The Nobel Prize Stair Jump

At 4 o'clock A.M. of October 21,1965, the legendary American physicist Richard P. Feynman received a phone call informing him that he won the Nobel Prize. The caller was a journalist from New York. Feynman shared the prestigious award with Julian Schwinger and Shinichiro Tomonaga for their work in quantum electrodynamics, an accomplishment significant in the understanding and advancement of the science of nuclear elementary particles. Preparing for accepting the prize, Feynman purchased a tuxedo. Since he believed that one was forbidden to turn one's back on the award giving Swedish King, Feynman also started to practice jumping backward up the stairs, both feet at once. To his immense relief, however, the Swedish anbassador informed him that there was no need for this skill. He was free to turn his back on the king and go in any direction he chose. So Feynman did not have to climb stairs backward after receiving the Nobel Prize from the bespectacled King of Sweden, Gustav VI Adolf.