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Some of these stories may only be mathematical folklore
WE OFTEN STUDY THE PUBLISHED WORKS of the great mathematicians, accept them, and use them gratefully as we solve our problems and delve into the abstractions of our chosen field of mathematics. But rarely do we realize that all these developments were the products of human minds. Mathematicians, indeed, are quite human, and they are not always serious! Their lives are full of interesting twists, turns, and quirks that make them all the more human.
Looking at some of the greats of mathematics can allow us to see a side of their lives that is rarely mentioned in mathematics textbooks. Some of the stories have been documented, whereas others may only be parts of our mathematical folklore. Also, the actual sources for the anecdotes are difficult, if not impossible, to determine, but our inability to ascertain the sources does not detract from the charm and value of the stories and the insight that they can give into the minds and personalities of these well-known contributors to mathematics. Here are a few interesting facts about . . .
Thales (c. 624-547 a.c.E.), the earliest mathematician whose name is known, was also a wise thinker and one of the founders of deductive reasoning. He had become rich by observing a particularly heavy crop of olives, quietly buying all the olive presses in the area, and then renting them out again when the olives needed to be pressed. He noted that becoming rich is a simple matter for a person who keeps an eye on the local activities.
Pythagoras (c. 585-500 B.C.E. the famed Greek who contributed to geometry and number theory, once challenged a student by agreeing to pay him a penny for each geometry theorem that he mastered. The motivation worked, the pupil's pile of penvies grew, and he actually became interested in the subject. Indeed, he became so involved with the subject that he begged Pythagoras to proceed faster in his teaching and to take a penny back for each new theorem. By the time that the eager student had mastered all the geometry that he could understand, Pythagoras had retrieved all his pennies.
Alhazen (965-1039), probably the greatest of the tenth-century Moslem physicists, is...