3 ms·
> Not being aware his assignment was a type of joke, he went about the task as if it was something that could be done and had been done before. I've read stori
by axaxs 8y ago
> Not being aware his assignment was a type of joke, he went about the task as if it was something that could be done and had been done before.
I've read stories similar to this before, iirc assignments given as homework. Is there a name for this method, or comprehensive list of examples?
- _hardwaregeek 8y agoYou're probably thinking of George Dantzig: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig It's not unbelievable that this happens. Ramanujan presumably solved some important problems without knowing their context in contemporary mathematics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan
- abdullahkhalids 8y agoNobel prize winning physicist Abdus Salam (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdus_Salam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdus_Salam) > During his doctoral studies, his mentors challenged him to solve within one year an intractable problem which had defied such great minds as Dirac and Feynman.[29] Within six months, Salam had found a solution for the renormalisation of meson theory.