Posted on 04/15/2020 4:08:19 PM PDT by djf
John Horton Conway, the famous Cambridge and Princeton mathematician, died on April 11th. I am sure those who know about him will be saddened.
You scared me... I thought it was Tim Conway
Why? It says John.
That would be a shame.
Tim Conway died last year.
I read about it in Scientific American's Mathematical Games column, which was one of the things that made it such a wonderful magazine during my childhood.
There was a caricature of JHC in the column that showed him with horns growing out of his head, but the horns met and joined in an extremely complex topological structure that looked a little like a Klein bottle; it was captioned "John Horned Conway."
RIP Professor Conway.
Tim Conway the actor died in 2019.
I had read an article in a journal years ago where he had apparently proved that ALL mathematical problems were one of 19 types... yeah, I play GOL a bit, been alot easier in the age of computers!
I read the headline as George Conway (Kelly Ann’s fat husband). So disappointing.
I know that academics are supposed to be allowed to do research into anything that captures their fancy, without regard to whether or not its useful.
That concept is misused and made a mockery by many in academe, in my opinion.
John Horton Conway was not one of them. His “useless” ideas were so beautiful and thought-provoking that they deserved to be pursued despite their apparent lack of utility. They were useful simply for the thoughts they showed others how to think, as is music.
RIP.
He's dead too.
Exlent!!!
Sad, but excellent!
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