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Quote by Stanislaw Ulam

“There may be such a thing as habitual luck. People who are said to be lucky at cards probably have certain hidden talents for those games in which skill plays a role. It is like hidden parameters in physics, this ability that does not surface and that I like to call "habitual luck".”

Quote by Stanislaw Ulam

Author

Stanislaw Ulam was a renowned mathematician who made significant contributions to mathematics, physics, and computer science. Born on April 13, 1909, and passing away on May 13, 1984, Ulam's research had a profound impact on the development of nuclear weapons, stochastic process theory, and computer science. more

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“Thanks to my memory, which enabled me to quote Latin and to discuss Greek and Roman civilization, it became obvious to some of my colleagues in other fields that I was interested in things outside mathematics. This lead quickly to very pleasant relationships.”

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Author:Stanislaw Ulam

“Very soon I discovered that if one gets a feeling for no more than a dozen other radiation and nuclear constants, one can imagine the subatomic world almost tangibly, and manipulate the picture dimensionally and qualitatively, before calculating more precise relationships.”

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“Running a school where the students all succeed, even if some students have to help others to make the grade, is good preparation for democracy.”

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“I was still very hopeful that much work lay ahead of me. Perhaps because much of what I had worked on or thought about had not yet been put into writing, I felt I still had things in reserve. Given this optimistic nature, I feel this way even now when I am past sixty.”

Way Feels Writing Stills Past Given Felt Lays Optimistic Hopeful Sixty Reserves

Author:Stanislaw Ulam

“Even the simplest calculation in the purest mathematics can have terrible consequences. Without the invention of the infinitesimal calculus most of our technology would have been impossible. Should we say therefore that calculus is bad?”

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Author:Stanislaw Ulam

“According to recent studies, at least one star out of three is multiple.”

Three Stars Study Multiple

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“By an incredible coincidence, Gamow and Edward Condon, who had discovered simultaneously and independently the explanation of radioactivity (one in Russia, the other in this country), came to spend the the last ten years of their lives within a hundred yards of each other in Boulder.”

Years Country Lasts Ten Hundred Incredibles Russia Explanation Yards Coincidence Boulders

Author:Stanislaw Ulam

“What exactly is mathematics? Many have tried but nobody has really succeeded in defining mathematics; it is always something else.”

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Author:Stanislaw Ulam

“In its evolution from a more primitive nervous system, the brain, as an organ with ten or more billion neurons and many more connections between them must have changed and grown as a result of many accidents.”

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Author:Stanislaw Ulam

“It is not so much whether a theorem is useful that matters, but how elegant it is.”

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Author:Stanislaw Ulam