Abstract
Peter Ratener, mathematics professor at Bellevue Community College in Washington State, once told me that while interviewing prospective candidates for staff positions within the department, he liked to ask them to name their favorite 20th century mathematician. In most cases, he was disappointed to report, the candidates simply stared at him, unable to think of a single modern mathematician. If we take a moment to consider this reaction, we will see just how astounding it is. How many graduates with a master’s degree in American Literature would not be able to name a single 20th century author? How many psychology graduates would be unable to mention Freud or Jung? Yet, incredible as it is, mathematics graduates from American universities are nearly blind to the identities of modern mathematicians. This situation has come about because we have successfully stripped all cultural identifiers from our mathematical knowledge.
The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive.
Henry David Thoreau
Walden1
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End Notes
Henry David Thoreau, Waiden (CD: DeskTop BookShop) (Indianapolis: WeMake CDs, Inc., 1994).
Robert Kanigel, The Man Who Knew Infinity (New York: Charles Scribner ’s Sons, 1991), p. 11.
Ibid,p. 71.
Ibid, p. 86.
Bruce C. Berndt, Ramanujan’s Notebooks, Vol. I (New York: Springer Verlag, 1985), p. 2.
Ibid, p. 4.
Robert Kanigel, The Man Who Knew Infinity, p. 203.
James R. Newman, ed., The World of Mathematics, Vol. 1 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956), pp. 371–372.
G. H. Hardy, A Course of Pure Mathematics (London: Cambridge University Press, 1963);
G.H. Hardy and E.M. Wright, An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979).
0James R. Newman, ed., The World of Mathematics, p. 2029.
Robert Kanigel, The Man Who Knew Infinity, p. 347.
James R. Newman, ed., The World of Mathematics, p. 2038.
Ibid, pp. 2027–2029.
Jerry P. King, The Art of Mathematics (New York: Plenum Press, 1992), p. 29.
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© 1996 Calvin C. Clawson
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Clawson, C.C. (1996). The Remarkable Ramanujan. In: Mathematical Mysteries. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6080-1_11
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