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How to turn every child into a “math person”
- lutusp 12y agoTitle beneath picture of Einstein: "The original math person." Well, perhaps from the outlook of the public, but math was never Einstein's primary talent. Remember that Einstein wrote t' = t/√(1-v^2/c^2) to describe time dilation, without realizing this strongly implied that space and time occupied different dimensions. That interpretation was crafted by Einstein's math teacher Minkowski, after which Einstein said, "Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself anymore". As to Einstein being seen as highly mathematical, I guess it's all relative.
- abecedarius 12y agoOTOH his key contribution to special relativity, so I gather, was the axiomatic approach. Others like Lorentz had worked out most of the formulas already by finding some tractable-enough assumptions about electrons and atoms; Einstein went back to the style of Euclid and Archimedes: what if we postulate a few simple laws and draw out consequences? Back to the article's topic, Einstein wrote that Euclid was a revelation to him when he was 11 or so. (I forget exactly; it was in the intro to his book Relativity.)
- mturmon 12y agoThat list of Math Olympiad top-scorers is interesting. I notice Peter Shor at #3, and Jim Propp ("coupling from the past") at #5. Wow.