"I will not attempt to describe John von Neumann's unique abilities, but only say a little about the impression he made on us. The most striking was the enormous speed with which his brain worked. One could believe he already knew beforehand everything one asked him about. A little story illustrates this. Stefan Bergman […] went around and posed a problem to people. If one approached it directly, it required some calculation and the summation of a geometric series. But if one gave it a suitable twist, the solution became immediately apparent. When von Neumann promptly gave the correct answer, Bergman said: "You are the first of those I have asked who did not sum the geometric series." "No!" answered von Neumann, "I summed it.""
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PolymathsAcademics from the United StatesMathematicians from the United StatesAcademics from HungaryMathematicians from Hungary
Original Language: English
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Werner Fenchel, in Erinnerungen aus der Studienzeit (1988)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann
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John von Neumann
John von Neumann (28 December 1903 – 8 February 1957) was a Hungarian-American-Jewish mathematician, physicist, inventor, computer scientist, and polymath. He made major contributions to a number of fields, including mathematics (foundations of mathematics, functional analysis, ergodic theory, geometry, set theory, topology, and numerical analysis), physics (quantum mechanics, hydrodynamics and quantum statistical mechanics), economics (game theory), computing (Von Neumann architecture, linear p
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