# Category Archives: Quotes/People

## 2013 Abel Prize

A well written note by Frenkel that attempts to explain Deligne’s work that won him this year’s Abel Prize.

## According to Socrates

… it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know … Continue reading

## 125th Anniversary of Ramanujan’s Birth

It was a privilege to be in Delhi, India to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the birth of Ramanujan. It was a good conference with good talks by many speakers. Personally for me I didn’t get any new ideas or … Continue reading

## Polya and Ramanujan

Taken from the introduction to Bruce Berndt’s Ramanujan’s Notebooks Part I. In notes left by B. M. Wilson, he tells us how George Polya was captivated by Ramanujan’s formulas. One day in 1925 while Polya was visiting Oxford, he borrowed … Continue reading

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## Paraphrasing Russell

William Mueller in his 2001 article in the American Mathematical Monthly suggested that we could take Bertrand Russell’s quote* on philosophy and substitute it with pedagogy. So here goes Pedagogy is to be studied, not for the sake of any … Continue reading

## The Feynman Problem Solving Algorithm

according to here is this 1) Write down the problem 2) Think very hard 3) Write down the answer

## Thurston on education

I was introducing mathoverflow to a student and wanted to show him that world class mathematicians hang out there. In the list of top contributors I saw Thurston’s name and pointed it out to the student. Of course the name … Continue reading

## Of Dice and Math

With apologies to steinbeck. An article by Posamentier on how he taught arithmetic of fractions through applications to dice games. There is often talk of making mathematics relevant to students. This is important, but only when it relates to the … Continue reading

## The time to work on a problem

the time to work on a problem is after you’ve solved it — R. H. Bing Extracted from the book “The 5 elements of effective thinking.” Put the exact quote in google books to locate it. Seen via jd cook.

## Seetapun

A brief, interesting account of David Seetapun, a logician turned wall street hack turned fisherman from wiki and Times Higher Ed.

## Voice of the Count

The man who was the voice of Count von Count, no doubt my favourite Sesame Street character, has passed on. http://www.eonline.com/news/340745/rip-count-von-count-sesame-street-actor-jerry-nelson-dead-at-78

## Turing Doodle

I was supposed to wake up early before my two year old boy so that I could get some work done, but alas, I got distracted by the neat little Turing machine puzzle put up by the guys at google. … Continue reading

Posted in Fun Stuff, Number Theory, Quotes/People, Technology | 4 Comments

## The Rewards of Honesty

The New York Times published an article – which was re-published in the local papers – about a former mathematics professor Kim Myungho who self-published a book decrying the Korean judiciary. (Note the word “published” appeared thrice in the previous … Continue reading

Posted in General, Quotes/People | 1 Comment

## Hardy on Number Theory

The elementary theory of numbers should be one of the very best subjects for early mathematical instruction. It demands very little previous knowledge; its subject matter is tangible and familiar; the processes of reasoning which it employs are simple, general … Continue reading

## Generalizations

There are two kinds of generalizations. One is cheap and the other is valuable. It is easy to generalize by diluting a little idea with a big terminology. It is much more difficult to prepare a refined and condensed extract … Continue reading

## Homework

We have seen textbooks that only gives solutions to odd-numbered exercises. But have you seen a number theory text with the following exercises? 1) Prove that $x^3 + y^3 = z^3$ has no non-trivial solutions in integers. 2) Prove that … Continue reading

## The man who know Ramanujan

An article from The Hindu about Professor Bruce Berndt. The title of the article is probably a play on the book The man who knew infinity.

## Printed vs E-books

A blog post by Nicolas Carr. I personally belong to the majority who like the convenience of e-books but almost always prefer printed books (and research papers) for reading. I’ve moved to my new office for about a month and … Continue reading