"One famous story concerns a complicated expression that a young scientist at the Aberdeen Proving Ground needed to evaluate. He spent ten minutes on the first special case; the second computation took an hour of paper and pencil work; for the third he had to resort to a desk calculator, and even so took half a day. When Johnny came to town, the young man showed him the formula and asked him what to do. Johnny was glad to tackle it. "Let's see what happens for the first few cases. If we put n = 1, we get..." -- and he looked into space and mumbled for a minute. Knowing the answer, the young questioner put in "2.31?" Johnny gave him a funny look and said "Now if n = 2, ...", and once again voiced some of his thoughts as he worked. The young man, prepared, could of course follow what Johnny was doing, and, a few seconds before Johnny finished, he interrupted again, in a hesitant tone of voice: "7.49?" This time Johnny frowned, and hurried on: "If n = 3, then...". The same thing happened as before - Johnny muttered for several minutes, the young man eavesdropped, and, just before Johnny finished, the young man exclaimed: "11.06!" That was too much for Johnny. It couldn't be! No unknown beginner could outdo him! He was upset and he sulked till the practical joker confessed."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
PolymathsAcademics from the United StatesMathematicians from the United StatesAcademics from HungaryMathematicians from Hungary
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Paul Halmos, in The legend of John von Neumann. The American Mathematical Monthly, 80(4), 382–394
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
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
313 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by John von Neumann →
Related Quotes
"I think that in terms of mathematical intelligence, he was virtually unparalleled."
"He was one of the most attractive people I’ve ever known, attractive in the sense that he knew so much and could reas…"
"John von Neumann was one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century."
"The first thing that people recall about John von Neumann is his phenomenal speed of thought. He didn’t have to remem…"
"Brilliant mathematician."
"Von Neumann was exceptionally widely known among mathematicians, and there are plenty of anecdotes related to him. I …"
"A great mathematician in his or any era."
"A memory which seemed to operate with even more speed than his machines enabled him to bring up, from his vast and we…"
"He always demonstrated his fantastic and to some extent prophetic range of interests in mathematics and its applicati…"
"He had a real knack for calculatin."