Anecdotes About Famous Mathematicians

Anecdotes and interesting facts about famous mathematicians add a delightful touch to the world of mathematics. Let’s explore a few intriguing stories:

1.  Igor Tamm’s Close Call

Russian physicist Igor Tamm, Nobel Prize winner in 1958, faced an unexpected challenge during the Russian revolution. While searching for food in a village, anti-communist bandits surrounded him. Suspicious of his city attire, the leader demanded to know his profession. Tamm, a university professor, replied, “I teach physics.” The bandit, perhaps impressed, let him go.

2.  Gauss and the Sum of Integers

Carl Friedrich Gauss, the brilliant mathematician, famously computed the sum of integers from 1 to 100 as a child. Instead of laboriously adding each number, he noticed a pattern: 1 + 100 = 101, 2 + 99 = 101, and so on. There were 50 pairs, each summing to 101. The total sum was 5050. Gauss’s clever approach astounded his teacher.

3.  Newton’s Falling Apple

Although it’s a popular story, the exact truth remains debated. Legend has it that Isaac Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head. While the apple incident likely didn’t happen exactly as portrayed, Newton’s groundbreaking work on universal gravitation revolutionised physics.

4.  Ramanujan’s Taxi Number 1729

The Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan once fell ill and was visited by the British mathematician G. H. Hardy. Ramanujan mentioned that he arrived in a taxi with the number 1729. Hardy considered it a dull number until Ramanujan revealed its magic: 1729 is the smallest positive integer expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways: 1729 = 1³ + 12³ = 9³ + 10³. This became known as the “Ramanujan-Hardy number” or "taxicab number".

5.  Paul Erdős and Amphetamines

The prolific Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős was known for his eccentric lifestyle. He consumed large quantities of amphetamines to stay awake and work on math problems. He referred to children as “epsilons” and believed that God had a book containing the most elegant proofs. Erdős collaborated with hundreds of mathematicians, often saying, "My brain is open!".

6.  John von Neumann who didn't need to study

 John von Neumann (born János Neumann, 1903-1957) was the kind of student his classmates must have hated. Sometimes he would come to school and admit to not studying his assignments, but he would then still do better than most of the class in the day’s discussion. For two years he went to college simultaneously in Budapest and Berlin, showing up in Budapest only when it was time for an exam, which he passed easily.

7.  Ada Lovelace a child celebrity 

Ada Lovelace (born Augusta Ada Byron, 1815-1852) was the child of a celebrity, like Jaden and Willow Smith or Miley Cyrus today. Her father was George Gordon, Lord Byron, a poet known for scandalous behavior as much as poetry. Lovelace never knew him, as disgrace and debt forced Byron to leave England when she was only a month old. Like the children of celebrities today, Lovelace grew up under the intense gaze of the press, which loved feeding rumors to a gossip-hungry public. One reason she took up mathematics was because it gave her the mental discipline she needed to avoid scandals of her own.

Feel free to explore these anecdotes and interesting facts. 😊

Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comment field below!

References:

1. math.stackexchange.com
2. crystalclearmaths.com
3. livescience.com
4. bing.com
5. cambridgecoaching.com
6. media.gettyimages.com

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