Rudi Mathematici x4-8.212x3+25.286.894x2-34.603.963.748x+17.756.354.226.585 =0 Rudi Mathematici January 1 S (1894) Satyendranath BOSE Putnam 1996 - A1 (1878) Agner Krarup ERLANG (1912) Boris GNEDENKO Find the least number A such that for any two (1803) Guglielmo LIBRI Carucci dalla Sommaja RM132 squares of combined area 1, a rectangle of 2 S (1822) Rudolf Julius Emmanuel CLAUSIUS area A exists such that the two squares can be (1938) Anatoly SAMOILENKO packed in the rectangle (without interior (1905) Lev Genrichovich SHNIRELMAN overlap). You may assume that the sides of 1 3 M (1917) Yuri Alexeievich MITROPOLSKY the squares are parallel to the sides of the rectangle. 4 T (1643) Isaac NEWTON RM071 5 W (1871) Federigo ENRIQUES RM084 Math pickup lines (1871) Gino FANO (1838) Marie Ennemond Camille JORDAN My love for you is a monotonically increasing 6 T (1807) Jozeph Mitza PETZVAL unbounded function. (1841) Rudolf STURM MathJokes4MathyFolks 7 F (1871) Felix Edouard Justin Emile BOREL (1907) Raymond Edward Alan Christopher PALEY Ten percent of all car thieves are left-handed. 8 S (1924) Paul Moritz COHN All polar bears are left-handed. (1888) Richard COURANT If your car is stolen, there’s a 10% chance it (1942) Stephen William HAWKING was taken by a polar bear. 9 S (1864) Vladimir Adreievich STEKLOV The description of right lines and circles, upon 2 10 M (1905) Ruth MOUFANG which geometry is founded, belongs to (1875) Issai SCHUR mechanics. Geometry does not teach us to 11 T (1545) Guidobaldo DEL MONTE RM120 draw these lines, but requires them to be (1734) Achille Pierre Dionis DU SEJOUR drawn. (1707) Vincenzo RICCATI Isaac NEWTON 12 W (1906) Kurt August HIRSCH 13 T (1876) Luther Pfahler EISENHART (1876) Erhard SCHMIDT Mathematics is a game played according to (1864) Wilhelm Karl Werner Otto Fritz Franz WIEN certain simple rules with meaningless marks 14 F (1902) Alfred TARSKI RM096 on paper. 15 S (1704) Johann CASTILLON Physics is becoming too difficult for the (1850) Sofia Vasilievna KOVALEVSKAJA physicists. (1717) Mattew STEWART David HILBERT 16 S (1801) Thomas KLAUSEN 3 17 M (1858) Gabriel KOENIGS (1847) Nikolay Egorovich ZUKOWSKY What I tell you three times is true. 18 T (1856) Luigi BIANCHI Charles Lutwidge DOGSON (1880) Paul EHRENFEST 19 W (1813) Rudolf Friedrich Alfred CLEBSCH If you are afraid of something, measure it, and (1879) Guido FUBINI you will realize it is a mere triple. (1908) Aleksandr Gennadievich KUROSH 20 T (1775) André Marie AMPÈRE Renato CACCIOPPOLI (1904) Renato CACCIOPPOLI RM072 (1895) Gabor SZEGŐ Probabilities must be regarded as analogous to 21 F (1915) Yuri Vladimirovich LINNIK the measurement of physical magnitudes: they (1846) Pieter Hendrik SCHOUTE can never be known exactly, but only within 22 S (1592) Pierre GASSENDI certain approximation. (1908) Lev Davidovich LANDAU RM063 23 S (1840) Ernst ABBE Emile BOREL (1862) David HILBERT RM060 4 24 M (1891) Abram Samoilovitch BESICOVITCH God not only plays dice. He also sometimes (1914) Vladimir Petrovich POTAPOV throws the dice where they cannot be seen. 25 T (1627) Robert BOYLE Stephen HAWKING (1736) Joseph-Louis LAGRANGE RM048 (1843) Karl Hermann Amandus SCHWARZ 26 W (1799) Benoît Paul Émile CLAPEYRON The proof of the Hilbert Basis Theorem is not 27 T (1832) Charles Lutwidge DODGSON RM108 mathematics: it is theology. 