science

The Machine That Won the War (short story)

The Machine That Won the War (short story) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Machine That Won the War (short story) rather than just read about it. In short: "The Machine That Won the War" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the October 1961 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and was reprinted in the collections Nightfall and Other Stories (1969) and Robot Dreams (1986).

Key takeaways

The Machine That Won the War (short story) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Machine That Won the War (short story) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Machine That Won the War (short story) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"The Machine That Won the War" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the October 1961 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and was reprinted in the collections Nightfall and Other Stories (1969) and Robot Dreams (1986). It was also printed in a contemporary edition of Reader's Digest, illustrated. It is one of a loosely connected series of such stories concerning a fictional supercomputer called Multivac.

Plot summary Three influential leaders of the human race meet in the aftermath of a successful war against the Denebians. Discussing how the vast and powerful Multivac computer was a decisive factor in the war, each of the men admits that in fact, he falsified his part of the decision process because he felt that the situation was too complex to follow normal procedures. John Henderson, Multivac's Chief Programmer, admits that he altered the data being fed to Multivac, since the populace could not be trusted to report accurate information in the current situation. Max Jablonski then admits that he altered the data that Multivac produced, since he knew that Multivac was not in good working order due to manpower and spare parts shortage. Finally, Lamar Swift, executive director of the Solar Federation, reveals that he had not trusted the reports produced by Multivac, and had made the final decisions purely on the toss of a coin.

References

External links The Machine That Won the War title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database The Machine That Won the War first edition title listing in WorldCat database The Machine That Won the War at the Internet Archive's OpenLibrary

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Machine That Won the War (short story)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Machine That Won the War (short story) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Machine That Won the War (short story) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Machine That Won the War (short story) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Machine That Won the War (short story)

In research: The Machine That Won the War (short story) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Machine That Won the War (short story) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Machine That Won the War (short story) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1960s science fiction short story stubs, 1961 English-language short stories, 1961 short stories, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Machine That Won the War (short story) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Machine That Won the War (short story) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Machine That Won the War (short story) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Machine That Won the War (short story) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Machine That Won the War (short story) in simple terms?

Why does The Machine That Won the War (short story) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Machine That Won the War (short story)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Machine That Won the War (short story).