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A Math Genius Blooms Late and Conquers His Field

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Re: A Math Genius Blooms Late and Conquers His Field

#31

Post by vlasev »

davidcamel wrote: post #7

I majored in math in undergrad, and I always daydreamed about solving difficult mathematical problems despite a lack of formal training. I even had a teacher that I had to "pretend to understand". Seeing a real-world example of this fantasy come true is fascinating. The article was also surprisingly well-written; most mention of higher mathematics in the media is oversimplified to death, but this was an honest and ye…

For more such properties, check out this paper [1], section 1.5.

[1]: https://www.cs.elte.hu/blobs/diplomamunkak/mat/2009/hubai_ta...

Re: A Math Genius Blooms Late and Conquers His Field

#32

Post by cgag »

dlo wrote: post #14
vinhboy wrote: post #9

> his father taught statistics and his mother became one of the first professors of Russian literature in South Korea I notice that really talented people, always have talented parents. Rarely do I read stories about poor blue collar parents producing science wiz. It leads me to believe that genetics play a much bigger role in our intelligence than nurture.

> Rarely do I read stories about poor blue collar parents producing Princeton math wiz. Rare. But when it happens, it rocks the Earth. [1] [1] Richard Feynman

If you listen to him talk about his farther he sounds like he was very intelligent.

Re: A Math Genius Blooms Late and Conquers His Field

#33

Post by __mbm__ »

bmh100 wrote: post #4

I would just like to express my gratitude to [Kevin Hartnett]( https://www.wired.com/author/kevin-hartnett/ ) for making an enjoyable article that I could almost follow as a quantitatively minded programmer / non-mathematician. It makes sense saying that graphs are somehow a form of matroid. Even without knowing what a matroid is, I get a sense of the importance of spatial relationships.

Kevin wrote a blog post on this topic here: https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-tricky-translation-of-mat...

Re: A Math Genius Blooms Late and Conquers His Field

#34

Post by soVeryTired »

vlasev wrote: post #24

> "Every one of these graphs has a unique chromatic polynomial" This is incorrect. Two different graphs may have the same chromatic polynomial. For example, all trees of N vertices have the same chromatic polynomial: x(x-1)^(N-1)

I think they're trying to say that the graph uniquely determines the polynomial, rather than that the polynomial determines the graph. Or at least, that's how I read it. But I agree it's a bit ambiguous.

Re: A Math Genius Blooms Late and Conquers His Field

#35

Post by bradjohnson »

jacquesm wrote: post #23
vinhboy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you're right. I am obviously not that smart... Haha.. But to your point, Steve Jobs is an example of that. He had blue collar adoptive parents, but his birth parents were PhD level people. I am not gonna put my foot in my mouth again and say this is proof of anything, but it is interesting to me.

It's the nature vs nurture thing. It mostly boils down to 'a bit of both' and if you are really lucky in either department then you can still very well manage to succeed.

Just be born rich or well connected and you will have no need for silly things like talent!

Re: A Math Genius Blooms Late and Conquers His Field

#37

Post by vnchr »

ianai wrote: post #26
vnchr wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a traditional view in math that most great accomplishments are had before 30, based on past mathematicians' successes.

"and the truly great ones are dead before they're 40 so all old mathematicians must be worthless" I've heard that one, too. Doesn't make it beneficial to the field.

Agreed. Great to have a counterpoint in the subject of this article.

Re: A Math Genius Blooms Late and Conquers His Field

#38

Post by JadeNB »

davidcamel wrote: post #7

I majored in math in undergrad, and I always daydreamed about solving difficult mathematical problems despite a lack of formal training. I even had a teacher that I had to "pretend to understand". Seeing a real-world example of this fantasy come true is fascinating. The article was also surprisingly well-written; most mention of higher mathematics in the media is oversimplified to death, but this was an honest and ye…

That's neat! If you redundantly add an extra vertex (in its own component) whenever you glue, then you actually get h(x) = f(x)g(x). I wonder if there's some natural way of defining a multiplication of connected graphs so that you get equality on the nose?

Re: A Math Genius Blooms Late and Conquers His Field

#39

Post by JadeNB »

vlasev wrote: post #24

> "Every one of these graphs has a unique chromatic polynomial" This is incorrect. Two different graphs may have the same chromatic polynomial. For example, all trees of N vertices have the same chromatic polynomial: x(x-1)^(N-1)

> > "Every one of these graphs has a unique chromatic polynomial"

> This is incorrect. Two different graphs may have the same chromatic polynomial. For example, all trees of N vertices have the same chromatic polynomial: x(x-1)^(N-1)

As soverytired (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14697626) points out, you're refuting the claim that the graphs have distinct chromatic polynomials. To say that a graph has a unique chromatic polynomial means that it has only one, not that no other graph has the same one. (For example, (almost?) everyone has a unique biological mother.)

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