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发信人: asdf (变量), 信区: Science
标  题: 费曼故事(十五)
发信站: 紫丁香 (Tue Jun 30 21:57:37 1998), 转信

发信人: tnt (TNT), 信区: Physics
标  题: fey
发信站: 空间科学BBS站 . Fri Mar 28 06:44:59 1997

                             Penrose and Feynman

     � � � � Not long ago I gave a lecture at Oxford University. While
     I was there I had the good fortune to have a long lunch with
     physicist/mathematician Roger Penrose, who is responsible for much
     of our understanding of black holes. The topic of Feynman came up
     and Penrose related the following story:

     � � � � A while back he was visiting Caltech with Steven Hawking.
     Hawking asked Penrose if there was anyone at Caltech that he
     wanted to meet. The choice obviously came down to either Feynman
     or Gell-Mann.

     � � � � Penrose decided they should try to get a hold of Feynman.
     Hawking called up the office, but Feynman wasn't in. He was on
     vacation. It turns out, however, he was vacationing at his home.
     Hawking called Feynman at home and Feynman reluctantly agreed to
     come over the next day.

     � � � � The subject of quantum gravity came up and Penrose and
     Feynman got into a heated argument. Penrose said, "Feynman was so
     quick, he was usually about five steps ahead of me at any given
     point. Sometimes he didn't listen to what I was saying. The whole
     thing was mentally exhausting. I was completely drained at the end
     of the session. I have never encountered anyone so quick before."

     � � � � What Penrose and many other physicists didn't realize was
     the reason that accounted for Feynman's "quickness" on many
     matters in physics. Feynman thought about some of these areas in
     great depth and for long periods of time. A topic like quantum
     gravity would be one that Feynman had spent countless hours
     thinking about. It wasn't all off the cuff.

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※ 来源:．紫丁香 bbs.hit.edu.cn．[FROM: quark.hit.edu.cn]

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