Talk:John Milnor

Rumor...

My math textbook says (paraphrasing here)

Legend has it that John Milnor... was asleep in a math class as the professor wrote three unsolved knot theory problems... he wakes up and thinks they're homework problems... comes back next week with the answers.

What do you think about this? I've heard this story thrown around a lot so I'm realllly unsure whether this is true in regard to John Milnor. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wfisher (talk • contribs)

It's not true. There's a similar true story about George Dantzig. Also, Milnor proved the Fary-Milnor theorem as an undergrad, although I'm sure he knew it was an open problem. Somehow the stories got mixed together and became this "legend". --C S (Talk) 23:20, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

I've removed the statement about him mistaking the problem for homework. As far as I can tell, it is indeed just a confabulation of the true story about Dantzig. Furthermore, there was no citation, so the story was completely unfounded.--70.211.129.145 (talk) 03:04, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

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This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 17:48, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

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Unclear sentence

The second paragraph in the section Research is as follows:

"An n-sphere with nonstandard differential structure is called an exotic sphere, a term coined by Milnor. He gave a complete inventory of differentiable structures in spheres of all dimensions with Kervaire, and only continued till 2009."

In the second sentence, it is not at all clear what the last phrase "and only continued till 2009" refers to. 2601:200:C000:1A0:F891:9B6C:124F:9E4D (talk) 18:17, 28 August 2021 (UTC)

Infobox Error

It seems the subheading "Scientific career" has been erroneously added to the infobox. I suggest it be removed. IAScomms1930 (talk) 14:11, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

IAS Affiliation

This scholar was affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Study for the spring of 1966 as a Member, 1970-90 as Faculty [already mentioned in article], and fall of 1999 and the year of 2002 as a Visitor, all in the School of Mathematics. This should be reflected under "Institutions" and "Early life and career" IAScomms1930 (talk) 14:16, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

Not clear why this is notable enough to mention and where is the reliable independent source? Theroadislong (talk) 20:40, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

source is https://www.ias.edu/scholars/john-willard-milnor but upon second viewing this information doesn't seem very notable IAScomms1930 (talk) 13:47, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Tilla Klotz Milnor

In the 1970s it was well-known that John Milnor was married to a fellow mathematician, then known as Tilla Klotz Milnor. This information is confirmed by her Wikipedia page, under her later name of Tilla Weinstein. Should this information not also be in his Wikipedia page? Also, when were they divorced, and when did he remarry? KHarbaugh (talk) 20:32, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

Also, you can find a number of papers under that name by Googling it. KHarbaugh (talk) 21:22, 27 August 2022 (UTC)