The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015)

#11

Post by tehlike » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 8:00 AM UTC

underwoodley wrote: post #5

koube wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Hungarian math so forward looking but not the other subjects? Is Hungary especially good at math?

It's difficult to generalize, but by pretty much any metric you choose Hungary produced a massively disproportionate share of the outstanding mathematicians of the twentieth century.

can you give couple examples that are most prominent?

Re: The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015)

#12

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 8:04 AM UTC

tehlike wrote: post #11

underwoodley wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's difficult to generalize, but by pretty much any metric you choose Hungary produced a massively disproportionate share of the outstanding mathematicians of the twentieth century.

can you give couple examples that are most prominent?

[deleted]

Re: The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015)

#13

Post by jonsen » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 8:06 AM UTC

Math is much more than what I was taught in school. I discovered that as a child when stumbling upon this Hungarian math book at the local library:

https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Infinity-Dover-Books-Mathemat...

Re: The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015)

#14

Post by richchurcher » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 8:07 AM UTC

tehlike wrote: post #11

underwoodley wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's difficult to generalize, but by pretty much any metric you choose Hungary produced a massively disproportionate share of the outstanding mathematicians of the twentieth century.

can you give couple examples that are most prominent?

Would Paul Erdős be the most famous? There's even a Wikipedia subcategory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:20th-century_Hungaria....

Re: The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015)

#15

Post by niftich » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 8:07 AM UTC

tehlike wrote: post #11

underwoodley wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's difficult to generalize, but by pretty much any metric you choose Hungary produced a massively disproportionate share of the outstanding mathematicians of the twentieth century.

can you give couple examples that are most prominent?

János Bolyai [1], Theodore von Kármán [2], Leo Szilard [3], Dennis Gabor [4], Edward Teller [5], Paul Erdős [6], John von Neumann [7].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_Bolyai [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_von_Kármán [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gabor [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann

Re: The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015)

#16

Post by moab » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 8:08 AM UTC

tehlike wrote: post #11

underwoodley wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's difficult to generalize, but by pretty much any metric you choose Hungary produced a massively disproportionate share of the outstanding mathematicians of the twentieth century.

can you give couple examples that are most prominent?

http://www.jurisich-koszeg.sulinet.hu/files/projekt/science/...

The first 5 pages have names that are attached to lots and lots of theorems (disproportionately in combinatorics).

Re: The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015)

#17

Post by tehlike » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 8:18 AM UTC

niftich wrote: post #15

tehlike wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you give couple examples that are most prominent?

János Bolyai [1], Theodore von Kármán [2], Leo Szilard [3], Dennis Gabor [4], Edward Teller [5], Paul Erdős [6], John von Neumann [7]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_Bolyai [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_von_Kármán [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gabor [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul…

I am curious if it's because they are hungarian, or because they are jewish. Jews pay particular attention to science and arts, from what I gather from my jewish friends. Nobel laureates, for example, have disproportionate amount of jewish among them (compared to jewish population as a percentage of world population).

Re: The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015)

#18

Post by AJRF » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 8:19 AM UTC

I'm not "bad" at math per se, but would there be much benefit in going from the ground up learning in the Hungarian form?

I guess you could blow through the first 7~10 years of schooling in less than a year of dedicated study, but teaching yourself just up to before college level would take you a few years, right?

Is there any online courses that have this content?

Re: The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015)

#19

Post by patkai » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 8:35 AM UTC

niftich wrote: post #15

tehlike wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you give couple examples that are most prominent?

János Bolyai [1], Theodore von Kármán [2], Leo Szilard [3], Dennis Gabor [4], Edward Teller [5], Paul Erdős [6], John von Neumann [7]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_Bolyai [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_von_Kármán [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gabor [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul…

I would add Eugene Wigner, also Nobel laureate.

Re: The Hungarian Approach and How It Fits the American Educational Landscape (2015)

#20

Post by underwoodley » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 8:37 AM UTC

niftich wrote: post #15

tehlike wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you give couple examples that are most prominent?

János Bolyai [1], Theodore von Kármán [2], Leo Szilard [3], Dennis Gabor [4], Edward Teller [5], Paul Erdős [6], John von Neumann [7]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_Bolyai [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_von_Kármán [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gabor [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul…

Also Fejér, Turán, Rényi, F. Riesz and M. Riesz, Bollobás