4 ms·

Lame claim to fame: Higgs was the PhD supervisor of one of my university professors. He told us that Higgs left a message on his desk before going hiking one we

Lame claim to fame: Higgs was the PhD supervisor of one of my university professors. He told us that Higgs left a message on his desk before going hiking one weekend to the effect that he'd had a great idea and would tell them all about it when he got back.

ColinWright 3y ago
I wonder if he got the idea from Hardy, who before undertaking a journey on a very small boat sent a postcard saying he had proved the Riemann Hypothesis: Hardy stayed in Denmark with Bohr until the very end of the summer vacation, and when he was obliged to return to England to start his lectures there was only a very small boat available…. The North Sea can be pretty rough, and the probability that such a small boat would sink was not exactly zero. Still, Hardy took the boat, but sent a postcard to Bohr: “I proved the Riemann Hypothesis. G.H. Hardy.” If the boat sinks and Hardy drowns, everybody must believe that he has proved the Riemann Hypothesis. Yet God would not let Hardy have such a great honor and so He will not let the boat sink. -- https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~mcleod/Riemann/Hardy.html https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~mcleod/Riemann/Hardy.html
- anthony__j 3y ago
  haha, that's pretty clever. makes you wonder if fermat was doing a similar prank with his margins
  - ColinWright 3y ago
    It's generally believed that Fermat thought he had a proof, but probably almost immediately remembered that not everything is a Unique Factorization Domain, so the "obvious proof" fails. Then he didn't bother returning to correct the error. So no, probably not. (+) I should go and learn more about the specifics of this to make sure I'm relating it correctly. EDIT: (++) OK, here's what I was thinking about: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/953462/what-was-lames-proof https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/953462/what-was-lam... EDIT2: (++) Second link with similar details: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/324740/fermats-proof-of-his-last-theorem https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/324740/fermats-proo...
    - ducttapecrown 3y ago
      I just recently learned that the note in Fermat's margin was published posthumously by his son! So Fermat never necessarily publicly claimed to have a proof. So I would imagine you're absolutely correct.

ColinWright 3y ago

I wonder if he got the idea from Hardy, who before undertaking a journey on a very small boat sent a postcard saying he had proved the Riemann Hypothesis: Hardy stayed in Denmark with Bohr until the very end of the summer vacation, and when he was obliged to return to England to start his lectures there was only a very small boat available…. The North Sea can be pretty rough, and the probability that such a small boat would sink was not exactly zero. Still, Hardy took the boat, but sent a postcard to Bohr: “I proved the Riemann Hypothesis. G.H. Hardy.” If the boat sinks and Hardy drowns, everybody must believe that he has proved the Riemann Hypothesis. Yet God would not let Hardy have such a great honor and so He will not let the boat sink. -- https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~mcleod/Riemann/Hardy.html https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~mcleod/Riemann/Hardy.html

anthony__j 3y ago
haha, that's pretty clever. makes you wonder if fermat was doing a similar prank with his margins
- ColinWright 3y ago
  It's generally believed that Fermat thought he had a proof, but probably almost immediately remembered that not everything is a Unique Factorization Domain, so the "obvious proof" fails. Then he didn't bother returning to correct the error. So no, probably not. (+) I should go and learn more about the specifics of this to make sure I'm relating it correctly. EDIT: (++) OK, here's what I was thinking about: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/953462/what-was-lames-proof https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/953462/what-was-lam... EDIT2: (++) Second link with similar details: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/324740/fermats-proof-of-his-last-theorem https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/324740/fermats-proo...
  - ducttapecrown 3y ago
    I just recently learned that the note in Fermat's margin was published posthumously by his son! So Fermat never necessarily publicly claimed to have a proof. So I would imagine you're absolutely correct.