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

[Wilson Gray]

So that's how that Christmas plant got its name!

-Wilson

On 5/9/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: OT: Mathematics [was: The hoard speaks -- or writes?]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
> >or to Leonhard
> >Euler. (The full name of what Moore taught you, I presume, is "point-set
> >topology", which is the underpinning of all of the other varieties of the
> >subject. Moore didn't invent that either.)
> >
> >As for good mathematicians who were also proficient calculators, I'd put
> >forward John von Neumann as a notable example.
>
> But he had ENIAC and EDVAC to help him.
>
> >We now return you to your regularly-scheduled discussion of
> >linguistics.
> >
> >Jim Parish
>
> Joel
>
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