Feynman's Rio de Janeiro

I am holding the Feynman plate made for me by the Brazilian craftsman in this photo. In the middle is a United Airlines purser. Her name is Mary Wilkinson. She likes Feynman as many American ladies do.

I was in Brazil in May of 2011 to attend the 5th Feynman Festival held in Iguassu Falls. After the conference, I spent four days in Rio de Janeiro to take photos in order to reconstruct Feynman's interest in this city. I was there in 2000, and I also have some photos I took then using a film camera.

The Feynman Festival was initially developed at the University of Maryland and is now travelling around the world with its sister conference commonly known as the ICSSUR. The 6th meeting in this Feynman series will take place in Germany two years later, I hope to see many of you there. Here is the powerpoint presentation of my talk at the Feynman Festival. However, at this moment, you are more interested in the photos from Rio.

It is important to have enough photos, but more important is to arrange them to produce a meaningful story. I learned this form of art from a Soviet-era film maker named Sergei Eisenstein. In making a movie, you would normally expect that one should write a story first, and then shoot the camera. Eisenstein was different. He would take the photos first, and then compose the story based on those pictures. This is precisely what I am doing when I construct webpages. I have a webpage dedicated to Sergei Eisenstein.

Carnival in Rio

I am standing at one of the five sections of Rio de Janeiro's Sambadrome (top). When the Carnival is turned on, the stadium becomes like this (from the public domain).

Brazilians take this annual event very seriously and are naturally very proud of it. However, not many Brazilians know there used to be a very distinguished participant from the United States. If you are a physicist, you should know his name.
• Sambadrome of Rio de Janeiro. If this webpage to be dedicated to Feynman, it should start with photos of Rio's Samba headquarters known as the Sambadrome. Feynman used to come to Rio to participate in the Carnival in Rio.
  1. Another View of this stadium.
  2. There are four more sections like this to make up Rio's Sambadrome along the Carnival Anenue.

• When the carnival is turned on, more than one-half of Brazilians come out and dance on their streets. I have not been there during the Carnival season, but some of the spectacular scenes can be seen from the Wikipedia page.

• Silvana Mangano (1930-89) was one of the most talented Italian actresses. I had my first exposure to Samba from her film entitled "Anna." I saw this movie in Korea one month before coming to the United States in 1954. What does this have to do with Feynman?
• Feynman's Image is in this video, indicating that he was quite fond of Silvana's Samba, as many of us still are. The title of this music is "El Negro Zumbon," but is widely known as "Samba Anna."

• Plataforma is one of Rio's Samba theaters. This theater is designed to entertain those tourists who like to see some Samba dances while in Rio. I went there in 2000 and 2011, and I took some photos.
  1. Samba Dancer fully dressed.
  2. Another Dancer.
  3. Three Dancers with a Rio background.

  4. Drummers on the stage.
  5. Another Drum Photo.

  6. Feynman liked drums. Photo by Tom Harvey.
  7. Young Drummer. My grandson is imitating Feynman.

  8. Folk Dance for conservative tourists.
  9. Another Folk Dance.
  10. Talent Show before the main events.

  11. Russian Tourists were invited to dance on the stage.
  12. I had a photo with two of those Russian ladies. They came from Murmansk. They became very happy when I told them where their city is.

• Samba Festival in Princeton. Princeton is a university city. How could this happen?
  1. Princeton's P-rades (Parades of Princeton's Alumni). Princeton's alumni re-union takes place the week before the commencement. It takes four days to cover all the events. The final event is the parade of alums in the afternoon followed by the evening fireworks.

  2. This is primarily an undergraduate event, and graduate alums are second-class citizens. I do not participate in this parade, even though I have been taking photos since 1962.

  3. However, things were different in 2000. It was the 100th anniversary year of the establishment of Princeton's graduate program, and the graduate alums were asked to lead the parade. I thus participated in this parade. The parade organizers were creative enough to invite the Manhattan Samba group to head their formation. But they could not stretch their imagination enough to connect this Samba event with their No. 1 man named Richard P. Feynman.

  4. It was too late for me to complain to the organizers or to the physics department. The best thing I could do was to behave like Feynman during this event. I marched with them, but did not stay in the formation. I was roaming around and mixing up with those Samba dancers. I know you respect Feynman. You should then agree that I did the right thing for him and for you.

Copacabana Beach

Feynman used to love this beautiful beach, but you do not have to be Feynman to visit this beach. When I was in Rio in May of 2011, I stayed at the Hotel Arena Copacabana right on the beach, separated only by the Atlantic Boulevard. I was thus able to take photos in the morning, afternoon, and in the evening.
• Photo after Breakfast taken from the rooftop swimming pool of the Hotel.
  1. Another Morning Photo. Ocean, waves, sand beach, and mountains! The Atlantic Boulevard, bikeway, walkway are seen.
  2. Straight toward the Ocean. Very Peaceful.

