Timeline for What are some noteworthy "mic-drop" moments in math?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 2, 2019 at 14:37 | comment | added | Andreas Blass | @TimothyChow When I was a grad student (closer to 1930 than to now), I was told, probably by Burton Dreben, that Gödel's lecture included some polite words to the effect that his results didn't mess up Hilbert's program because there could be finitistic methods not covered by the theorem, but that von Neumann immediately realized that this was not the case --- finitistic methods are covered with room to spare. | |
| Mar 17, 2019 at 16:32 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | I recall reading somewhere that nobody really grasped the full import of Gödel's lecture in real time, with the exception of von Neumann, whose nearly superhuman ability to understand new mathematical ideas quickly is well known. If true, this would be a good argument for calling this a "mic drop." | |
| Mar 13, 2019 at 16:28 | history | edited | Todd Trimble | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
edits in response to comments
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| Mar 13, 2019 at 12:46 | comment | added | David Roberts♦ | Apparently von Neumann, in the audience, remarked at the end of Gödel's lecture "It's all over". Unfortunately I do not have a good source for this. | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 16:02 | comment | added | Asaf Karagila♦ | @KConrad: The silent room is a metaphor here. Because the usual reaction to a mic drop is that the room goes silent for a moment. :-) | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 15:35 | comment | added | KConrad | This took place in 1930 in Koenigsberg, which was Hilbert's hometown. Goedel's talk was a day or two before Hilbert's talk, not at the same conference, and Hilbert may not have even been at that talk. For more, see hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/29/… and maa.org/book/export/html/326610. | |
| S Mar 11, 2019 at 13:49 | history | answered | Asaf Karagila♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 | |
| S Mar 11, 2019 at 13:49 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by Asaf Karagila♦ |