Who was John von Neumann?   

John von Neumann was one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. He was a great physicist, engineer and mathematician. His contributions to science include quantum mechanics, atomic development and modern computing. He had a mind at ease in the world of both man and machine.

Origin and Education

Von Neumann was born Neumann Janos on 28th of December 1903 in Budapest, Hungary. He was the son of Neumann Miksa and Kann Margit. The family name comes first before the first name in Hungary, so his father would be Max Neumann in English. In 1913, Max Neumann bought a title but instead of him using it, his son used it where the "von" signified the title.

Von Neumann was already fascinated by numbers and the logic of things, even at a young age. At age eight he was able to read the entire 44 volumes of the universal history in their family library, and at the age of 10 he was on his way to the university. In 1922 at the age of 17, his first paper was printed in the Journal of the German Mathematical Society. The piece has something to do with minimal polynomials.

In 1921 he went to the University of Berlin and took chemical engineering but this was not his choice, it was his father’s. He had little interest in chemistry but nevertheless finished the course. After his studies in Berlin he registered at Budapest University for an advanced doctorate studies in mathematics – to pursue what really interested him. So, at the age of 22, in 1926 he got two degrees, a Ph.D. in mathematics and an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering.

Improving Quantum Mechanics

Having an inventive mind, von Neumann, had the aptitude to improve things produced by other people and this is what he did with quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics that deals with atomic and subatomic particles and their behavior. At the time, there were two opposing theories relating to the character of atoms. When von Neumann entered the scene in 1926, he found out that they were equal mathematically and that they were just two forms of similar principle.

Von Neumann abstracted the two theories by an axiomatic method wherein every present condition is the exact result of the earlier condition. Amidst his analysis of the subject, he generated the system of "abstract Hilbert space" and made it his tool to develop a numerical formula for quantum theory which would be the basis for other scientists dealing with atoms in the future.

Von Neumann's contribution to Nuclear Development

The Allies feared that Germany would construct the first atomic bomb before them during World War II which led to the creation of the Manhattan Project. The project was led by the US and aimed to produce atomic bombs for wartime purposes. The US recruited several scientists to work with this project and one of them was John von Neumann.

Since they were developing weapons of mass destruction, the scientists of the Manhattan Project couldn't perform all their experiments in the real world. The situation called for a way to forecast the outcome without actually doing them and this was where von Neumann came in. He used his expert mind to formulate mathematical models that could show the results of an actual atomic explosion.

Another of his major contributions to this project was with plutonium based bombs. The technique used to explode this type of bomb was through implosion, where a plutonium mass is bound by explosives that when ignited will cause the plutonium to reach critical levels and detonate. The problem was that the explosives must ignite simultaneously and this was where von Neumann developed the "implosion lens" that would ultimately explode the plutonium.

Development of Modern Digital Computer

Von Neumann’s reputation as a mathematical genius grew further after the war. This enabled him to secure funding to further develop the computer. In 1945 while consulting on the EDVAC project for the University of Pennsylvania, he wrote the paper "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC". It illustrated a computer architecture where both the program and the information are saved in an exact location in the computer’s memory. The paper was extensively distributed and this architecture became the basis for others to develop more advanced computer architectures in the future.

Early Death

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