The Strangest Man in Mathematics

Comments · 182

• NE

  @Newsthink · 6 months ago · pinned

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• AH

  @ahoj7720 · 6 months ago

  I met Erdös once. I was a junior mathematician and he was visiting our university. He needed a transit visa to go through Switzerland. I was given the task of accompanying him to the Swiss consulate to get the visa. I had to argue with the immigration officer that the tramp looking man, with an old overcoat, a cardboard suitcase and an overused Hungarian passport (Hungary was a communist country) was a prominent mathematician. As I was talking to a Swiss official, I compared him to Euler. It took a couple of phone calls and Erdös got his visa. But I never wrote a paper with him…

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• WA

  @watt_the_border_collie · 6 months ago

  My greatest achievement in maths is attending lectures about number theory by Erdős&apos; most frequent co-author

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• BO

  @bobdobbs7708 · 6 months ago

  Saying Epsilon is &quot;the mathematical symbol for something small, fragile and full of potential&quot; is like saying Delta is the mathematical symbol for &quot;The changing of a caterpillar to a butterfly in a frost covered chrysalis&quot; 😂

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• OP

  @OP-lk4tw · 5 months ago

  I&apos;d have probably been addicted to mathematics too if it was the only game in town. Wonder how many mathematicians we lost to the internet

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• UP

  @Updike999 · 6 months ago (edited)

  Video should have mentioned that Erdos was so prolific AND so collaborative that a numbering system representing degrees of closeness with him developed.<br>1 = published directly with &nbsp;him.<br>2 = published with someone who worked directly with him. <br>And so on.<br>I&apos;m unaware that this exists for any other mathematician. <br>Am I correct?

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• AH

  @ahoj7720 · 6 months ago

  At <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGP-eSIqcm0&amp;t=285">4:45</a>, the &quot;epsilon&quot; is no other than Terence Tao, age 10!

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• KU

  @Kurt3264h7j · 6 months ago

  He is very popular among math students in India. Unfortunately, even among successful mathematicians, there are very few like him.

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• UN

  @undine8750 · 6 months ago

  &quot;the strange man, the oddball in mathematics.&quot; .... that doesn&apos;t narrow it down at all.

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• TY

  @tyler7992 · 6 months ago

  &quot;The privilege of pleasure in dealing with women has not been given to me.&quot; He&apos;s just like me frfr

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• DA

  @danielkemp4860 · 6 months ago

  My neighbour has an Erdős number of 2.<br>My Mrs has a 4.

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• MO

  @Moira.Carmilla · 5 months ago

  The Probabilistic Method in practice was the closest thing to Black Magic I have ever seen in mathematics

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