28 F (1892) Carlo Emilio BONFERRONI Camille JORDAN (1701) Charles Marie de LA CONDAMINE 29 S (1888) Sidney CHAPMAN (1817) William FERREL A mathematician’s reputation rests on the 30 S (1619) Michelangelo RICCI number of bad proofs he has given. 5 31 M (1715) Giovanni Francesco FAGNANO dei Toschi Abram BESICOVITCH (1896) Sofia Alexandrovna JANOWSKAJA (1841) Samuel LOYD www.rudimathematici.com Rudi Mathematici February 1 T (1900) John Charles BURKILL Putnam 1996 - A2 2 W (1522) Lodovico FERRARI Let C and C be circles whose centers are 10 3 T (1893) Gaston Maurice JULIA RM073 1 2 4 F (1905) Eric Cristopher ZEEMAN units apart, and whose radii are 1 and 3. Find, with proof, the locus of all points M for 5 S (1757) Jean Marie Constant DUHAMEL 6 S (1612) Antoine ARNAULD which there exists points X on C1 and Y on (1695) Nicolaus (II) BERNOULLI RM093 such that M is the midpoint of the line C2 (1465) Scipione DEL FERRO RM064 segment XY. 6 7 M (1883) Eric Temple BELL (1877) Godfried Harold HARDY RM049 Math pickup lines 8 T (1700) Daniel BERNOULLI RM093 You are the solution to my homogeneous (1875) Francis Ysidro EDGEWORTH system of linear equations. (1928) Ennio DE GIORGI RM133 9 W (1775) Farkas Wolfgang BOLYAI MathJokes4MathyFolks (1907) Harold Scott MacDonald COXETER RM097 Every second, 4,000 cans are opened around 10 T (1747) AIDA Yasuaki RM121 the world. 11 F (1839) Josiah Willard GIBBS Every second, ten babies are conceived around (1915) Richard Wesley HAMMING the world. (1800) William Henry Fox TALBOT Therefore, each time you open a can, you have 12 S (1914) Hanna CAEMMERER NEUMANN a 1 in 400 chance of becoming pregnant. 13 S (1805) Johann Peter Gustav LEJEUNE DIRICHLET Technical skill is mastery of complexity while 7 14 M (1849) Hermann HANKEL creativity is mastery of simplicity. (1896) Edward Artur MILNE Eric Christopher ZEEMAN (1468) Johann WERNER 15 T (1564) Galileo GALILEI RM085 (1946) Douglas HOFSTADTER No Roman ever died in contemplation over a (1861) Alfred North WHITEHEAD geometrical diagram. 16 W (1822) Francis GALTON Alfred North WHITEHEAD (1853) Gregorio RICCI-CURBASTRO (1903) Beniamino SEGRE 17 T (1890) Sir Ronald Aylmer FISHER Suppose a contradiction were to be found in (1891) Adolf Abraham Halevi FRAENKEL the axioms of set theory. Do you seriously 18 F (1404) Leon Battista ALBERTI believe that a bridge would fall down? (1919) Clifford TRUESDELL Frank Plumpton RAMSEY 19 S (1473) Nicolaus COPERNICUS 20 S (1844) Ludwig BOLTZMANN RM061 8 21 M (1591) Girard DESARGUES Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so (1915) Evgeny Michailovich LIFSHITZ much, is one of a mathematician’s finest 22 T (1903) Frank Plumpton RAMSEY weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any 23 W (1951) Shigefumi MORI chess play: a chess player may offer the (1583) Jean-Baptiste MORIN sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game. 24 T (1871) Felix BERNSTEIN 25 F (1827) Henry WATSON Godfried HARDY 26 S (1786) Dominique Francois Jean ARAGO 27 S (1881) Luitzen Egbertus Jan BROUWER It would be better for the true physics if there 9 28 M (1735) Alexandre Theophile VANDERMONDE were no mathematicians on earth. (1860) Herman HOLLERITH RM109 Daniel BERNOULLI A mathematician will recognize Cauchy, Jacobi or Helmholtz after reading a few pages, just as a musician recognize, from the first few bars, Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert. Ludwig BOLTZMANN One of the principle objects of research in my department is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity. Willard GIBBS www.rudimathematici.com Rudi Mathematici March 1 T (1611) John PELL Putnam 1996 - A3 2 W (1836) Julius WEINGARTEN 3 T (1845) Georg CANTOR RM062 Suppose that each of 20 students has made a (1838) George William HILL choice of anywhere from 0 to 6 courses from a 4 F (1822) Jules Antoine LISSAJOUS total of 6 courses offered. Prove or disprove: 5 S (1817) Angelo GENOCCHI there are 5 students and 2 courses such that (1759) Benjamin GOMPERTZ all 5 have chosen both courses or all 5 have (1512) Gerardus MERCATOR chosen neither course. (1915) Laurent SCHWARTZ Math pickup lines 6 S (1866) Ettore BORTOLOTTI 10 7 M (1824) Delfino CODAZZI What's your favourite linear transformation? (1792) William HERSCHEL MathJokes4MathyFolks 8 T (1851) George CHRYSTAL 9 W (1900) Howard Hathaway AIKEN What is the volume of a disk with radius z and (1818) Ferdinand JOACHIMSTHAL height a? pi • z • z • a. 10 T (1864) William Fogg OSGOOD Geometry is the noblest branch of physics. 11 F (1811) Urbain Jean Joseph LE VERRIER William Fogg OSGOOD (1853) Salvatore PINCHERLE 12 S (1685) George BERKELEY (1859) Ernesto CESARO And what are these fluxions? The velocities of (1824) Gustav Robert KIRCHHOFF evanescent increments? They are neither finite 13 S (1957) Rudy D'ALEMBERT quantities, nor quantities infinitely small, nor (1861) Jules Joseph DRACH yet nothing. May we not call them ghosts of 11 14 M (1879) Albert EINSTEIN RM074 departed quantities? (1864) Jozef KURSCHAK George BERKELEY 15 T (1868) Grace CHISOLM YOUNG (1860) Walter Frank Raphael WELDON 16 W (1750) Caroline HERSCHEL Common sense is nothing more than a deposit (1846) Magnus Gosta MITTAG-LEFFLER of prejudices laid down in the mind before you (1789) Georg Simon OHM reach eighteen. 17 T (1876) Ernest Benjamin ESCLANGON Albert EINSTEIN (1897) Charles FOX 18 F (1640) Philippe de LA HIRE (1690) Christian GOLDBACH RM122 A Mathematician is a machine for turning (1796) Jacob STEINER coffee into theorems. 19 S (1862) Adolf KNESER Paul ERDŐS (1910) Jacob WOLFOWITZ 20 S (1884) Philip FRANCK Perfect numbers (like perfect men) are very (1840) Franz MERTENS rare. (1938) Sergi Petrovich NOVIKOV 12 21 M (1884) George David BIRKHOFF René DESCARTES (1768) Jean Baptiste Joseph FOURIER 22 T (1917) Irving KAPLANSKY A mathematician is a person who can find 23 W (1882) Emmy Amalie NOETHER RM050 analogies between theorems; a better (1897) John Lighton SYNGE mathematician is one who can see analogies (1754) Georg Freiherr von VEGA between proofs and the best mathematician 24 T (1948) Sun-Yung (Alice) CHANG can notice analogies between theories. One can (1809) Joseph LIOUVILLE imagine that the ultimate mathematician is (1966) Gigliola STAFFILANI RM142 one who can see analogies between analogies. 25 F (1538) Christopher CLAUSIUS Stefan BANACH 26 S (1848) Konstantin ANDREEV (1913) Paul ERDŐS RM110 27 S (1857) Karl PEARSON 13 28 M (1749) Pierre-Simon de LAPLACE (1928) Alexander GROTHENDIECK RM086 29 T (1896) Wilhelm ACKERMAN (1825) Francesco FAA' DI BRUNO (1873) Tullio LEVI-CIVITA RM098 30 W (1892) Stefan BANACH RM134 31 T (1596) René DESCARTES www.rudimathematici.com Rudi Mathematici April 1 F (1895) Alexander Craig AITKEN Putnam 1996 - A4 (1776) Marie-Sophie GERMAIN (1640) Georg MOHR Let S be the set of ordered triplets (a,b,c) of 2 S (1934) Paul Joseph COHEN distinct elements of a finite set A.