From: utzoo!decvax!cca!ima!johnl
Newsgroups: net.math
Title: Travelling bees in Princeton
Article-I.D.: ima.185
Posted: Tue Aug 10 09:57:25 1982
Received: Fri Aug 13 02:34:40 1982

The story about Von Neumann solving the travelling bee problem by
intantaneously summing the series in his head has been floating
around Princeton (both the university and the town) for decades,
with the usual punch line being "Oh, is there another way?"
Since he lived there, one is tempted to give the story some
credence.

A similar story reports of the time that Einstein had missed his
entrance three times in a row while rehearsing with a string
quartet and one of the other players yelling in amazement "Can't
you count?"

John Levine, decvax!cca!ima!johnl, harpo!esquire!ima!johnl