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This is great. The only nitpicky thing I have is this line: This new proof was created by a friend of mine called Stanley Tennenbaum, who has since dropped out

This is great. The only nitpicky thing I have is this line: This new proof was created by a friend of mine called Stanley Tennenbaum, who has since dropped out of mathematics. There's kind of a snobbery in mathematics that goes along the lines of Pure Mathematics > Applicable Math > Applied Math > Programming the Math. Theoretical Comp Sci falls somewhere around Applicable. Why is it that he "dropped out of mathematics" and not "decided he liked [whatever he does now]"? Otherwise, a great read. Math is so much cooler than high school calculus drills make it seem.

deleted 15y ago
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dvanduzer 15y ago
Do a little more research on Stanley Tennenbaum. This discovery happened around the 1950s. Tennenbaum didn't drop out of mathematics so much as he dropped out of institutional mathematics. More here, including a post from one of his children in the comments: http://divisbyzero.com/2009/10/06/tennenbaums-proof-of-the-irrationality-of-the-square-root-of-2/ http://divisbyzero.com/2009/10/06/tennenbaums-proof-of-the-i... Stanley's up in heaven now.
hyperbovine 15y ago
That's ironic because John Conway does a lot of applied math. I think he might have just been explaining why the audience did not know the name. Mathematics is still a relatively small field.
- kevinalexbrown 15y ago
  Oh yeah, Game of Life and all that. Oops, thanks for pointing that out.
ionfish 15y ago
I should probably point out that snobbery is very far from the actual attitude towards Tennenbaum, at least as far as logicians are concerned. For example, in 2006 there was a conference organised to celebrate his contribution to mathematical logic. http://mamls.org/Tennenbaum http://mamls.org/Tennenbaum I recently attended a workshop devoted entirely to Tennenbaum's Theorem, his famous result that the only recursive model of PA is the standard model. http://www.bbk.ac.uk/philosophy/our-research/ppp/tennenbaumposterfinal.pdf http://www.bbk.ac.uk/philosophy/our-research/ppp/tennenbaump...

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

dvanduzer 15y ago

Do a little more research on Stanley Tennenbaum. This discovery happened around the 1950s. Tennenbaum didn't drop out of mathematics so much as he dropped out of institutional mathematics. More here, including a post from one of his children in the comments: http://divisbyzero.com/2009/10/06/tennenbaums-proof-of-the-irrationality-of-the-square-root-of-2/ http://divisbyzero.com/2009/10/06/tennenbaums-proof-of-the-i... Stanley's up in heaven now.

hyperbovine 15y ago

That's ironic because John Conway does a lot of applied math. I think he might have just been explaining why the audience did not know the name. Mathematics is still a relatively small field.

kevinalexbrown 15y ago
Oh yeah, Game of Life and all that. Oops, thanks for pointing that out.

ionfish 15y ago

I should probably point out that snobbery is very far from the actual attitude towards Tennenbaum, at least as far as logicians are concerned. For example, in 2006 there was a conference organised to celebrate his contribution to mathematical logic. http://mamls.org/Tennenbaum http://mamls.org/Tennenbaum I recently attended a workshop devoted entirely to Tennenbaum's Theorem, his famous result that the only recursive model of PA is the standard model. http://www.bbk.ac.uk/philosophy/our-research/ppp/tennenbaumposterfinal.pdf http://www.bbk.ac.uk/philosophy/our-research/ppp/tennenbaump...