terence tao - math genius...

[tmc]

He is totally amazing. IMO medals, prof. at age 24, and on and on. Got Fields medal as well.

How does he compare with the greatest mathematical geniuses - euler, jacobi, ramanujan (i read somewhere that these 3 are regarded the greatest mathematicians to have walked the planet?).

Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_tao

this one has some video as well:

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/

 

[Goosemaster]

a phd at 21 ....

 

[Syringer]

He looks like one of the math TA's that I had.

Then again they were all skinny asian nerdy guys.

 

[yankeesfan]

What are his accomplishments thus far?

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Syringer
He looks like one of the math TA's that I had.

Then again they were all skinny asian nerdy guys.

The thing is, at least we know the SOLUTIONS to his problems unlike some people here...:laugh:

 

[iamaelephant]

Guys like this make me feel stupid

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: yankeesfan
What are his accomplishments thus far?

The fields medal equates to a nobel in mathematics i believe

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: Syringer
He looks like one of the math TA's that I had.

Then again they were all skinny asian nerdy guys.

 

[chuckywang]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_Barton

 

[Brackis]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: yankeesfan
What are his accomplishments thus far?

The fields medal equates to a nobel in mathematics i believe

Yes, but without reading the articles, what are the benefit for society that have come from his brilliance.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Brackis

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: yankeesfan
What are his accomplishments thus far?

The fields medal equates to a nobel in mathematics i believe

Yes, but without reading the articles, what are the benefit for society that have come from his brilliance.

He teaches. That's one hell of a benefit if he can actually teach. (not everyone can)

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: Brackis

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: yankeesfan
What are his accomplishments thus far?

The fields medal equates to a nobel in mathematics i believe

Yes, but without reading the articles, what are the benefit for society that have come from his brilliance.

They're a whole lot more than you can ever hope to achieve.

 

[s0ssos]

Originally posted by: chuckywang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_Barton

what's the point of that? that guy doesn't even begin to compare

 

[Baked]

Holy sh!t, UCLA faculty at the age of 20. Chinese Pride baby!

 

[SpecialEd]

Originally posted by: tmc
He is totally amazing. IMO medals, prof. at age 24, and on and on. Got Fields medal as well.

How does he compare with the greatest mathematical geniuses - euler, jacobi, ramanujan (i read somewhere that these 3 are regarded the greatest mathematicians to have walked the planet?).

Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_tao

this one has some video as well:

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/

I'm not sure if I would consider Tao one of the "greatest" mathematicians of all time. I would even put contemporaries like Yao, Perelman and Chern before Tao and I'm not even sure they would make a top ten list. Given that mathematics spans thousands of years as an academic discipline, its really tough to be among the elite.

 

[tmc]

Originally posted by: SpecialEd

Originally posted by: tmc
He is totally amazing. IMO medals, prof. at age 24, and on and on. Got Fields medal as well.

How does he compare with the greatest mathematical geniuses - euler, jacobi, ramanujan (i read somewhere that these 3 are regarded the greatest mathematicians to have walked the planet?).

Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_tao

this one has some video as well:

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/

I'm not sure if I would consider Tao one of the "greatest" mathematicians of all time. I would even put contemporaries like Yao, Perelman and Chern before Tao and I'm not even sure they would make a top ten list. Given that mathematics spans thousands of years as an academic discipline, its really tough to be among the elite.

yes, i sort of agree with you that "child prodigy" is different from "genius". ofcourse in this case - it is genius - no auguments there.

ramanujan is my favorite.

btw, i should have said "pure mathematicians". newton, gauss are also considered mathematicians as well.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: SpecialEd

Originally posted by: tmc
He is totally amazing. IMO medals, prof. at age 24, and on and on. Got Fields medal as well.

How does he compare with the greatest mathematical geniuses - euler, jacobi, ramanujan (i read somewhere that these 3 are regarded the greatest mathematicians to have walked the planet?).

Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_tao

this one has some video as well:

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/

I'm not sure if I would consider Tao one of the "greatest" mathematicians of all time. I would even put contemporaries like Yao, Perelman and Chern before Tao and I'm not even sure they would make a top ten list. Given that mathematics spans thousands of years as an academic discipline, its really tough to be among the elite.

I disagree... individual contributions to mathematics in the past 4 or 5 hundred years have been as great or nearly as great as everything up to that point. Just a couple hundred years ago, one could nearly be an expert in all the areas of mathematics... since then, mathematics has expanded so quickly that it's impossible that anyone will again. (I'm trying to remember who the last person regarded as "expert" in that sense was... was it Gauss? Darn it, that question is going to bother me all night.)

 

[DrPizza]

Oh, and Ramanujan is my favorite mathematician as well.

 

[Brackis]

Originally posted by: Syringer

Originally posted by: Brackis

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: yankeesfan
What are his accomplishments thus far?

The fields medal equates to a nobel in mathematics i believe

Yes, but without reading the articles, what are the benefit for society that have come from his brilliance.

They're a whole lot more than you can ever hope to achieve.

Ouch, thanks.

I was just curious if he was actually advancing into new mathematical realms, or simply reaching achievements of path mathematicians at a younger age.

 

[SpecialEd]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: SpecialEd

Originally posted by: tmc
He is totally amazing. IMO medals, prof. at age 24, and on and on. Got Fields medal as well.

How does he compare with the greatest mathematical geniuses - euler, jacobi, ramanujan (i read somewhere that these 3 are regarded the greatest mathematicians to have walked the planet?).

Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_tao

this one has some video as well:

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/

I'm not sure if I would consider Tao one of the "greatest" mathematicians of all time. I would even put contemporaries like Yao, Perelman and Chern before Tao and I'm not even sure they would make a top ten list. Given that mathematics spans thousands of years as an academic discipline, its really tough to be among the elite.

I disagree... individual contributions to mathematics in the past 4 or 5 hundred years have been as great or nearly as great as everything up to that point. Just a couple hundred years ago, one could nearly be an expert in all the areas of mathematics... since then, mathematics has expanded so quickly that it's impossible that anyone will again. (I'm trying to remember who the last person regarded as "expert" in that sense was... was it Gauss? Darn it, that question is going to bother me all night.)

I do agree that the mathematics done today is far more advance than mathematics done two hundred years ago. But you have to measure "greatness" given in the context of the time. Mathematicatians today have a huge wealth of knowledge to build on. Newton and Leibniz founded modern day calculus without the modern concept of limits. Archimedes found a formula for the volume of a sphere based on it radius without calculus or even a good understanding of irrational numbers.

While I learned all these things in high school, I can't say I would be able to come up with them on my own. In order to compare modern mathematicatians like Tao to any of these older guys, you need to consider their complishments in context of what is already known.

 

[40Hands]

I suck at math.

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: SpecialEd

Originally posted by: tmc
He is totally amazing. IMO medals, prof. at age 24, and on and on. Got Fields medal as well.

How does he compare with the greatest mathematical geniuses - euler, jacobi, ramanujan (i read somewhere that these 3 are regarded the greatest mathematicians to have walked the planet?).

Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_tao

this one has some video as well:

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/

I'm not sure if I would consider Tao one of the "greatest" mathematicians of all time. I would even put contemporaries like Yao, Perelman and Chern before Tao and I'm not even sure they would make a top ten list. Given that mathematics spans thousands of years as an academic discipline, its really tough to be among the elite.

I disagree... individual contributions to mathematics in the past 4 or 5 hundred years have been as great or nearly as great as everything up to that point. Just a couple hundred years ago, one could nearly be an expert in all the areas of mathematics... since then, mathematics has expanded so quickly that it's impossible that anyone will again. (I'm trying to remember who the last person regarded as "expert" in that sense was... was it Gauss? Darn it, that question is going to bother me all night.)

Matt Damon.