Myths and famous claims
What was Richard Feynman's IQ?
What is documented
Richard Feynman is reported, including by Feynman himself, to have scored 125 on a school IQ test. That is well above average, higher than about 95% of people, but modest for a physicist who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize. It is one school score, not a full picture of his ability.
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Where the 125 comes from
Unlike most famous IQ numbers, Feynman's comes from an actual test. He is reported, including by Feynman himself, to have scored 125 on a school IQ test (Wai, Psychology Today 2011). The source we rely on is a 2011 Psychology Today interview in which psychologist Jonathan Wai and physicist Steve Hsu discuss the score. We could not check the exact wording of other books that repeat it, so we stick to that.
What we do not know matters too: the name of the test, its norms and Feynman's exact age are not part of the report. That makes 125 a real but thinly documented data point.
What 125 means
On a modern scale with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, 125 is higher than about 95.2% of people, roughly 1 in 21. It falls in the 120 to 129 band that the WAIS-IV labels Superior (Wikipedia: IQ classification). The IQ 125 page shows where it sits on the curve. Any single score also carries measurement error: clinical manuals report a confidence interval of around plus or minus 5 points (Wechsler, 2008).
Try one · Pattern Recognition
Which tile comes next?
Tap the option you think is right, or show the answer.
Show the answer
The missing tile shows four hatched diamonds (option 6).
How to solve it
- Compare neighboring tiles and name what changes each time.
- From tile to tile, one more diamond is added.
- The fill cycles hatched, outline and solid, then starts again.
- Everything else stays the same from tile to tile.
- The last tile shows three solid diamonds. Apply each change once more.
- So the missing tile shows four hatched diamonds.
That was 1 puzzle. The full test has 25.
Why it seems low for Feynman
Feynman shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in quantum electrodynamics (NobelPrize.org 1965). The same interview notes that he earned the top score in the country on the Putnam mathematics competition, and suggests the school test may have leaned on verbal ability (Wai, Psychology Today 2011). If the test did lean on verbal ability, it could understate a mainly mathematical talent. That is a reasonable explanation, but it is a suggestion, not a finding.
He is not the only case
Lewis Terman began his study of gifted children in 1921 with 1,528 children, all with IQs of 135 or above (Kell & Wai 2018). None of them won a Nobel Prize. William Shockley and Luis Alvarez were tested as children and did not qualify, and both later won the Nobel Prize in Physics, Shockley in 1956 and Alvarez in 1968 (NobelPrize.org 1956) (NobelPrize.org 1968). Terman concluded that the link between intelligence and achievement is far from perfect (Kell & Wai 2018).
None of this says IQ is meaningless. Across large groups it predicts school and work outcomes, as the page on whether IQ predicts success explains. It says that one score is a weak guide to one person's ceiling.
How to judge a famous IQ claim
- Is there a real test behind it? For Feynman, apparently yes, a school test.
- Is the test named, with norms and an age? Here, no.
- Who reports it, and do they have firsthand knowledge?
- Does the rest of the record fit, or does it point elsewhere?
Compare a case with no test at all, Einstein's IQ, and read why IQ scores differ between tests. If you want to see your own estimated IQ, try the free test.
Sources
- Wai, J. (2011, December 26). A Polymath Physicist on Richard Feynman's "Low" IQ and Finding Another Einstein. Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201112/polymath-physicist-richard-feynmans-low-iq-and-finding-another
- The Nobel Prize in Physics 1965. NobelPrize.org www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1965/summary/
- Kell, H. J., & Wai, J. (2018). Terman Study of the Gifted. In B. B. Frey (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation (pp. 1665-1667). SAGE. doi:10.4135/9781506326139.n691 doi.org/10.4135/9781506326139.n691
- The Nobel Prize in Physics 1956. NobelPrize.org www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1956/summary/
- The Nobel Prize in Physics 1968. NobelPrize.org www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1968/summary/
- Wechsler, D. (2008). WAIS-IV Technical and Interpretive Manual. Pearson.
- IQ classification. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_classification