4 ms·

The taxi cab story is easily a top-5 math story, and is quintessential Ramanujan. Has there been a genius of his kind since? Maybe Terry Tao, but his work also

The taxi cab story is easily a top-5 math story, and is quintessential Ramanujan. Has there been a genius of his kind since? Maybe Terry Tao, but his work also lacks the ease and lack of machinery that Ramanujan had. Truly amazing.

rq1 7y ago
Yes definitely: Alexandre Grothendieck. And Terrence Tao can’t sit at his table (yet?). But honestly it’s kind of a silly game to rank mathematicians this way.
- solveit 7y ago
  Grothendieck and lack of machinery do not belong in the same sentence. But yes, it is kind of silly.
  - JadeNB 7y ago
    > Grothendieck and lack of machinery do not belong in the same sentence. They most certainly do! Grothendieck’s work is heavy on definitions, but the essence of his work is that the right definitions obviate (and are seen to be right because they obviate) the need for heavy machinery. See the famous quote, taken from Wikipedia (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Grothendieck#Quotes_by_Grothendieck https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Grothendieck#Quotes_...) because that’s the first place I found it: > I can illustrate the ... approach with the ... image of a nut to be opened. The first analogy that came to my mind is of immersing the nut in some softening liquid, and why not simply water? From time to time you rub so the liquid penetrates better, and otherwise you let time pass. The shell becomes more flexible through weeks and months — when the time is ripe, hand pressure is enough, the shell opens like a perfectly ripened avocado! A different image came to me a few weeks ago. The unknown thing to be known appeared to me as some stretch of earth or hard marl, resisting penetration ... the sea advances insensibly in silence, nothing seems to happen, nothing moves, the water is so far off you hardly hear it ... yet finally it surrounds the resistant substance.
    - solveit 7y ago
      I mean, we're arguing semantics at this point, but these definitions we're talking about are things like schemes, which pretty much everybody would call heavy machinery.
QuesnayJr 7y ago
There have been lots. Twenty? Thirty? A hundred? It was a good century plus for mathematical genius.
mindcrime 7y ago
Has there been a genius of his kind since? Maybe Terry Tao, but his work also lacks the ease and lack of machinery that Ramanujan had. Truly amazing. It's hard to compare mathematicians, but I suppose Erdős[1] would be in the conversation. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s
pmoriarty 7y ago
What are the other 4 top math stories? For me one of them has to be of Évariste Galois[1], who, legend has it, hastily wrote fragments of his last mathematical discoveries on his shirt sleeves before fighting the duel that would end his life. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89variste_Galois https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89variste_Galois
- dboreham 7y ago
  Fun mathematical tourism stop: go up to the top of the Tour Montparnasse. Look straight down. Galois is buried in the cemetery below. Nobody knows where, but he's down there somewhere.
- madcaptenor 7y ago
  My understanding is that this legend has been debunked, but ironically I can't find a source. (My instinct is to blame E. T. Bell.)
amrx431 7y ago
I am surprised no one in including Gauss.
- mindcrime 7y ago
  Didn't Gauss live and die before Ramanujan was born?
lvncelot 7y ago
John von Neumann is someone that often comes up in this context - there are numerous anecdotes on how he was perceived as frightingly clever; also his body of work is beyond impressive.

rq1 7y ago

Yes definitely: Alexandre Grothendieck. And Terrence Tao can’t sit at his table (yet?). But honestly it’s kind of a silly game to rank mathematicians this way.

solveit 7y ago
Grothendieck and lack of machinery do not belong in the same sentence. But yes, it is kind of silly.
- JadeNB 7y ago
  > Grothendieck and lack of machinery do not belong in the same sentence. They most certainly do! Grothendieck’s work is heavy on definitions, but the essence of his work is that the right definitions obviate (and are seen to be right because they obviate) the need for heavy machinery. See the famous quote, taken from Wikipedia (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Grothendieck#Quotes_by_Grothendieck https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Grothendieck#Quotes_...) because that’s the first place I found it: > I can illustrate the ... approach with the ... image of a nut to be opened. The first analogy that came to my mind is of immersing the nut in some softening liquid, and why not simply water? From time to time you rub so the liquid penetrates better, and otherwise you let time pass. The shell becomes more flexible through weeks and months — when the time is ripe, hand pressure is enough, the shell opens like a perfectly ripened avocado! A different image came to me a few weeks ago. The unknown thing to be known appeared to me as some stretch of earth or hard marl, resisting penetration ... the sea advances insensibly in silence, nothing seems to happen, nothing moves, the water is so far off you hardly hear it ... yet finally it surrounds the resistant substance.
  - solveit 7y ago
    I mean, we're arguing semantics at this point, but these definitions we're talking about are things like schemes, which pretty much everybody would call heavy machinery.

QuesnayJr 7y ago

There have been lots. Twenty? Thirty? A hundred? It was a good century plus for mathematical genius.

mindcrime 7y ago

Has there been a genius of his kind since? Maybe Terry Tao, but his work also lacks the ease and lack of machinery that Ramanujan had. Truly amazing. It's hard to compare mathematicians, but I suppose Erdős[1] would be in the conversation. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s

pmoriarty 7y ago

What are the other 4 top math stories? For me one of them has to be of Évariste Galois[1], who, legend has it, hastily wrote fragments of his last mathematical discoveries on his shirt sleeves before fighting the duel that would end his life. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89variste_Galois https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89variste_Galois

dboreham 7y ago
Fun mathematical tourism stop: go up to the top of the Tour Montparnasse. Look straight down. Galois is buried in the cemetery below. Nobody knows where, but he's down there somewhere.
madcaptenor 7y ago
My understanding is that this legend has been debunked, but ironically I can't find a source. (My instinct is to blame E. T. Bell.)

amrx431 7y ago

I am surprised no one in including Gauss.

mindcrime 7y ago
Didn't Gauss live and die before Ramanujan was born?

lvncelot 7y ago

John von Neumann is someone that often comes up in this context - there are numerous anecdotes on how he was perceived as frightingly clever; also his body of work is beyond impressive.