OT - Happy Birthday John Von Neumann

[Nitwit]

December 28, 1903:
Birthday of John von Neumann, a Hungarian-born American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer who was a key figure in the development of the digital computer. During WW II, von Neumann worked on the Manhattan Project, problem-solving key steps involved in thermonuclear reactions and the hydrogen bomb. After the war, he served on the General Advisory Committee of the US Atomic Energy Commission and designed and promoted the policy of mutually assured destruction to limit the arms race. In 1948 he co authored the book Game Theory with fellow Princeton Mathematician Oskar Morganstern.

 

[EdwardoCarrachio]

A better shot of him. Also was probably more impressive in this tournament than the rest of his accomplishments above.

 

[LionJim]

Also for Arthur Eddington, who provided the first experimental proof of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. A very great physicist.

Arthur Eddington - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[BobPSU92]

Like they wouldn’t have discovered that stuff anyway.

 

[RochLion]

Reading the Oppenheimer book I learned that Oppenheimer was a big proponent of bringing on von Neumann at the Princeton Institute. Many of the board members of the institute really were not interested in bringing in more mathemeticians. But Oppie pushed for it. Later on though Neumann and Oppenheimer would seem to be at odds with each other in regards to how scientists should approach their work philosophically.

 

[PSU1969A]

von Neumann was also instrumental in the development of ENIAC at University of Pennsylvania which later became UNIVAC.

 

[PSU89er]

Von Neumann was probably the best mind of at least the last couple hundred years. Those considered the geniuses of his time almost all said he was the better than them. Read the guys wiki page. Its unreal. He could actually do the read the phone book and memorize the phone numbers, and recite them back thing that was shown in "Rainman."

Herman Goldstine wrote, "One of his remarkable abilities was his power of absolute recall. As far as I could tell, von Neumann was able on once reading a book or article to quote it back verbatim; moreover, he could do it years later without hesitation. He could also translate it at no diminution in speed from its original language into English. On one occasion I tested his ability by asking him to tell me how "A Tale of Two Cities started". Whereupon, without any pause, he immediately began to recite the first chapter and continued until asked to stop after about ten or fifteen minutes."

Lothar Wolfgang Norhiem described him as the "fastest mind I ever met". Enrico Fermi told physicist Herbert L. Anderson: "You know, Herb, Johnny can do calculations in his head ten times as fast as I can! And I can do them ten times as fast as you can, Herb, so you can see how impressive Johnny is!" Edward Teller admitted that he "never could keep up with him", and Israel Halperin described trying to keep up as like riding a "tricycle chasing a racing car."

A story about von Neumann's encounter with the famous fly puzzle has entered mathmatical folklore. In this puzzle, two bicycles begin 20 miles apart, and each travels toward the other at 10 miles per hour until they collide; meanwhile, a fly travels continuously back and forth between the bicycles at 15 miles per hour until it is squashed in the collision. The questioner asks how far the fly traveled in total; the "trick" for a quick answer is to realize that the fly's individual transits do not matter, only that it has been traveling at 15 miles per hour for one hour. As Eugene Wigner tells it, it was Max Born who posed the riddle to von Neumann. The other scientists to whom he had posed it had laboriously computed the distance, so when von Neumann was immediately ready with the correct answer of 15 miles, Born observed that he must have guessed the trick. "What trick?" von Neumann replied. "All I did was sum the geometric series."

 

[LionJim]

Von Neumann was probably the best mind of at least the last couple hundred years. Those considered the geniuses of his time almost all said he was the better than them. Read the guys wiki page. Its unreal. He could actually do the read the phone book and memorize the phone numbers, and recite them back thing that was shown in "Rainman."

Herman Goldstine wrote, "One of his remarkable abilities was his power of absolute recall. As far as I could tell, von Neumann was able on once reading a book or article to quote it back verbatim; moreover, he could do it years later without hesitation. He could also translate it at no diminution in speed from its original language into English. On one occasion I tested his ability by asking him to tell me how "A Tale of Two Cities started". Whereupon, without any pause, he immediately began to recite the first chapter and continued until asked to stop after about ten or fifteen minutes."

Lothar Wolfgang Norhiem described him as the "fastest mind I ever met". Enrico Fermi told physicist Herbert L. Anderson: "You know, Herb, Johnny can do calculations in his head ten times as fast as I can! And I can do them ten times as fast as you can, Herb, so you can see how impressive Johnny is!" Edward Teller admitted that he "never could keep up with him", and Israel Halperin described trying to keep up as like riding a "tricycle chasing a racing car."

A story about von Neumann's encounter with the famous fly puzzle has entered mathmatical folklore. In this puzzle, two bicycles begin 20 miles apart, and each travels toward the other at 10 miles per hour until they collide; meanwhile, a fly travels continuously back and forth between the bicycles at 15 miles per hour until it is squashed in the collision. The questioner asks how far the fly traveled in total; the "trick" for a quick answer is to realize that the fly's individual transits do not matter, only that it has been traveling at 15 miles per hour for one hour. As Eugene Wigner tells it, it was Max Born who posed the riddle to von Neumann. The other scientists to whom he had posed it had laboriously computed the distance, so when von Neumann was immediately ready with the correct answer of 15 miles, Born observed that he must have guessed the trick. "What trick?" von Neumann replied. "All I did was sum the geometric series."

Yeah, that last one is a great story, familiar to me. The others, new to me, thanks for sharing.

Reminds me of a conversation I once had with my advisor. Me: “Oh, by the way, I’ve been trying to prove this little result,” and I proceed to describe the problem. “Oh, that’s very interesting, new to me. Well, I hope you haven’t been trying too hard to prove it.” I’d been working on it for three weeks, and he’s snap, it’s not true. Dang.