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Period: to
John Von Neumann
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Birth
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Completion of Secondary School
Father discouraged John from studying mathematics for fear that there wasn't enough financial opportunity in that field. -
Degree in Chemical Engineering - Swiss Federal Institute in Zurich
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"An Approximation of Set Theory"
This got David Hilbert's attention -
Doctorate in mathematics - University of Budapest
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Postdoctoral work under Hilbert
University of Gottingen -
"Theory of Parlor Games"
Key paper in "game theory." (i.e. poker)
bluffing
mini max theorem - for every two person zero sum game, there is a rational outcome in the sense that two perfectly locial adversaries can arrive at a mutual choice of game strategies, confident that they could not expect to do better by choosing oanotyher strategy. ( in other words players must bluff in games of chance, but occasional and unpredictably ). -
Princeton
lecture on quantam theory
wrote quickly on board, and erased becore students could copy -
Hitler Comes to Power
Famous Quote by Neumann:
"If these boyscontinue for only two more years...they will ruin German science for a generation -- atleast." -
Klara Dan
Second Wife
-childhood sweetheart
-intelligent woman
-shared husbands interests
-took jobs programming computers -
Von Neumann Algebra's
Work with quantam phenomena
-This was a theory of rings of operators -
Princeton Legend
Played practical jokes on Einstein
could recite books which he had reaad years before perfectly
could edit computer code in his head
modest, thought he didn't live up to what was expected of him -
"von Neumann corner"
Had frequent automobile accidents - nortoriously aggresive driver
Princeton intersection -
World War II
Worked on implosion design for an atomic bomb.
- symmetrical implosion of plutonium into critical mass at the center
-compared to crushing a beer can without splattering the beer. -
Fat Man
dropped on Nagasaki, port in Japan
Neumann calculated the design for the lens
participated in slection of target
argued against bombing the Imperial Palace, in Tokyo
