Paul Erdős
Paul Erdős (Hungarian: Erdős Pál [ˈɛrdøːʃ ˈpaːl]; 26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician.
Contents
Biography
Erdős pursued problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory.
He was one of the most prolific mathematicians of the 20th century.
He was known both for his social practice of mathematics (he engaged more than 500 collaborators) and for his eccentric lifestyle (Time magazine called him The Oddball's Oddball).
The Book
Although an agnostic atheist, he spoke of "The Book", a book of mathematical proofs in which God had written down mathematical beauty.
Lecturing in 1985 he said, "You don't have to believe in God, but you should believe in The Book."
He himself doubted the existence of God, whom he called the "Supreme Fascist" (SF). He accused SF of hiding his socks and Hungarian passports, and of keeping the most elegant mathematical proofs to Himself.
When he saw a particularly beautiful mathematical proof he would exclaim, "This one's from The Book!" This later inspired a book titled Proofs from the Book.
See also
External links
- Paul Erdős @ Wikipedia
- Paul Erdős' FBI file @ Boing Boing
