Feiman's students are really wild

This is a letter from Richard Feynman, who replied to his students "ye Guangyi", with the original English version.

 

Fei manzhi (Koichi Mano) )Zhenye is a former member of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist feeman and former student of Chao Yongzhen. He wrote a letter to congratulate him. Feiman replied and asked him how he was doing. He replied: "He is studying the application of the same tone theory to the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the disturbed atmosphere ...... It is a humble and short topic ." Dear Guangyi:I am very happy to hear from you and know that you have an appropriate position in a research lab. However, the statements in your letter seem sad, which makes me a little worried. It seems that your teacher has given you a meaningless idea, and it is not worth the effort to study it. In fact, the value of a problem is not the size of the problem, but whether you can actually solve it or help solve it. In this way, your hard work will make a real contribution, not in vain. In the scientific community, as long as the problem has not yet been resolved before us, we have a way to push forward a point to the answer. This is a great question. I would like to suggest you first look for something simpler, or something more humble, as you said. So that you can easily solve the problem. No matter how ordinary the problem is, you will taste the joy of success. In addition, it is worthwhile to help colleagues frequently. Even if they answer questions that are not as competent as you are, they will accumulate their own sense of accomplishment. Don't get bored with the wrong idea of "no question is meaningless, no question is valuable. When we met, it was my career's time. Therefore, in your eyes, my ability to solve problems is just like a god, and it seems that nothing can be done. But I also brought another PhD student, aibert Hibbs, to study how wind blows the sea out of water. I accept him because he came to ask me for help with the problem he wanted to solve. I made a mistake to you, that is, I specified a question for you, not your own question. This makes you misunderstand the meaning of the question and think that some problems are interesting, gratifying, or important and worthwhile-that is, you think that some problems are worth your efforts to solve, otherwise. Sorry, please forgive me for my negligence. I hope this letter will be a little practical. I have studied countless questions on my own, and many of them are the humble questions you have mentioned. But I feel very happy and I am doing a lot of work. Because sometimes I get some results. Let me give you a bunch of examples: I have studied the friction factor of a highly polished surface and want to know how the friction works (the result failed ); we have also studied the relationship between the elasticity of the crystal and the force between atoms; how to plating the metal on the plastic body (such as the door handle); how to diffuse the neutron out of the uranium atom; how can an electromagnetic wave be reflected from a thin coating of Glass? How is the seismic wave formed during the explosion? I have also designed a neutron counter to calculate the energy level of a light nucleus; explore why silent write elements capture L-layer electrons, but do not capture K-layer electrons. I also studied the general theory of how to fold paper into several kinds of children's toys (with the shape of the paper folded into a changeable polygon), the theory of turbulence (I spent several years on it, unfortunately, there is no result); of course there are also the "great" issues of quantum theory. You say you are an insignificant person. But I want to say that you are not a small person for your wife and children. If your colleague asks a question and gets a satisfactory answer, you are not a small person. Of course you are not a nobody to me. Don't be arrogant and think you are an anonymous hacker. This is sad. Know your position in this world and try to play your role. Do not judge yourself with your childish thoughts when you are young, or comment on yourself with others' eyes and thoughts. Good luck and good luck. Sincere wishes to Richard Feynman in February 3, 1966 what problems to solve-by Richard Feynman

A former student, who was also once a student of Tomonaga's, wrote to extend his congratulations. feynman responded, asking mr. mano what he was now doing. the response: "Studying the Coherence Theory with some applications to the propagation of electromagnetic waves through turbulent atmosphere... A humble and down-to-earth type of problem ."

Dear Koichi,I was very happy to hear from you, and that you have such a position in theResearch Laboratories. Unfortunately your letter made me unhappy for you seemto be truly sad. It seems that the influence of your teacher has been to giveyou a false idea of what are worthwhile problems. The worthwhile problems arethe ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contributesomething to. A problem is grand in science if it lies before us unsolved andwe see some way for us to make some headway into it. I would advise you to takeeven simpler, or as you say, humbler, problems until you find some you canreally solve easily, no matter how trivial. You will get the pleasure ofsuccess, and of helping your fellow man, even if it is only to answer aquestion in the mind of a colleague less able than you. You must not take awayfrom yourself these pleasures because you have some erroneous idea of what isworthwhile.You met me at the peak of my career when I seemed to you to be concerned withproblems close to the gods. But at the same time I had another Ph.D. Student(Albert Hibbs) was on how it is that the winds build up waves blowing overwater in the sea. I accepted him as a student because he came to me with theproblem he wanted to solve. With you I made a mistake, I gave you the probleminstead of letting you find your own; and left you with a wrong idea of what isinteresting or pleasant or important to work on (namely those problems you seeyou may do something about). I am sorry, excuse me. I hope by this letter tocorrect it a little.I have worked on innumerable problems that you would call humble, but which Ienjoyed and felt very good about because I sometimes could partially succeed.For example, experiments on the coefficient of friction on highly polishedsurfaces, to try to learn something about how friction worked (failure). Or,how elastic properties of crystals depends on the forces between the atoms inthem, or how to make electroplated metal stick to plastic objects (like radioknobs). Or, how neutrons diffuse out of Uranium. Or, the reflection ofelectromagnetic waves from films coating glass. The development of shock wavesin explosions. The design of a neutron counter. Why some elements captureelectrons from the L-orbits, but not the K-orbits. General theory of how tofold paper to make a certain type of child’s toy (called flexagons). The energylevels in the light nuclei. The theory of turbulence (I have spent severalyears on it without success). Plus all the “grander” problems of quantumtheory.No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.You say you are a nameless man. You are not to your wife and to your child. Youwill not long remain so to your immediate colleagues if you can answer theirsimple questions when they come into your office. You are not nameless to me.Do not remain nameless to yourself – it is too sad a way to be. now your placein the world and evaluate yourself fairly, not in terms of your naïve ideals ofyour own youth, nor in terms of what you erroneously imagine your teacher’sideals are.Best of luck and happiness.  Sincerely, Richard P. Feynman.
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