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FYI, the schoolboy is CF Gauss, early 19th century German mathematician who did... tons of stuff. (That's why so much in mathematics and physics is called "Gaus
by mikebenfield 10y ago
FYI, the schoolboy is CF Gauss, early 19th century German mathematician who did... tons of stuff. (That's why so much in mathematics and physics is called "Gauss" or "Gaussian.")
The graduate student was George Dantzig. While I think Dantzig is certainly an example of extraordinary natural talent, if your parent comment was looking for examples of talent manifesting itself before any training at all, I don't think this qualifies. As a grad student in math, Dantzig had already spent years studying mathematics by this point.
- dredmorbius 10y agoThanks, I suspected someone would provide the names. On Dantzig: there's training, and there's the capability to come on a problem cold, treat it as an ordinary exam question, and find a solution within a day or so, to something which had dogged the rest of the maths world for years or decades. I'm not denying that Dantzig had had formal training by this point. But he'd also accomplished in small time what others hadn't in big.
- hasenj 10y agoYet he exceeded hit professor and many experts in the field while he was still a student.