Pioneers Of Computing And Information Theory Codexery

John von Neumann

Mathematician and physicist who shaped quantum theory and computing.

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He made major contributions to mathematics, physics, economics, computing, and statistics.[1] John von Neumann was a mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer who held both Hungarian and American citizenship.[1]

Life and work

Von Neumann was born on December 28, 1903, in Budapest, Hungary, to a wealthy, non-observant Jewish family.[2] He earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Budapest in 1926 while also graduating as a chemical engineer from ETH Zurich.[3] He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1937.[4] Von Neumann died on February 8, 1957, aged 53, at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital.[5]

A legend states that by age eight, von Neumann had already learned differential and integral calculus.[6]

What the cited sources add

A 1929 paper by von Neumann, "Zur allgemeinen Theorie des Masses", was published in Fundamenta Mathematicae and has been cited by 337 works.[7] A 1973 paper by Lynn Arthur Steen, "Highlights in the History of Spectral Theory", was published in the American Mathematical Monthly.[8] Albrecht Pietsch's 2014 paper "Traces of operators and their history" was published in Acta et Commentationes Universitatis Tartuensis de Mathematica.[9] A 2007 paper by Daniel Alpay and David Levanony was published in Potential Analysis.[10]

The Open Library record for "Prisoner's dilemma" lists Anchor Books as its publisher and 1993 as its publication year.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "John von Neumann" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rédei 1999, p. 7 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "John von Neumann" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Operator Algebras, Quantization, and Noncommutative Geometry: A Centennial Celebration Honoring John von Neumann and Marshall H. Stone", American Mathematical Society, 2004, p. 1; Myhrvold, "John von Neumann", Time, March 21, 1999; Blair 1957, p. 104 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "John von Neumann" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Macrae 1992; Macrae 1992; Regis, "Johnny Jiggles the Planet", The New York Times, November 8, 1992; von Neumann, "Die Axiomatisierung der Mengenlehre", Mathematische Zeitschrift, 1928, p. 669–752; Macrae 1992; Wigner, "The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner: Historical, Philosophical, and Socio-Political Papers. Historical and Biographical Reflections and Syntheses", Springer, 2001, p. 128; Pais 2000, p. 187 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "John von Neumann" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Macrae 1992; Macrae 1992 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "John von Neumann" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bochner 1958, p. 446; Macrae 1992; "Nassau Presbyterian Church" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "John von Neumann" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Macrae 1992; Halmos 1973, p. 383; Blair 1957, p. 104; Macrae 1992 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. J. Neumann, "Zur allgemeinen Theorie des Masses", Fundamenta Mathematicae (1929), doi:10.4064/fm-13-1-73-116. OpenAlex metadata CC0; paper not read. doi.org
  8. Lynn Arthur Steen, "Highlights in the History of Spectral Theory", American Mathematical Monthly (1973), doi:10.1080/00029890.1973.11993292. OpenAlex metadata CC0; paper not read. doi.org
  9. Albrecht Pietsch, "Traces of operators and their history", Acta et Commentationes Universitatis Tartuensis de Mathematica (2014), doi:10.12697/acutm.2014.18.06. OpenAlex metadata CC0; paper not read. doi.org
  10. Daniel Alpay, "On the Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces Associated with the Fractional and Bi-Fractional Brownian Motions", Potential Analysis (2007), doi:10.1007/s11118-007-9070-4. OpenAlex metadata CC0; paper not read. doi.org
  11. Open Library record, ISBN 9780385415804 ("Prisoner's dilemma"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article John von Neumann (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Also in the Codexery

John von Neumann · MathematiciansJohn von Neumann · Computer Scientists And ProgrammersJohn von Neumann · Pioneers Of Computing

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Test yourself

Three questions drawn from this entry’s sources. Pick an answer to check it.

1. In what year was John von Neumann born?

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Not quite. The answer is 1903.

2. In which place was John von Neumann born?

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Not quite. The answer is Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary.

3. In what year did John von Neumann die?

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Not quite. The answer is 1957.

Answers checked against the source article

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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