Sunday, March 24, 2019

Matt Parker, Man of Mystery (…and damn good writer)

                     

^ One of these is a headshot of a true national Australian gem; the other is Matt Parker.



Who’s the hottest mathematician going these days? ...probably debatable, but if we ask instead who’s the "hottest-mathematician-AND-stand-up-comic" going these days, then it’s more likely a slam-dunk for Matt Parker, newly-out with his second fab popular math volume, “Humble Pi.” So just a post today paying tribute to the jaunty numbers bloke who spreads math far-and-wide... including biographical information taken from public sources, private spies, and NSA operatives (…or, made up out of thin air):

Though he hails from Britain now, Matt’s originally from Australia, and I have a soft spot for anyone from the land of cockatoos and Crocodile Dundee. Somehow he seems to also sneak into the U.S. on occasion (…so much for Homeland Security!).
Born in 1980, Matt is ~39 years old (coincidentally, an age I was at one time). I couldn’t find his actual birthday, but he seems very Sagittarian to me; or perhaps Capricornish, though Aries and Gemini are definitely also in the running. ;)) God forbid if I’m wrong and he’s really a friggin’ Leo!

Matt was born 60 years after Ramanujan died, and began channeling the Indian prodigy at a very young age (OK, I made that up; I honestly don’t know who he channels; it could be Henny Youngman).
As best my crack genealogical team was able to uncover (without actual DNA samples) he is no relation whatsoever to Fess Parker of Davy Crockett fame. Nor will Sarah Jessica Parker or Trey Parker claim any connection to him at all. It’s even possible he was raised by a pack of wild dingoes in the Australian outback (…though admittedly, unlikely, and I don’t wish to start rumors here... but you, dear reader, can do what you wish). 
According to rough estimates, Matt stands somewhere between 4’9” and 8’7” tall, and has blue, brown, or green eyes (maybe). He's been known to appreciate an occasional beer, but ONLY on days of the week that include a vowel (perhaps the result of a strict Zoroastrian upbringing; just a guess).

In college he went from mechanical engineering to physics to mathematics, before finding his true love in whatever the heck you call what he’s doing nowadays.

Matt’s first book was a tour-de-force in book titling: “Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension: A Mathematician's Journey Through Narcissistic Numbers, Optimal Dating Algorithms, at Least Two Kinds of Infinity, and More.”
Luckily, he learned to control his incorrigible verbal impulses (or got a better editor) with his current delicious volume, “Humble Pi” (I haven’t read it yet, but some folks say it's palatable).
In fact recently, and remarkably (even allowing for massive bribes), the book hit #1 on the British nonfiction best-seller list, a fact, which, in his humility, Matt only managed to note on Twitter 1729 times (a number Ramanujan fans will appreciate).

Hopefully, we can expect many more such books from him in the future, though he’s almost out of time for a Fields Medal (...but does still have πgoogol more chances for a Nobel Peace Prize than Donald Trump).
Last year he did deservedly share the “2018 Communications Award” of the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics, with Vi Hart, leading inevitably to the pressing question, if Matt & Vi ever had a child together would that offspring prove the Riemann Hypothesis? We may never know.

And so far as I could discover, Emmy Noether NEVER had a single good word to say about Matt, though other female mathematicians seem quite willing to associate with him (Katie, Jo, Holly, Hannah, etc. may need to explain themselves).

Nor do I know what Matt's Erdös Number is, but don't let him ever try to convince you that he's anywhere in this photo (ain't so; that's me on the right with my grandpa checking over some proof we found in the margin of a book... NOT):



Many mathematicians are known to indulge in puns. Unfortunately, Matt IS one of them (but I won't "pun"ish you here with any examples).
He is a bright, exuberant, engaging, creative, witty, sharp-as-a-tack, well-spoken nerd math communicator… except of course when compared to his colleague James Grime, who makes Matt seem like just another boring, humdrum, numbers dullard scrounging a living off of his far-more capable/employable physicist wife. (James, by the way, it's been rumored, goes to bed every night with a king-size clothes-hanger in his mouth.)

No chicken to controversy, Matt once famously and unsuccessfully tangled with the British government when he realized their geometric depiction of a football (on road signs) was inexplicably far off from its true appearance:
[If you spot Matt ripping down football signs anywhere on the streets of London feel free, indeed obliged, to call the nearest office of Interpol.]

Next, he may run for Prime Minister, since that would be a much easier improvement to make in Britain these days than road signage.

It's believed Matt spends most of his spare time obsessing over magic squares, listening to old Tom Lehrer records, and re-reading absurd blog posts about himself. Hi Matt!!

If you open your browser to the internet and randomly tap some buttons, you’ll likely come across Matt; I mean he’s everywhere! Has his own website here:

...but regularly appears on Numberphile (where a no-holds-barred, winner-take-all grudge match between he and Tadashi Tokieda could well be in the works):

and still more videos here:
…ohh, and, here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzV9N7eGedBchEQjQhPapyQ

(occasionally, the initial thought upon viewing one of his videos, like this one, is to question Matt's sanity, but, like most first impressions, that will pass... unless, of course, you're trained in psychiatry)

He’s also had several appearances on BBC’s “The Infinite Monkey Cage” with Brian Cox and Robin Ince (as well as several other science outlets):

of course he’s on Twitter, where 80,000 lads & lassies, who apparently have nothing better to do with their lives, follow him:

And, with others, he sells math gear here (…or as he lamely calls it in mangled English, “maths gear” -- those Brits constantly humour me with their warped English spelling):

Matt came in second in last year’s “Big Internet Math Off" contest, meaning he can only lay claim to being 'The World’s Second Most Interesting Mathematician' (well-ahead of Gauss, Euler, and Galois, but behind Nira Chamberlain who won the event).


And he is such a master of disguise, employing so many different aliases, that many don't even realize he once acted in an American sitcom:


I hear-tell that Benedict Cumberbatch is cast to play Parker when they do the film version of Matt's life (though maybe I have it backwards and Matt intends to play Benedict when they do the big screen version of Cumberbatch's life).

I hope this brief informative profile adds to your knowledge/appreciation of this standup guy, as we look forward to many more lemmas, conjectures, theorems, and jokes from Matt in our dystopian future.
To help you recognize him in that future I had my computer generate this algorithmically age-enhanced photo of him (...yeah, yeah, I know, it looks surprisingly like Keith Devlin):



I could tell you even more about Matt, much more… but if I did he’d have to kill me.


(...anyway... seriously... buy the book)



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