• The Beach becomes busy in the afternoon, but it is becoming colder in May, and thus the beach is not heavily populated. The Sugarloaf Mountain is seen from the Beach.
  1. The Beach Scene in the opposite direction (May 2011).
  2. Ball Games. If the water is too cool, they can play ball games.
  3. Evening Hours. They cannot swim. They have to play football games.
  4. Here is Another Evening Scene. People can do many things with sands.

  5. In January (summer there), the beach is crowded with swimmers (photo taken in January 2000).
  6. Another January Beach Scene (2000). Feynman was quite fond of sketching a woman from this angle.

• Contact with the Beach Water. I was not ready to swim, but wanted to submerge at least a portion of my body to the Copacabna water.
  1. Afraid to swim, but they also wanted to touch the water.
  2. with two Russian Ladies had the same feeling as I did. They came from Moscow. Like mine, their pants were partially wet.
  3. Russian March instead of Samba. it was the 9th day of May. Russian soldiers were marching on the Red Square to celebrate their victory day. We decided to step like those soldiers. I did not do too well.
  4. Let us see how Russians march on their Red Square.
  5. Feynman was not able to meet Russians on this beach. Russia was run by the communist government then.

• Walkway between the sand beach and the six-lane Atlantic Boulevard. You can see many interesting people there. The bikeway is also for roller skaters.
  1. Coconut Cafe. There are many of them along the walkway.
  2. In 2000, I was there and spotted an a table with three chairs. Two of them were occupied by Brazilian mother and daughter, and one was empty. I asked them whether I can sit on the empty chair. The daughter said No. The mother could not speak English but told her daughter to say Yes. I sat there and enjoyed my coconut, and enjoyed talking with the mother. The daughter was the translator.

  3. Atlantic Boulevard seen from the the top of the Hotel Arena Copacavana.
  4. Trees along the Boulevard.
  5. Trees providing perfect resting places.
  6. Trees with Yellow Flowers. They drop flowers like these.

  7. Human Being in perfect harmony with nature.
  8. Sand Beach seen from the tree lane of the Atlantic Boulevard.

Mountains in Rio

• Mountains. Rio de Janeiro is a city of mountains. This photo was taken from the top of the Sugarloaf Mountain in 2000. The Mount Cocorvado with the statue of Jesus is seen.

• Jesus with the background of blue sky and clouds.
  1. Jesus Statue seen from the Copacavana Beach.
  2. I was there in 2000. I was very happy when I was stretching my arms like Jesus.

  3. Copacavana Beach seen from the Statue. This photo is hazy because of the thin cloud covering the entire area.
  4. Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon behind the Ipamena Beach, west of the Copacavana Beach.
  5. Rio's Horse Race Course is seen. Between the mountains, there is a tall building. This is the Hotel Sheraton Rio. I stayed in this hotel in 2000, and met many interesting people. In front of this hotel, I produced this photo.

• The Rock of the Sugarloaf Mountain. The cable car station is at the top of the rock. I went there in 2000 and 2011.
  1. Sugarloaf Mountain seen from the Jesus mountain.
  2. In the cable car, I had a photo with this young lady. While we were posing, an elderly lady was looking at us enviously. I thus had to invite her, and had this photo. You can see how happy and satisfied she was.
  3. The Statue of Beauty seen from the cable car.

  4. Copacavana Beach seen during the night (2011).
  5. The Statue of Jesus on the other mountain.
  6. Beautiful Trees at the top of the Rock. The beauty is enhanced by a beautiful lady.

• Between the Mountains, there are many beautiful Brazilians. I met these young ladies in the restaurant district of Rio (2011). I asked them whether I can have a photo with them. They said Yes.
  1. Treed Park. The rock of the Sugarloaf Mountain is seen in the background. This photo was taken in 2000.
  2. Children's Park at the city center.

  3. Cathedral Sao Sebestiao. I was inside this cathedral in 2000.
  4. Mario Filho Stadium. Brazilians take their football (soccer called in UAA) very seriously. This is their stadium in Rio. Here is a sideview of the stadium.

  5. H.Stern is the trade mark for Brazil's jewelry company. Its headquarters is in Rio de Janeiro. This map tells where it is. It is somewhat removed from the Copacavana Beach, but the company will send you a taxi if you wish to go there. Of course, they expect you to spend money there.
     Hans Stern came to Brazil from Germany in 1939, when he was sixteen years old. He noted Brazil is very rich in gem stones, and decided to cut and grind them to make expensive jewelry items. These days, the H.Stern stores can be seen everywhere in the world, including New York's Fifth Avenue, major international airports, and five-star hotel lobbies.

  6. Sheraton Rio is an American-style hotel, and I stayed there in 2000. It is an interesting place. There I met a Brazilian craftsman who offered to make a Rio license plate carrying my name for 40 US-Dollars. He asked me to write down my name. I wrote down FEYNMAN. He came with this plate next day, and we had this photo.

Feynman's Diagrams, Drawings, and Paintings

Feynman was quite fond of drawing pictures to express his ideas. In physics, he created the art of Feynman diagrams. Let us look at some of Feynman's drawings from this webpage. Like many artists, he used drawings of one woman to express his imagination.

I would love to follow Feynman's lead on this subject, but I cannot draw pictures. The best thing I can do is to take photos. I attempted to take photos of one woman from various directions to see whether I can extend Feynman's work along this line, but I failed.

• I then asked what Feynman had in mind. From those drawings, I became convinced that Feynman was telling himself God created one woman for him, by pulling out a rib from him, as He did to Adam. Did God do the same thing for me? When I was a small boy, my grandmother told me I have one less rib on my left chest, because God pulled out one of them. Until recently, I took this story serious enough to count the ribs from my chest x-ray photo. Alas, I have the same number of ribs on both sides. Then did God pull out two ribs, one from each side?

• Indeed, this concept of two ribs came from one of my research efforts on Feynman's rest of the universe. In his 1972 book on statistical mechanics, Feynman talks about the world in which we do physics, and the rest of universe not seen to us. He then uses one harmonic oscillator to illustrate his idea. How can you describe two different worlds with one oscillator? I had to use two oscillators to illustrate fully what he had in mind.

• You may click here for an interesting story about the two oscillators.

• Likewise, I should try two women in every photo in order to be consistent with my chest x-ray, while Feynman was using only one in his drawings. I have many photos with many different people in the world, including many famous physicists. From them, I decided to choose my photos with two women. I indeed look happier in those photos. God must have pulled out two ribs from my body! Let us look at some of those photos.

• Brazilian Mother and Daughter at Rio's Copacavana Beach (2000). I am enjoying a coconut drink not available in the United States.
  1. Two Brazilian Friends at the top of the Jesus mountain.
  2. One Brazilian Lady and my Wife at the top of the Sugarload Mountain in Rio.
  3. Two Interior Decorators in Iguassu Falls. They were working on a Japanese room at the Mabu Thermas Resort Hotel.
  4. Two Flower Artists working for the Mabu Thermas Hotel in Iguassu Falls.
  5. Two Brazilian Students on a bus from the Sao Paulo airport to the city.

• Brazilian Ladies in front of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (2002)
  1. Two Brazilian Sisters in Athens (July 2008).
  2. Two Brazilian Friends I met at one of London's subway stations (2009).

• Two English Ladies in Windsor, after afternoon tea (March 2004). Windsor is about 60 kilometers from London, and the Windsor Castle is the residence of the Queen.
  

• New Opera Dress Code. During the intermission in the Frankfurt Opera House, I noticed many black-tied gentlemen, and ladies were also formally dressed. There were some informally dressed like myself, and I was looking for the ladies with appropriately dressed. I found them and we agreed that we are more in tune with the real world. There are two ladies in this photo. One of them lives in Frankfurt, and the other is from Vienna. Both of them are opera lovers (2001).
  
  
  1. Two Swedish Students ready to go to their Prom party (Vaxjo, Sweden, 2006).
  2. Mongolian Friends. Mongolians are ethnically different from Chinese, as Koreans are. I met these ladies at the Chatley metro interchange in Paris. This photo shows that Koreans came to Korea from Mongolia some years ago. These ladies knew that I am a Korean from my appearance. We exchanged pleasant talks until their metro train came (July 2000).

  I wrote to one of my friends saying "I like to do physics like Feynman, but I also like to live like Feynman. How else can you live?" His reply was "I think there are as many ways to live and to do physics as there are people who live and do physics." You would agree that we are saying the same thing: develop and extend your own imagination! Here is my Feynman page.

  Y. S. Kim (2011.6.3).

• copyright@2011 by Y. S. Kim, unless otherwise specified.

  How did I talk to Einstein?

  1. Click here for his home page.
  2. His photo-biography.
  3. His Einstein page.
  4. His Princeton page.
  5. His Style page.

     
     

  I received my PhD degree from Princeton in 1961, seven years after high school graduation in 1954. This means that I did much of the ground work for the degree during my high school years.

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