October 05, 2017 Thursday
Bedtime Story
For the Love of Mathematics
Yet, even this extreme poverty could not
take out the love of mathematics from Shatunovsky.
He was profoundly impressed with Pafnuty
Chebyshev, the man who is considered the founding father of Russian mathematics.
He is probably to Russians what Ramanujan
is to us Indians though unlike Ramanujan, Chebyshev did have a formal training
in pure mathematics at the Moscow University in late 1830s.
Yet as history would show, it was Ramanujan
who would go on to become a legend, probably because if his association with
the British mathematician G. H. Hardy at the University of Cambridge,
England.
Chebyshev lectured mathematics in St.
Petersburg and at that time Shatunovsky was also present in the city in search
of professional degree.
Saint Petersburg was after all, the seat of
learning in the Russian Empire and perhaps the whole of Europe then.
Shatunovsky when in the city would attend
lectures of Chebyshev even though not formally enrolled in any of his program.
There is this interesting fact about
Chebyshev that caught my eye as it reflects the overall influence he had in the
world of mathematics.
According to the Mathematics Genealogy
Project (started somewhere around 1997 by the Mathematician from Minnesota)
till 2015, Chebyshev has 10,629 mathematical “descendents”.
Please note that I have put the word
descendents within quotation marks.
This is so because the Mathematics
Genealogy Project creates a family tree of mathematicians based on mentoring
relationships (and not on genetic lineage that is customary in evolutionary science).
Hence this family tree will have a chain of
mathematical professors (Yes, nearly all of them will be Professors!) who have
either served as academic mentors or thesis advisors of each other.
In this particular case of Pafnuty
Chebyshev and Samuil Shatunovsky, Samuil cannot be truly called a mathematical
“descendent” of Chebyshev since Chebyshev was never a formal mentor of Shatunovsky
in any true sense.
Yet in not-so-true sense he inspired Shatunovsky
with his lectures.
You will find it very interesting that Shatunovsky
could not complete any formal degree due to lack of money and barely made his
living by giving private tuition to children.
Yet when he wrote his first few
mathematical paper and sent some of them to Odessa University, their quality
was so original and compelling that they got him entry into the university.
Only this time not merely as a student but
also as a staff member with financial aid that allowed him to finally earn a
degree.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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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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