I cant seem to get to the article but I think I know which article this is. I'm a huge fan.
I especially like how the machine was initially designed so that it required 4 chips per board. But when they were about to start manufacturing the boards, they realized that present technology couldnt fit 4 chips per board.
Feynman it seems modeled the system via set of partial differential equations and then said that he had proved that 3 chips per board were enough and modeled how the system would work even in this configuration.
No one really understood what he had done but they trusted him, created the boards and it turned out he was right.
This story I believe was in an Scientific American a long time ago.
Pretty good memory. The article says the numbers are 7 and 5, not 4 and 3, but the idea is the same. I wonder how the conversations went when the others initially overruled Feynman's recommendation and then, months later, were forced to use it and admit he was correct all along.
I especially like how the machine was initially designed so that it required 4 chips per board. But when they were about to start manufacturing the boards, they realized that present technology couldnt fit 4 chips per board.
Feynman it seems modeled the system via set of partial differential equations and then said that he had proved that 3 chips per board were enough and modeled how the system would work even in this configuration.
No one really understood what he had done but they trusted him, created the boards and it turned out he was right.
This story I believe was in an Scientific American a long time ago.