T.C. Mits (acronym for "the celebrated man in the street"),
is a term coined by
Lillian Rosanoff Lieber
Lillian Rosanoff Lieber (July 26, 1886 in Nicolaiev, Russian Empire - July 11, 1986 in Queens, New York) was a Russian-American mathematician and popular author. She often teamed up with her illustrator husband, Hugh Gray Lieber, to produce wor ...
to refer to an
everyman. In Lieber's works, T.C. Mits was a character who made scientific topics more approachable to the public audience.
The phrase has enjoyed sparse use by authors in fields such as
molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...
,
secondary education,
and general semantics.
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''The Education of T.C. MITS''
Dr.
Lillian Rosanoff Lieber
Lillian Rosanoff Lieber (July 26, 1886 in Nicolaiev, Russian Empire - July 11, 1986 in Queens, New York) was a Russian-American mathematician and popular author. She often teamed up with her illustrator husband, Hugh Gray Lieber, to produce wor ...
wrote this treatise on mathematical thinking in twenty chapters. The writing took a form that resembled free-verse poetry, though Lieber included an introduction stating that the form was meant only to facilitate rapid reading, rather than emulate free-verse. Lieber's husband, a fellow professor at
Long Island University
Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...
, Hugh Gray Lieber, provided illustrations for the book. The title of the book was meant to emphasize that mathematics can be understood by anyone, which was further shown when a special "Overseas edition for the Armed Forces" was published in 1942, and approved by the
Council on Books in Wartime
The Council on Books in Wartime (1942–1946) was an American non-profit organization founded by booksellers, publishers, librarians, authors, and others, in the spring of 1942 to channel the use of books as "weapons in the war of ideas" (the co ...
to be sent to American troops fighting in World War II.
[Barry Mazur. Introduction to ''The Education of T.C. MITS'' by Lillian Lieber (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books Incorporated, 2007).]
See also
*
John Doe
John Doe (male) and Jane Doe (female) are multiple-use placeholder names that are used when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In the context of law enforcement in the United States, such names are often ...
*
The man on the Clapham omnibus
References
Mathematics literature
Acronyms
Mathematical terminology