Why did Hardy write a mathematicians apology?
Hardy wrote down his apology, in an attempt to justify his life as a mathematician: is the work that a man does during his life worth doing, and why does he do it? All great mathematicians achieved their main results at a young age, and they either died young or did something else later in life.
What is the main argument between Hardy and Ramanujan?
Hardy argued that in mathematics one’s best work is done at a young age. He held the view that had Ramanujan lived longer, he would have discovered more theorems, but not results of greater originality.
What did GH Hardy discover?
In 1908, Hardy published a paper in Science that changed the field of population genetics, entitled “Mendelian Proportions in a Mixed Population”. The findings were later known as the Hardy-Weinberg Law (Equilibrium) because the same principle was published by Wilhelm Weinberg in the same year [4].
Did GH Hardy believe in God?
Hardy was an atheist, and makes his justification not to God but to his fellow man.
Who is the greatest mathematician alive?
Terence Tao
Terence Tao Tao is arguably the greatest living mathematician, and has been called the greatest mathematician of his generation.
Who found maths first?
The earliest evidence of written mathematics dates back to the ancient Sumerians, who built the earliest civilization in Mesopotamia. They developed a complex system of metrology from 3000 BC.
Who are some famous mathematicians who have apologized?
Back A Mathematician’s Apology A Mathematician’s Apology (Canto Classics) G. H. Hardy A Mathematicians Apology A Mathematician’s Apology The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth Fermat’s Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World’s Greatest Mathematical Problem
Is the book a mathematician’s apology worth reading?
But these are qualms with the publisher not the book. It’s a nice piece of mathematical history and should be read by anyone who wants to culture themselves. Much easier read than Hardy’s book on Number Theory anyway…. (though inevitably less interesting). Hardy’s work speaks for itself, but this edition lets it down.
What was the main theme of a mathematician’s apology?
One of the main themes of the book is the beauty that mathematics possesses, which Hardy compares to painting and poetry. For Hardy, the most beautiful mathematics was that which had no practical applications in the outside world ( pure mathematics) and, in particular, his own special field of number theory.
When did Graham Greene write a mathematician’s apology?
This ‘apology’, written in 1940 as his mathematical powers were declining, offers a brilliant and engaging account of mathematics as very much more than a science; when it was first published, Graham Greene hailed it alongside Henry James’s notebooks as ‘the best account of what it was like to be a creative artist’. C. P.