January 07, 2017 Saturday
Bedtime Story
When the Student Scared His Mathematics Teacher
Von Neumann was perhaps one of those rarest of the rare case
wherein the mathematics teacher was scared of his pupil.
George Pólya was a professor of mathematics at the ETH Zurich
where von Neumann happened to be his graduate student in 1926.
In his book How To Solve It (1945) (sold over a
million copies and is still available on Amazon for a very decent price) George
Pólya writes:
“There was a seminar for advanced students in Zürich that I was
teaching and von Neumann was in the class.
I came to a certain theorem, and I said it is not proved and may
be difficult.
Von Neumann did not say anything but after five minutes he raised
his hand.
When I called on him he went to the blackboard and proceeded to
write down the proof.
After that I was afraid of von Neumann.”
Von Neumann, like Ramanujan did mathematics intuitively.
In fact, his closest friend Stanislaw Ulam held the view that von Neumann’s
mathematical thinking was not even a visual one but an aural one.
Most ordinary apes like me are fascinated with mathematics and
mathematicians and ask of them this banal question:
What is mathematics?
Von Neumann was asked this same question and like everything that
he did, came up with an exquisite review, the salient points of which are as
follows:
1. Geometry was originally empirical, but Euclid constructed a
logical, deductive theory.
By this, he meant that before Euclid geometry was largely
experimental and practical, based on observations, practical needs and
experience.
For instance, the earlier civilizations used geometry for their
constructions, architecture, agriculture and bifurcations of land, even though
geometry was not rigorously axiomatized.
We shall continue with von Neumann’s exposition of mathematics in
the nights to come.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
George Polya was the professor of mathematics at ETH Zurich from 1914-1940. John von Neumann graduated in chemical engineering from the same university in 1926.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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