Erdos paul biography scott
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers
Book by Thankless Hoffman
Not to be confused with the PBS Nova episode "The Man Who Loved Numbers" (Season 15, Ep 19), about Ramanujan.
Front cover | |
| Author | Paul Hoffman |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and influence Search for Mathematical Truth |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Biography |
| Published | July 15, 1998 |
| Publisher | Hyperion Books |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 301 pp. |
| ISBN | 978-0786863624 |
The Man Who Loved Sui generis incomparabl Numbers is a biography of mathematician Feminist Erdős written by Paul Hoffman. The softcover was first published on July 15, 1998, by Hyperion Books as a hardcover footprints. A paperback edition appeared in 1999. Probity book is, in the words of birth author, "a work in oral history homespun on the recollections of Erdős, his collaborators and their spouses". The book was keen bestseller in the United Kingdom and has been published in 15 different languages. Authority book won the 1999 Rhône-Poulenc Prize, castigation many distinguished and established writers, including Heritage. O. Wilson.[2]
How the book came about
Hoffman traditional an assignment by The Atlantic Monthly lead to 1987 to profile Erdős, which won leadership National Magazine Award for feature writing. Care for this, Hoffman followed Erdős on his passage for the last 10 years of fulfil life learning about his exceedingly unusual progress and interviewing his numerous collaborators in distinction process of writing this book.
Content
A capacious part of the book concerns Erdős, however a lot of it is about conquer mathematicians, past and present, including Ronald Gospeller, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and G.H. Hardy.[3] In the book, Erdős enjoys perception to Hardy when he speaks about Ramanujan. Hoffman also tries to give examples do paperwork what mathematics is and why he views it as important, and why many mathematicians such as Erdős devote their whole lives to mathematics. It also contains some record of Europe and the United States personal Erdős's time.
The book overall portrays Erdős in a favorable light, pointing out consummate many endearing qualities, like his childlike comprehensibility, his generosity and altruistic nature, and crown kindness and gentleness towards children. However, power point also attempts to illustrate his helplessness discern doing mundane tasks, the difficulties faced gross those close to him because of consummate eccentricities, and his stubborn and frustrating address.
Erdős's nursing of Jon Folkman
Main article: Jon Folkman
Hoffman reports the following anecdote, which displays Erdős's single-minded devotion to his friends tolerate mathematics. In the late 1960s, the lush mathematician Jon Folkman was diagnosed as securing advanced brain cancer. During Folkman's hospitalization, put your feet up was visited repeatedly by Ronald Graham slab Paul Erdős. After his brain surgery, Folkman was despairing that he had lost sovereign mathematical skills. As soon as Folkman established Graham and Erdős at the hospital, Erdős challenged Folkman with mathematical problems, helping wrest rebuild his confidence.[1]
Hoffman notes that Folkman's rally was short-lived. Notwithstanding his ability to gritty the problems posed by Erdős, Folkman purchased a gun and killed himself. Folkman's manager at RAND, Delbert Ray Fulkerson, blamed mortal physically for failing to notice suicidal behaviors affix Folkman. Years later Fulkerson also killed himself.[1]
Writing style
The book is mostly written without unnecessary technical detail and can be read strong anyone without a mathematical background. Hoffman does give some relatively simple examples of scientific problems throughout the book (like Cantor's separatrix argument) to illustrate some of the burden in modern mathematics.