Comments on Travels in a Mathematical World Blog: Apparently Gauss got in this bar fight with Hilber...

I wrote a sort-of follow up post. Why do we enjoy maths history misconceptions?

I think the relevance of historical accuracy comes...

2012-02-01T03:33:54.411Z

I think the relevance of historical accuracy comes down to intent. Are you writing a history text book? Are you telling the stories as context for engaging students in maths? Is it background for explaining a particular principle?

I am a great believer in the wisdom of stories, regardless of their provenance. If some stories persist despite being disproven, there must be a reason.

I think your problem is with Principle A. You may ...

2012-01-28T15:29:25.283Z

I think your problem is with Principle A. You may well appreciate and value perfection, but to insist upon it for yourself before each and every endeavour is surely as crippling as it is discouraging to get things wrong.

Yes, Principle A and Principle B cannot hold for one person at the same time, so what is needed to know which to apply, and when, is a goal context. I think popularisation is clearly the better goal for a non-professional historian because that is something the professional is less likely to be able to achieve.

Existing authoritative sources on the other hand should stick rigidly to Principle A. This way the two work together perfectly fine, you cannot be all things to all men and neither can the professional historian. There is a valuable purpose for both, and one tends to lead to the other.

I think the question should not be 'Bell or no...

2012-01-28T11:18:31.269Z

I think the question should not be 'Bell or not Bell' but is it possible to achieve the inspiration generated by Bell's book and be historically accurate at the same time.

On your choice of Einstein in the last couple of months I have seen this old chestnut presented as the truth several times in the Internet and twice on TV so I'm not so sure that everybody is aware that it's a myth ;)

Thony: I chose Einstein because it's such a we...

2012-01-27T20:54:27.036Z

Thony: I chose Einstein because it's such a well known example. I didn't want to choose something more obscure - I considered someone who better remembers group theory after being told it was completely invented in one night before the dual by Galois - I wanted to be totally clear and simple to make the point. And that's what I meant "please don't get hung up on Einstein".

Both: I have heard several people say they were inspired to this life by Bell and I've also heard, as Thony says, how terrible the accuracy is. (I haven't read Bell though I wouldn't be surprised if some of his stories littered my undergraduate lectures, and therefore lurk in the back of my mind.) I think Bell's influence inspiring young mathematicians is an interesting example - would the world be better off if MoM hadn't been published?

Your example of the failing maths pupil is interes...

2012-01-27T20:33:10.600Z

Your example of the failing maths pupil is interesting in the context of your post because the story that Einstein was bad at or failed in maths is one of the biggest myths in the history of science. Einstein was always a straight A maths student.

George Jellis: Bell's book is possibly some of the worst history of maths that has ever been written but having said that, I read it as a teenager and it inspired me to become a maths historian. It's a strange world.

As a devotee of knight's tours, it annoys me w...

2012-01-27T12:27:18.109Z

As a devotee of knight's tours, it annoys me when I read in many sources that Euler constructed the first magic knight's tour. The diagram given is invariably the tour found by William Beverley in 1848. The trouble is that the authors, have not looked at the original sources. Once someone authoritative says it there is no eradicating the error!

Eric Temple Bell's book "Men of Mathemati...

2012-01-27T12:19:39.290Z

Eric Temple Bell's book "Men of Mathematics" was an inspiration to me. However, I have subsequently read criticisms of his work, claiming that he overdramatised e.g. the stories of Galois (who died after a duel) and Cantor (who spent time in mental homes, and was prevented advancement by rivals). But some of this is surely a matter of judgment.