John Von Neuman
"In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them." (attributed)
About these pages
Every chapter in the book starts with a quote by a mathematician. I picked the quotes based on the content of the quote and not the person who said it, but since I finished the first draft I have been curious to learn more about these people. I figure some of you might feel the same way.
About John Von Neuman
Born
December 28, 1903
Budapest, Hungary
Died
February 8, 1957
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Place in History
John Von Neuman was a Jewish Hungarian who escaped Europe to the United States before World War II. He was part of the Manhattan Project.
Place in Mathematics
He contributed to both pure and applied mathematics, including game theory, computer science and physics. He created the conceptual ideas that became the first digital computers along with Alan Turing and Claude Shannon.
Quotes about him
"In this galaxy of stars, von Neumann radiated excitement. His lectures on Hilbert Space, measure theory, rings of operators (called now von Neumann algebras), and continuous geometry, fascinated a large audience. At the daily afternoon tea, he engaged some in a most lively and stimulating discussion. With obvious delight he explained, clarified, and analyzed problems on the spot and gave help to one and all."
- Israel Halperin, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University of Toronto
"Most mathematicians prove what they can, von Neumann proves what he wants."
- Unattributed
"He not only showed the physicists, economists, and electrical engineers that formal mathematics could yield fresh breakthroughs in their fields, but made the enterprise of applying mathematics to real-world disciplines seem glamorous to the purest of young mathematicians."
- Sylvia Nasar
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