John Von Neumann - Research Paper Example

 John Von Neumann Early Life John Von Neumann was the great physicist and mathematician born to Miksa and Kann Neumann on December 28th, 1903 in Budapest, Hungary. His father was a lawyer who first did his doctorate in law and then later on worked for a bank. His mother came from a wealthy family in Hungary. (Courtesy Virginia Technical University Press, April 20th 2012) In 1903, Budapest was growing rapidly, a booming intellectual capital. It is said that the Budapest Von Neumann was born into in was the city that was soon going to be home to the most talented single generations of writers, mathematics, scientists and expatriate millionaires to thrive for the many years to come by. (Macrae et al 1992. P31). John was the mathematical genius who was born to the Neumann family. At the age of ten, John educational career started when he was enrolled into one of the best schools in Hungary, Lutheran Gymnasium. Academic Career: Von Neumann got interested in mathematics and logical problems of the society at a very early age. It is recorded that at the tender age of six, he once asked his mother what was she calculating when she was staring blankly ahead in space. This reveals that his observational skills and logical mind already had started analyzing the world from a very tender age. (Kunkle, Daniel. Redfish.com.Web.April 19th 2012) He had varying interests in different subjects as a child, so at the age of eight he started reading universal history, a fourty four volume collection was owned by his parents in the family library.(Heims, S J. 1980) His parents soon realized the budding genius child so they were careful not to push him overboard with attention and did as much as they could to polish his academic skills while letting him grow socially which resulted in his charming manner as a boy and a man. Before he even graduated high school, many university professors considered him a colleague instead of a high school student. His first paper about mathematics was published in 1922 in the Journal of German Mathematicians, dealing with the zeros of certain minimal polynomials. This was at the time when he was still studying at the Lutheran Gymnasium and he was only seventeen years old. University In 1921 John Von Neumann enrolled in the University of Berlin to pursue Chemical engineering. Despite the fact that John’s own interest lied in the field of mathematics and physics, his father encouraged the career path for chemical engineering which would guarantee him a good career. In his freshman year at the University of Berlin he decided to study chemistry in a non-degree program where he could prepare for the entrance exam for the chemical engineering program at the prestigious university of Eidgennossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich. (Thomson,.2006).This is the place where the legendary physicist Albert Einstein tried to enroll for his studies but he was rejected on the basis on failing his admission exam in 1895 but an year later he was accepted. While studying for his bachelor’s degree in chemistry, John did not neglect his interests in mathematics. In the summer after he was done at University of Berlin and before starting schooling at the University of Zurich he enrolled at the Budapest University in the advanced doctorate program in mathematics. The PhD thesis that he wrote to attempted the axiomatization of set theory, which was developed by George Cantor. It was a topic that had caused quite a stir amongst mathematics in that era and had caused a great deal of trouble, however the strong young teenager had already been devising this plan at the age of seventeen and he was ready to pursue it. At the time, advancement were rapidly being made in the field of mathematics regarding the axiomatization of set theory and had already been studied by great mathematicians, causing quite a rift amongst them as various theories emerged. However, the teenage von Neumann was already devising and executing this plan at the age of 17 taking it as a challenge onto to him to prove it. Von Neumann started studying for his chemical engineering degree from ETH and his mathematical studies from Budapest. He passed all his classes at ETH with top grades despite the fact that he barely had time to attend classes and received A’s in all his classes including chemistry classes. He would frequently visit Budapest to attend his doctorate classes and worked on his set theory thesis while studying for a chemical engineering degree in Zurich. He received his PhD from Budapest, after his thesis was accepted passing with the highest honors in his advanced mathematical degree. In 1926, he had graduated with a bachelor’s degree in field of chemical engineering, so by the time he was twenty two, he held two degrees. (Andrews, History Reference St-Andrews.Web.April 19,2012) Work on Quantum Mechanics Quantum Mechanics is a branch of physics which mainly relates to the nature of the atomic particles. The theories of Quantum Mechanics started to confront inconsistency when they were solely used with the principles laid down by Newtonian physics (Macrae 1992. Neumann) One of the observations revolves around that light that the atoms can absorb and emit respectively. An example of hydrogen atoms can be taken here which can absorb energy when the light has the wavelength of 656.3 nm, 434.9 nm or 410.2 nm. However at the latter half of the nineteenth century it was put forward that an electron should radiate at all wavelengths given and should therefore fall in the nucleus after losing energy (Courtesy Physics Online Dictionary). This theory was later on proved to be false by Berliner Plank in 1900 when he put forward that energy can only be emitted in definable packets. Another scientist, Erwin Schrodinger, was that the electron in hydrogen is analogous to a string in a guitar. The electron would have a distinct speed at which it would emit light, like a guitar emits a tone along with overtones. Using this theory as a base model, a wave equation was developed which would correctly calculate the wavelength of light transmitted by the hydrogen electron. Physicists Born, Heisenberg and Jordan worked on finding the momentum of an electron with respect to its position in an atom. position of the electron in an atom. They believed that the values could not have been calculated because in reality only the light emitted by the electrons could be observed and hence it could be different from what the theory of Newton puts forward. They maintained that the values of momentum and position could be calculated using mathematical constructs in matrices and matrix algebra. The two theories were mathematically equalvaliant since they both were derived from the same principal. Both groups of research scientists maintained their stance and that is when the genius of John Von Neumann stepped in 1926 to work on reconciling both the theories of quantum mechanics and advancing it to the level that we apply today. Wave mechanics and matrix mechanics fascinated Von Neumann and he decided to study what they two systems had in common so they could be methodically combined. He tried to approach a more detailed mathematical approach to find a new theory which was even powerful than the two given before. Using an axiomatic approach he abstracted the two systems in which each logical state is the consequence of the state that prevailed previously to the consequence. He constructed ‘abstract Hilbert space’ which was meant to aid him for the development of a mathematically formulated structure for the quantum theory of mechanics. His work on quantum mechanics became the basis for many advancement in this field and scientists came up with strange consequences. Some even maintained that consciousness and observation can affect the outcome and the amount of wavelengths of light emitted by electrons. [Heims, Steve J. 1980.] After he formalized his theories of quantum mechanics, from 1927 to 1929 Von Neumann travelled to other various mathematical conferences and started writing mathematical papers every month. His papers were written in German followed were very logical and stated in the most methodical manner so that other scientists could understand and incorporate his theories into their existing research. As early as 1929, he had written thirty two papers. This achievement at such a young age was not unnoticed by foreign countries which were quickly trying to catch up to the standards of Europe in Mathematics in science so he was sought out by one of the Ivy League colleges, Princeton University in the United States and offered lectureship. (Rossenfeld, Carrie; Atomic archive, 2012) He accepted the offer and American was soon to become his home for the rest of his scientific career until he died of cancer as a result of working with nuclear weapons. In 1933 he was appointed when he was appointed as one of the original members of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University to 1957. (Poundstone, 1992.) Works Cited Macrae, N. John von Neumann; Pantheon: New York, NY, 1992. p 31 Heims, S J. John von Neumann and Norber Weiner; MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1980. Macrae, N. John von Neumann; Pantheon: New York, NY, 1992. p 234 Levy, S. Artificial Life; Pantheon: New York, NY, 1992. p 44 .Heims, Steve J. 1980. John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener: From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death. Cambride, Mass.: MIT Press. Macrae, Norman. 1992. John von Neumann. New York, NY: Pantheon. Poundstone, William. 1992. Prisoner’s Dilemma. New York, NY: Doubleday. Read More