Richard Feynman Lecture -- "Los Alamos From Below"
The Quagmire
1,342,085 views
There are quite a few copies of this Feynman lecture floating around out there, but most end prior to the question from the audience.
After the lecture, a guy in the audience asks Feynman about his safe-cracking stories and Feynman goes on for about another ten minutes relating three different stories on his safe-cracking while at Los Alamos National Laboratories. Enjoy!
20 Comments
@MennoEelkema 3 years ago
9:00 A movie about this? Nah, that'll never work...
@summerlove7779 3 years ago
9:00 "When they make a moving picture about this", here we are in 2023 a day before "Oppenheimer" is being released.
@Chibob55 3 years ago
All the while he worked at Los Alamos he had to watch his young bride suffer and eventually wilt away at age 25. I have heard of his love letters to her. A poet. A genius. And also an wonderful sense of story-telling humour..
@erichodge567 6 years ago
This is a priceless historical document. Can you imagine having Isaac Newton on tape going, "Now when I first went up to Cambridge..."
@dpsamu2000 3 years ago
Even though you can't see him you can hear the smile on his face, and the laughter in his throat.
@rogerkeeling1485 6 years ago
In 1975, I was attending UCSB but, sadly, at the time I'd never heard of Richard Feynman. I was blandly unaware of his lecture. But my incredible roommate -- the late William Armbruster -- knew who he was. And William was most certainly attending that lecture, because he and a buddy were the guys who made THIS recording! William owned a high-end reel-to-reel ReVox, and was the guy who normally recorded the Santa Barbara Symphony's performances. Periodically they also recorded lecturers in UCSB's enormous Campbell Hall on behalf of the Lectures Program. As usual, he and his friend had gone early, hung the microphone(s), and then camped out in a control booth with the ReVox running. The next day he mentioned it to me, asked if I'd gone, and was shocked when I admitted I knew nothing of it. Immediately he pulled out the ReVox and new recording -- THIS recording -- and played it to me. I was transfixed, and consequently deeply regretful about having missed seeing it live. (As a student I could have attended for free, of course). A day or so later, William handed the tape over to the Lectures program people, and I've often wondered in the intervening years what happened to it (and, actually, to ALL the recordings they made of the exceptional people who came to lecture). Apparently they've been properly archived by the UCSB library, and finally somebody ("The Quadmire") has taken time to bring the long version to the world via YouTube. So: thank you, The Quadmire, much appreciated!
@SodaCityNomad 3 years ago (edited)
Everybody talks about how amazing Carl Sagan was as a science communicator but part of me thinks Richard Feynman was even better. I could listen to him talk all day.
@liamconroy1656 6 years ago
That valve story is honestly one of the funniest stories I've heard in a long time. Really great guy, that part was actually a really good example of humility from a man like him turning into such a turn of events.
@wolfboyft 4 years ago
"What the hell it isn't funny yet I've got better jok--" everyone laughs and claps
@canadiangemstones7636 3 years ago
What an absolute gift to humanity was Richard Feynman. Beyond thrilled that his words were recorded!
Richard Feynman Lecture -- "Los Alamos From Below"
The Quagmire
1,342,085 views
There are quite a few copies of this Feynman lecture floating around out there, but most end prior to the question from the audience.
After the lecture, a guy in the audience asks Feynman about his safe-cracking stories and Feynman goes on for about another ten minutes relating three different stories on his safe-cracking while at Los Alamos National Laboratories. Enjoy!