Friday, September 24, 2010

Paul Erdos

head of Paul Erdös, Budapest fall 1992Image via Wikipedia

A documentary portrait of the amazing Paul Erdos (1913-1996) via YouTube clips here:

http://tinyurl.com/2f2776n

To this day Erdos is the most published mathematician of all time. He was well-known as a traveling math vagabond who would simply hang out with colleagues he had all over the world, after showing up on their doorstep and announcing, "My brain is open," essentially meaning 'hey, let's do some math!' And yet despite many award-winning accomplishments in several math fields he was initially flummoxed by the well-known 'Monty Hall problem.' A fascinating character, whose likes we may never see again.

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