Richard Feynman was a famous American physicist. In his memoir "The Making of a Scientist", Feynman describes how his father introduced him to patterns and mathematics from a young age using bathroom tiles. His father would set up the tiles in repeating patterns for Feynman to knock down. When Feynman's mother thought this was too much, his father insisted it was important to show Feynman how patterns work and how interesting the world is. This early introduction to patterns by his father helped shape Feynman's curiosity and traits that later made him a successful scientist.

7. THE MAKING OF A SCIENTIST
When I was just a little kid, very small in a highchair,
my father brought home a lot of little bathroom tiles of different
colours. We played with them, my father setting them up vertically on
my highchair like dominoes, and I would push one end so they would
all go down.
Then after a while, I’d help set them up. Pretty soon,
we’re setting them up in a more complicated way: two white tiles and
a blue tile, two white tile and a blue tile, and so on. When my mother
saw that, she said,”Leave the poor child alone. If he wants to put a
blue tile , let him to put a blue tile.”
But my father said,”No, I want to show him what patterns
are like and how interesting they are. It’s a kind of elementary
mathematics.”So he started very early to tell me about the world
and how interesting it is.

8. ABOUT THE TEXT
Dr. Richard Feynman was a famous American
physicist who studied matter and energy. ‘The Making of
a Scientist’ is a memoir by Feynman about his father and
how he became a scientist.
The author explains that he learned from his
father the traits that made him a good scientist, as
indicated by the title of the piece. Feynman’s father
started by introducing his little son to patterns. It was
possible that he was teaching him maths- something
even more important than patterns. Thus Feynman
started to learn about the world and how interesting it
was.

9. QUESTIONS
1.Who is the author of ‘The Making of a
Scientist’?
2. Why did Feynman’s father insist that the
tiles should be set up in a particular pattern?

10. ANSWERS
1. Richard Feynman
2. By setting up the tiles in a particular
pattern, Feynman’s father wished to show
hi different kinds of interesting patterns
which formed a part of elementary
mathematics.

11. ACTIVITY
‘THE IMPORTANT THING IS
NOT TO STOP
QUESTIONING……
NEVER LOSE A HOLY
CURIOSITY.’