YAY! Math is in the title! -- your favorite mathematician

LW said:
I've got Erd�s number of 4. Any others with a finite number here?
Click to expand...

Presuming the paper I'm writing now eventually gets published, mine will be 2. Now I gotta get a part in a movie with Kevin Bacon...
 
Cantor. His Diagonalization proof was the first proof that gave me the warm fuzzies. :D

Also, he proved something that's seriously counterintuitive.
 
Paul C. Anagnostopoulos said:
My favorite mathematician will be the one who figures out why so many people are innumerate and proud of it.
Click to expand...
For me it'll be the mathematician who manages to reconcile the apparent anomoly that ALL people consider themselves to be above-average drivers.
 
PygmyPlaidGiraffe said:
Leonardo de Pisa (Fibonacci)
Click to expand...

I had no idea he was Pisan until I ran into his tomb while wandering through the mausoleum during a visit to Pisa.
 
Tez said:
Presuming the paper I'm writing now eventually gets published, mine will be 2. Now I gotta get a part in a movie with Kevin Bacon...
Click to expand...

Have you ever thought of selling the right to publish a paper with you? Surely there musy be some vain mathematician willing to pay money to get down to 3.
 
Ladewig said:
I am not an expert in the field, but I believe he had a valid proof. It is so frustrating almost to the point of being absurd that the best (and second-best) minds over four centuries have looked at this problem and walked away stumped.
Click to expand...
So why do you want to throw out Ockham's Razor and believe he had a valid proof, when there is a much simpler explanation, that he was mistaken? Is there any evidence that Fermat's proof existed?

Originally posted by Iconoclast
For me it'll be the mathematician who manages to reconcile the apparent anomoly that ALL people consider themselves to be above-average drivers.
Click to expand...
There was an article in my local newspaper a few years ago talking about innumeracy in the general population, in which the author interviewed famous mathematicians such as John Allen Poulos. The author mentioned the fact that 80% of drivers consider themselves to be above average, which she then said was impossible. The irony made me laugh, that she made a common mistake of innumeracy in an article decrying innumeracy. I sent her an email pointing this out, noting the fact that the vast majority of people have greater than the average number of legs.

However, you did say all, which is OK.
 
Andrew Wiles has to rank up there with the great mathematicians for his determination if nothing else!
 
Euclid! A short and sweet proof that there are an infinite number of prime numbers:

For any prime number N:
N!+1 is either prime, or its prime factors are greater than N.

Now that we know Fermat's theorem is true, is anyone working on finding the "Marvelous" version?

It seems most likely that Fermat was full of ◊◊◊◊, but if he wasn't... whoa...
 
I thought it was Euler who came up with the elegant proof of an infinitude of primes.

Edited to add: Nevermind - I see I was wrong.
 
CurtC said:
I thought it was Euler who came up with the elegant proof of an infinitude of primes.

Edited to add: Nevermind - I see I was wrong.
Click to expand...

Euler did have a proof of an infinitude of primes, it just was not nearly as cool.
 
gnome said:
Euler did have a proof of an infinitude of primes, it just was not nearly as cool.
Click to expand...

I think Euler's was cooler, and deeper.

Not to mention when he did it, he was partially or totally blind.
(I forget the years exactly)
 
jzs said:
I think Euler's was cooler, and deeper.

Not to mention when he did it, he was partially or totally blind.
(I forget the years exactly)
Click to expand...

That's it! I challenge you to a duel!

(just as soon as I finish writing this cryptic note about an unfinished theorem of mine)
 
gnome said:
That's it! I challenge you to a duel!

(just as soon as I finish writing this cryptic note about an unfinished theorem of mine)
Click to expand...

I mean, why couldn't Fermat have had a book on hand with larger margins. Really!!
 
CurtC said:
There was an article in my local newspaper a few years ago talking about innumeracy in the general population, in which the author interviewed famous mathematicians such as John Allen Poulos. The author mentioned the fact that 80% of drivers consider themselves to be above average, which she then said was impossible.

However, you did say all, which is OK.
Click to expand...
I had originally written 90%, but wisely changed it just before I hit "submit".
 
gnome said:
(just as soon as I finish writing this cryptic note about an unfinished theorem of mine)
Click to expand...

There was one mathematician, I can't remember who, who was embarking on a journey on a small boat in a poor weather. Before he left, he sent a telegraph to another mathematician saying: "I have a proof for Riemann hypothesis", so that if the boat was sunk he would be remembered.
 
LW said:
There was one mathematician, I can't remember who, who was embarking on a journey on a small boat in a poor weather. Before he left, he sent a telegraph to another mathematician saying: "I have a proof for Riemann hypothesis", so that if the boat was sunk he would be remembered.
Click to expand...

It was Hardy - and I believe his reasoning was that God would not torment the mathematical world twice in such a manner, and would therefore keep him safe....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom