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In common mathematical parlance, a mathematical result is called folklore if it is an unpublished result with no clear originator, but which is well-circulated and believed to be true among the specialists. More specifically, folk mathematics, or mathematical folklore, is the body of theorems, definitions, proofs, facts or techniques that circulate among mathematicians by word of mouth, but have not yet appeared in print, either in books or in scholarly journals. Quite important at times for researchers are folk theorems, which are results known, at least to experts in a field, and are considered to have established status, though not published in complete form. Sometimes, these are only alluded to in the public literature. An example is a book of exercises, described on the back cover: Another distinct category is well-knowable mathematics, a term introduced by John Conway. These mathematical matters are known and factual, but not in active circulation in relation with current research (i.e., untrendy). Both of these concepts are attempts to describe the actual context in which research work is done. Some people, in particular non-mathematicians, use the term ''folk mathematics'' to refer to the informal mathematics studied in many ethno-cultural studies of mathematics. Although the term "mathematical folklore" can also be used within the mathematics circle to describe the various aspects of their esoteric culture and practices (e.g., slang, proverb, limerick, joke).


Stories, sayings and jokes

Mathematical folklore can also refer to the unusual (and possibly apocryphal) stories or jokes involving mathematicians or mathematics that are told verbally in mathematics departments. Compilations include tales collected in G. H. Hardy's '' A Mathematician's Apology'' and ; examples include: *
Srinivasa Ramanujan Srinivasa Ramanujan (; born Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar, ; 22 December 188726 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician. Though he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, ...
's taxicab numbers * Galileo dropping weights from the
Leaning Tower of Pisa The Leaning Tower of Pisa ( it, torre pendente di Pisa), or simply, the Tower of Pisa (''torre di Pisa'' ), is the ''campanile'', or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unst ...
. *An apple falling on
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the g ...
's head to inspire his theory of gravitation. *The drinking, duel and early death of Galois. *
Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superf ...
cracking safes in the Manhattan Project. * Alfréd Rényi's definition of a mathematician: "a device for turning coffee into theorems". * Pál Turán's suggestion that weak coffee was only suitable for
lemma Lemma may refer to: Language and linguistics * Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word * Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered Science and mathematics * Lemma (botany), a ...
. *The " turtles all the way down" story told by Stephen Hawking. * Fermat's lost simple proof. *The unwieldy proof and associated controversies of the
Four Color Theorem In mathematics, the four color theorem, or the four color map theorem, states that no more than four colors are required to color the regions of any map so that no two adjacent regions have the same color. ''Adjacent'' means that two regions sh ...
.


See also

* List of mathematical jargon


References


Bibliography

* * David Harel, "On Folk Theorems", '' Communications of the ACM'' 23:7:379-389 (July 1980) {{Refend


External links


Mathematical humor: Collection of mathematical folklore
Philosophy of mathematics Mathematics and culture Scientific folklore Sociology of scientific knowledge