A story of von Neumann 向右走 Speed of the bee is 15 mp.h. 向左走 Someone asked him to solve the following problem. 10m.p.h. 10 m.p.h. Twenty miles apart A story of von Neumann Question:What total distance did the bee cover when the people meet First method:Calculate the distance the bee covers on each of its trips between the When the question was put to von Neumann,he two bicycles and finally sum the infinite solved it in an instant,and therefore disappointed series so obtained. the questioner: Second method:Observe that the bicycles ■“Oh,you must have heard the trick before" meet exactly an hour after they start so that s“What trick”,asked von Neumann,”all I did was fly had just an hour for his travel:the sum the infinite series." answer must therefore be 15 miles. John von Neumann Game Theory and Economics ■Game theory was first developed by John von Neumann in 1928.At Game theory studies how people that time,it was only behave in strategic situations,where considered as a branch the outcome for each player depends of pure mathematics. on the actions of all the players. In 1944.he and Oskar Since strategic interaction Morgenstern published the book“Theory of characterizes many economic Games and Economic situations,game theory has proved Behavior” very useful in economic analysis. 33 A story of von Neumann „ Someone asked him to solve the following problem. Twenty miles apart 10 m.p.h. 10 m.p.h. 向右走 向左走 Speed of the bee is 15 m.p.h. A story of von Neumann „ Question: What total distance did the bee cover when the people meet ? „ First method: Calculate the distance the bee covers on each of its trips between the two bicycles and finally sum the infinite series so obtained. „ Second method: Observe that the bicycles meet exactly an hour after they start so that fly had just an hour for his travel; the answer must therefore be 15 miles. „ When the question was put to von Neumann, he solved it in an instant, and therefore disappointed the questioner: „ “Oh, you must have heard the trick before !” “What trick”, asked von Neumann,”all I did was sum the infinite series.” John von Neumann „ Game theory was first developed by John von Neumann in 1928. At that time, it was only considered as a branch of pure mathematics. „ In 1944, he and Oskar Morgenstern published the book“Theory of Games and Economic Behavior”. Game Theory and Economics „ Game theory studies how people behave in strategic situations, where the outcome for each player depends on the actions of all the players. „ Since strategic interaction characterizes many economic situations, game theory has proved very useful in economic analysis