Prove or Disprove

John Allen Paulos, from his older volume, “Once Upon a Number”:

“The joke about the mathematics professor who gave a test consisting of four problems is apt. The first three problems required proofs of theorems and the last one was a statement prefaced with the directions ‘prove or disprove.’ One student toiled for a while and then came up to the professor’s desk and asked, ‘On that last problem, do you want me to prove it or disprove it?’ The professor responded, ‘Whichever is the right thing to do.’ ‘Oh,’ replied the student, ‘I can do either one. I was just asking which one you preferred.’ The interchange, of course, would not be a joke if the subject were history or literature.”

Sunday Reflection, er uhh, Chuckle

I was reading some old John Allen Paulos this week, and these two gems popped out at me... not mathy, but too good not to pass along:

"...two clergymen discussing the sad state of sexual morality.
"'I didn't sleep with my wife before we were married,'  one of them declared self-righteously. 'Did you?'
"'I'm not sure,' said the other. 'What was her maiden name?'"

...and, quite different, (but on the very same page) this:

"What is a question that contains the word cantaloupe for no apparent reason?"

;-)
-- all from John's book "Beyond Numeracy"


[p.s. -- please visit MathTango today for a new Math-Frolic Interview!]

Embracing Contingencies...

Sunday reflection:

I'd feel remiss if I failed to share with you these profound sentences ;-) from mathematician John Allen Paulos in his latest book/memoir, "A Numerate Life" (reviewed over at MathTango today):

  "We tend to think we've arrived at our present station [in life] largely by dint of determination and hard work, but as my father used to say, we're all just farts in a windstorm. Less graphically put, we're all parts of various systems -- familial, professional, societal -- and these systems impact on us and direct our paths as if we were pinballs whirling through the quincunx of life. Nevertheless, we should heed the aforementioned title of Benjamin Franklin's essay, 'Fart Proudly.' That is, we should embrace our contingency even when it's unpleasant."

Timely...

In response to recent news, mathematician John Allen Paulos has tweeted a link to this "old, still relevant piece of mine on privacy, terrorists, and Bayes"…:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WhosCounting/story?id=97755&page=1#.UbM5wOtHlo7

Perhaps, the key sentence:

"....the fact remains that since almost all people are innocent, the overwhelming majority of the people rounded up using any set of reasonable criteria will be innocent."

Congratulations! John Allen Paulos

 Author and Temple University professor John Allen Paulos, author of "Innumeracy" (a favorite of mine) as well as several other books and writings, was awarded the 2013 Math Communicators Award given out by a joint group of mathematical societies recently (he'll actually receive it Jan. 10, 2013):

http://math.mit.edu/mathcomm/archives/john-allen-paulos-to-receive-math-communications-award/

The very illustrious list of past winners is here:

http://www.maa.org/awards/jpbm.html

Paulos won a similar award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science back in 2003.