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Learn How Richard Feynman Cracked the Safes with Atomic Secrets at Los Alamos | Open Culture

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The story has become part of physics lore: A young Richard Feynman, future Nobel winner, was bored with life in the remote New Mexico desert while working on the atomic bomb during World War II, so he amused himself by learning to pick the combination locks in the supposedly secure filing cabinets containing America’s nuclear secrets. As Feynman would later write in his essay, “Safecracker Meets Safecracker”: To demonstrate that the locks meant nothing, whenever I wanted somebody’s report and they weren’t around, I’d just go in their office, open the filing cabinet, and take it out. When I was finished I would give it back to the guy: “Thanks for your report.” “Where’d you get it?” “Out of your filing cabinet.” “But I locked it!” “I know you locked it. The locks are no good.” So the officials at Los Alamos installed cabinets with better locks. But Feynman studied the new ones systematically, and eventually, given a little time, he could open any lock at will. As a joke, he left a note

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