OT: Mathematics [was: The hoard speaks -- or writes?]

[Laurence Horn]

>At 5/9/2007 09:39 AM, Jim Parish wrote:
>>Charles Doyle wrote:
>>>  Back when I was studying mathematics at the University of Texas in the
>>>  1960s, my aged mentor, Robert Lee Moore (inventor of what's now
>>>  called topology; he called it point-set theory) used to proclaim that
>>>  he'd known only one good mathematician who was also a proficient
>>>  calculator, and that individual was ashamed of the fact.
>>
>>Erm. Speaking as a professional mathematician and sometime teacher
>>of the history of mathematics: though an important figure in his own
>>right, R. L. Moore did not invent topology; credit for that, depending on
>>how you define the field, goes either to Henri Poincare
>
>which is why it is called poin-set topology
>
Poin-set match!  (This is why it's called topology.)

LH

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