Galois, the man

[hydrobromic]

I read a funny story about Evariste Galois. Apparently, he was required to take some oral exam at the École Polytechnique. He got flustered (although, arguably, he knew twice as much mathematics as his examiners). At any rate, one of his examiners had the pomp and obstinance to argue with Galois on a mathematical point (on which, in retrospect,

Comments

[kylerusnakus]

I probably won't unnerstan' most of it, but I'd read it!

[joaniechachi]

The summer after my first year, I had a mini-hobby of reading books about math and mathematicians. I didn't understand most of the math too well then, and I definitely don't remember any of it now, but I get some grim pleasure out of muddling my way through maths above my head. Please indulge me with your excellent prose and lyricism about maths! (Which are delicious, you know.)

[hydrobromic]

the math is over my head too :-) that's why it's so compelling!

who was your favorite mathematician to read about? Some of them have very colorful lives. I recommend E.T. Bell's Men of Mathematics. It's not too technical (not patronizing, it just isn't meant to be technical), and includes all sorts of exciting personal detail.

also, it's funny that your user-icon is still of your hair!

[joaniechachi]

My default icon is still the fedora, but I have others, including this bald one. I liked the complexity of the braid for the pretty math things. :-D

I mostly read about the people in the context of their ideas, and so I lost them in the valiant but ultimately wasted struggle to stop hating trigonometry. I did enjoy the titles of the books, such as An Imaginary Tale: The history of the square root of negative one. I think the one about pi also had a clever title, but it escapes me at the moment. I think I have lost that list of books I was working from, but I now have an urge to go back and locate the anthropology of math books.

[dragonladyflame]

"Damn it . . . Don't you dare ask God to help me." were the last words of Joan Crawford, but I think Che Guevara wins with "Shoot, coward! You are only going to kill a man."