sounds as naive as anyone untrained in the matter. Since the question of the value of science is not a scientific subject, this talk is dedicated to proving my point-- by example." RF, The Value of Science

It hardly seems correct to call the short articles he wrote `essays', so I'll call them writings. This volume is a collection of Feynman's personal writings, with some contributions from physicist friends Freeman Dyson and Henry Bethe. Most of the book is Feynman's account of his work as a Commissioner investigating the space shuttle Challenger disaster.

This isn't a great science text, it isn't great literature; it's more like listening in on Feynman's thoughts and conversations. Apart from minimal aspects of Appendix F (Feynman's appendix to the Presidential Commission Report) his book isn't particularly technical. It's rather `light' and entertaining, and anyone interested in Feynman, in NASA and the US manned space program, or in bureaucratic `ethics' (or perversion thereof), will almost certainly enjoy it.

A Wonderful Treatise        Rating:

I have always liked reading about Dr.Feynman! Infact it all started with Surely..Mr.Feynman. This book goes out to show that any guy, can split his time between love and work(which is most often missing from these high profile Scientists/Physicist).
His desire to know the root cause of Challenger mishap, and how he goes on to demonstate what transpired the failure of Challenger mishap is very inspiring.
All in All a good buy if you are an ardent fan of him!

A curious character indeed, and furious        Rating:

The book does not give as much pleasure and joy as 'Sure you're joking...", however the section on shuttle crash analysis is of highest interest and justifies alone the reading.

Feynman...The Scientific Entertainer        Rating:

In this sequel to "surely you must be joking Mr. Feynman," Richard Feynman once again uses his cunningness and his scientific genius to entertain. This book starts off with a brief history of him and his scientific career. Then it goes on to his wife's death. This is a very sad excerpt of the story and in this part, he communicates with you the sorrow he goes through, showing he does truly love his wife. During this portion you realize that although he is a brilliant man and is nearly untouchable in the scientific realm, he is still down to earth and goes through every thing that we do. Also in this book is the main feature, the Challenger investigation. The Challenger exploded shortly after leaving the ground and NASA wanted to know why. They pull in a group of the top scientists, mathematicians and some other random people that don't have names. Their job is to see what went wrong with the Challenger in an effort to stop this mistake from being repeated. Feynman and the others work in Washington D.C. over six months. He finally figured out and proved, with simply a glass of ice water and a part off of the Challenger, what the problem was. He used his ingenious brain and his sense of humor to establish his point and to show NASA their miniscule piece that was causing such a major problem. This book is incredibly funny and is not such a book that has large vocabulary and crazy concepts never heard by normal human ears. It is an easy read and a fun read.

[ ^Top ]