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A true story: I was discussing brain teasers with Professor N (of the Math Department) and Mr. Smith (a computer science student and hacker) in my university office. We had just discussed the problem of the house fly that travels back and forth between two bicycles that are approaching each other until the fly can travel no more. The hard way to figure out how far the fly travels in total is to solve an infinite series. The easy way is to figure out how much time it takes for the bikes to crash into each other, then multiply that by the speed the fly had been traveling. After that discussion, I told the story of how a student had approached John Von Neumann, the brilliant mathematician and computer scientist, with this same problem. Von Neumann gave the correct answer almost immediately. The embarrassed student started to say how most people don't realize that there is an easier solution than to solve the infinite series, when Von Neumann interrupted him to say, "What do you mean? That is how I solved it!" Mr. Smith looked confused. "Who is this Von Neumann guy?" he asked. Professor N, absolutely appalled that a computer science student wouldn't know the legend of John Von Neumann, exclaimed, "Who is Von Neumann! Why, he's the person most responsible for what you've been playing with these past several years!" Whereupon Mr. Smith's jaw dropped in amazement, as he looked down at his crotch.
(From the "Rest" of RHF)
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