# Feynman’s test for real understanding: create it yourself 2026-08-14T13:12:01+00:00 | Technology | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Physicist Richard Feynman's personal standard, written on his blackboard and found after his 1988 death, treats real comprehension as proven only by construction: 'What I cannot create, I do not understand.' He applied it publicly during the 1986 Challenger investigation, testing an O-ring in ice water to demonstrate the failure mechanism that months of testimony had obscured. The Feynman Technique, derived from his teaching at Caltech, asks people to explain an idea in plain terms as if teaching a beginner, and treat every stumble as a precise map of what they do not yet understand. Comfort with an idea, the method warns, is not the same as mastery. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com Tags: Caltech, Richard Feynman Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/feynmans-test-for-real-understanding-create-it-yourself/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/feynmans-test-for-real-understanding-create-it-yourself/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.