Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Legends of Math and Movies
Interesting little article about the quirkiness of mathematicians and certain mathematical problems:
https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/what-purpose-do-the-great-mathematical-problems-serve/
It starts off by telling the legend of George Dantzig, who arrived late to a UC Berkeley math class one day in 1939, and copied a couple of problems off the blackboard, thinking they were homework assignments. He went home, struggled to figure out their solutions which he turned in, only to discover 6 weeks later that they were famous unsolved problems in statistics... now resolved by a student assuming them "homework."
In the below Numberphile clip, James Grime talks about the Dantzig legend in relation to the popular movie Good Will Hunting; and also talks about American genius William Sidis and Indian prodigy Ramanujan, all of whom were thought to be possible models for the Hunting main character.
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