Richard Feynman Reading Comprehension Worksheet | Famous Scientists

Richard Feynman — Theoretical physicist — quantum electrodynamics

Richard Feynman was one of the most brilliant and entertaining physicists of the 20th century. Born in Queens, New York on May 11, 1918, he showed a remarkable ability for mathematics from childhood — by age 15, he had taught himself trigonometry, calculus, and advanced algebra on his own.

Feynman studied at MIT and then Princeton University, where he joined the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. As one of the youngest scientists on the project, he worked on the physics calculations needed to develop the atomic bomb. Though the bomb helped end the war, Feynman later reflected deeply on the moral weight of the work.

His greatest scientific contribution was his work on quantum electrodynamics (QED) — the theory of how light and matter interact at the subatomic level. He developed an entirely new way to calculate these interactions using simple diagrams, now called Feynman Diagrams, which are used by physicists around the world to this day. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for this work.

Feynman had a gift for explaining difficult ideas clearly and enthusiastically. He taught physics at Caltech for decades and his Feynman Lectures on Physics are still considered some of the best physics textbooks ever written. He once said: ‘If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.’

Later in life, Feynman served on the commission investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. He famously demonstrated why the shuttle failed by dipping a rubber O-ring into ice water, showing it became brittle in cold temperatures. Richard Feynman combined genius, joy, and honesty in a way that made science feel alive.