Mathematicians Quotes (4)
How did Biot arrive at the partial differential equation? [the heat conduction equation] . . . Perhaps Laplace gave Biot the equation and left him to sink or swim for a few years in trying to derive it. That would have been merely an instance of the way great mathematicians since the very beginnings of mathematical research have effortlessly maintained their superiority over ordinary mortals.
The Tragicomical History of Thermodynamics, 1822-1854 (1980), 51.
See also: | Jean-Baptiste Biot (3) | Conduction (2) | Differentiation (5) | Equation (24) | Pierre-Simon Laplace (41) | Mortal (2) | Ordinary (4) | Research (208) | Sink (2) | Superiority (2) | Thermodynamics (15)
Mathematicians are like a certain type of Frenchman: when you talk to them they translate it into their own language, and then it soon turns into something completely different.
Maxims and Reflections (1998), trans. E. Stopp, 162.
Oh these mathematicians make me tired! When you ask them to work out a sum they take a piece of paper, cover it with rows of A's, B's, and X's and Y's ... scatter a mess of flyspecks over them, and then give you an answer that's all wrong!
Matthew Josephson, Edison (1959), 283.
See also: | Algebra (11)
The future mathematician ... should solve problems, choose the problems which are in his line, meditate upon their solution, and invent new problems. By this means, and by all other means, he should endeavor to make his first important discovery: he should discover his likes and dislikes, his taste, his own line.
How to Solve it: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method (1957), 206.
See also: | Career (14) | Discovery (166) | Endeavour (7) | Future (29) | Problem (63) | Solution (44)
