Have been reading this book, Arcimedes’ Revenge which is about the enigma that pure mathematics truly is! Was a lot like getting back to my old love..!!
Legend has it that the Greek philosopher & mathematician, Archimedes, in a fit of rage, composed an insanely difficult numerical problem about grazing cattle. His revenge was felt for twenty-two hundred years, until 1981, when the problem was finally disposed of by a fledgling super-computer. The frustration that generations of mathematicians felt in the face of Archimedes’ revenge resembles that caused by simpler mathematical problems that arise more naturally. Here is the original problem as stated by Archimedes!
The revenge of mathematics on her followers were best summed up by these lines penned by an anonymous writer:
“ A formidable student at Trinity
Solved the square root of infinity;
It gave him such fidgets
To count up the digits
He chucked math & took up Divinity.”
I read a quote somwhr:
‘When my students decide to stop taking mathematics courses, I advise them to listen carefully. They may be able to hear the sound of closing doors’.
I love this statement.
& closing lives, if I may add..!!
I would like to see a continuation of the topic