Bill Gosper <billgosper@gmail.com> wrote:
DanA>RWG wrote:
<< Martin was intrigued by [Robert] Ammann's constantly shifting return address, and repeatedly requested some biographical data. Ammann finally replied that he was a parking lot attendant. Uh-huh.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ammann > Apparently he was a very smart guy who didn't have professional training.
Another such story with Marjorie Rice: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Rice >. There's something about tiling.
--Dan -------------------------- There's a nice segment on Rice in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAGKzFDxmUA . (Or maybe part 5. I don't have the bandwidth to check.)
Following the Ammann Wiki Amateur Mathematicians link leads to: In 1876, [President-to-be James A.] Garfield discovered a novel proof[41] of the Pythagorean Theorem using a trapezoid while serving as a member of the House of Representatives.[42]
I wonder what that idiot assassin deprived us of. --rwg Garfield's proof of the Pythagorean theorem was in my geometry book in high school. I wonder why later presidents didn't follow his example and put in a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem?