What were you up to at 5 years old? If your name is Carl Friedrich Gauss, you're weren't doing something sensible for a toddler, like watching Sesame Street. Oh, no—you were managing your father's accounts. After all, that's the natural progression once you've first corrected an error in his payroll at age 3. We're not joking here. Gauss is one of history's most influential mathematicians, and if you don't know about him, pull up a chair and get comfy.
This week's Student of the Week is Ebony B!
Ebony is as soft-spoken now (at least in my class) as she was in grade 8. And, much like five years ago, she is still extremely polite and thoughtful. Whenever I help her with her math she is always so appreciative. I'm so proud of Ebony for lasting the whole year in Calculus 12. It was not an easy class (for anybody) and it showed a lot of character, determination, and integrity to keep coming to class day after day. I will miss your shy smile and your kind words, Ebony. You never caused me a single problem in the three years I taught you (thank you!). May you experience great happiness and success (whatever it may look like to you) in the years ahead. All the best! Huh’s math career began with much less acclaim. A bad score on an elementary school test convinced him that he was not very good at math. As a teenager he dreamed of becoming a poet. He didn’t major in math, and when he finally applied to graduate school, he was rejected by every university save one.
Nine years later, at the age of 34, Huh is at the pinnacle of the math world. He is best known for his proof, with the mathematicians Eric Katz and Karim Adiprasito, of a long-standing problem called the Rota conjecture. The mathematician Gian-Carlo Rota developed a number of different conjectures that bear his name. Communication between Earthlings and intelligent aliens should be based on mathematics — exo-arithmetic greetings that form a shared lingo, some researchers say.
The idea is that mathematics is as much a part of our humanity as music and art. And it is mathematics that might be understandable — even familiar — to extraterrestrial civilizations, allowing us to strike up star-speak repartee. |
P. WadgeI am your teacher. Obey me. Archives
June 2021
Categories
All
|