a) On one occasion, Erdös met a mathematician and asked him where he was from. "Vancouver," the mathematician replied. "Oh, then you must know my good friend Elliot Mendelson," Erdös said.
The reply was "I am your good friend Elliot Mendelson."
b) He had the habbit of phoning fellow mathematicians over the whole world, no matter what time it was. He remembered the number of every mathematician, but did not know anybody's first name. The only person he called by his Christian name was Tom Trotter, whom he called Bill.
c) This one's definitely a fabricated urban legend, but what the hell :-). There was a storm with thunder and lightening. Little Paul Erdos was in bed, frightened and fretting and his mother couldn't calm him. Then, as mothers seem to instinctively do, she found the right words. "It's all right dear", she said, stroking his shiny head, "there's always a prime between n and 2n".
After that, little Paul drifted off into a blissful sleep.
5. This is a story that I remember reading in E. T. Bell's excellent book 'Men of Mathematics'
This story is about the number 2^67-1, the 67th Mersenne number (Numbers, Mersenne had claimed to be prime, which was proven to be non-prime in 1903 by Frank N. Cole (1861-1927). In the October meeting of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), Cole announced a talk "On the Factorisation of Large Numbers". He walked up to the blackboard without saying a word, calculated by hand the value of 2^67, carefully subtracted 1. Then he multiplied two numbers(which were 193707721 and 761838257287). Both results written on the blackboard were equal. Cole silently walked back to his seat, and this is said to be the first and only talk held during an AMS meeting where the audience applauded. There were no questions.
It took Cole about 3 years, each sunday, to find this factorisation, according to what he said.
6. The mathematician G. H. Hardy was to give a keynote speech at a conference. Asked for an advance summary, he said he would present a proof of the Rieman zeta hypothesis -- but they should keep it under their hats. When he arrived, though, he spoke on a much more prosaic topic. Afterwards the conference organizers asked why he said he'd talk about the theorem and then didn't. He replied this was his standard practice, just in case he was killed on the way to the conference.
It was part of his tactics against God - in that he thought God would not allow him to die on the sea trip, because then everyone would think that Hardy had solved this great theorem. Hardy had other anti-God tactics, including always taking an umbrella, and some grading or other boring work, with him to the cricket games. For an athiest Hardy certainly spent a lot of effort against God.
Apparently Hardy's ambitions were:
The reply was "I am your good friend Elliot Mendelson."
b) He had the habbit of phoning fellow mathematicians over the whole world, no matter what time it was. He remembered the number of every mathematician, but did not know anybody's first name. The only person he called by his Christian name was Tom Trotter, whom he called Bill.
c) This one's definitely a fabricated urban legend, but what the hell :-). There was a storm with thunder and lightening. Little Paul Erdos was in bed, frightened and fretting and his mother couldn't calm him. Then, as mothers seem to instinctively do, she found the right words. "It's all right dear", she said, stroking his shiny head, "there's always a prime between n and 2n".
After that, little Paul drifted off into a blissful sleep.
5. This is a story that I remember reading in E. T. Bell's excellent book 'Men of Mathematics'
This story is about the number 2^67-1, the 67th Mersenne number (Numbers, Mersenne had claimed to be prime, which was proven to be non-prime in 1903 by Frank N. Cole (1861-1927). In the October meeting of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), Cole announced a talk "On the Factorisation of Large Numbers". He walked up to the blackboard without saying a word, calculated by hand the value of 2^67, carefully subtracted 1. Then he multiplied two numbers(which were 193707721 and 761838257287). Both results written on the blackboard were equal. Cole silently walked back to his seat, and this is said to be the first and only talk held during an AMS meeting where the audience applauded. There were no questions.
It took Cole about 3 years, each sunday, to find this factorisation, according to what he said.
6. The mathematician G. H. Hardy was to give a keynote speech at a conference. Asked for an advance summary, he said he would present a proof of the Rieman zeta hypothesis -- but they should keep it under their hats. When he arrived, though, he spoke on a much more prosaic topic. Afterwards the conference organizers asked why he said he'd talk about the theorem and then didn't. He replied this was his standard practice, just in case he was killed on the way to the conference.
It was part of his tactics against God - in that he thought God would not allow him to die on the sea trip, because then everyone would think that Hardy had solved this great theorem. Hardy had other anti-God tactics, including always taking an umbrella, and some grading or other boring work, with him to the cricket games. For an athiest Hardy certainly spent a lot of effort against God.
Apparently Hardy's ambitions were:
- Prove the Riemann Hypothesis
- Score the winning play in an important game of cricket
- Murder Mussolini
- Prove the non-existence of God
3 comments:
Yummy stuff.
would have asked you for the txt file but, as u said it apparently requires deciphering. So i will leave the hard work to u and simbly yinjoie.
Read Ramanujans biography once and it had a story about how Hardy used to come out of his apartment and then scream at the heavens "I am Hardy and i am going to the Library to spend the rest of the day indoors" and then go inside and get into cricketing gear and come out of the back door, satisfied in the knowledge and god would not let it rain as he thought Hardy will not be able to enjoy a good day for cricket frm the library.
Interesting. I don't remember reading this. Are you talking about Kanigel's 'The Man who knew Infinity' as the biography that you read? I read it a long time ago as a kid and was totally overawed and inspired. Ramanujan has been my personal hero for a long time :-)
Ya i think that was it. He was my hero too and in a much more impressionable age when i was trying hard to get into IIT but failing every test that Bansal classes threw at me, miserably. the whole book stayed with me.
am mailing u a very beautiful song.
have fun
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