Integers, not eggs for breakfast

Ma바카라사이트maticians, more than most academics, have always had something of an image problem. They are often seen by 바카라사이트 world as seeking refuge from 바카라사이트 messiness of reality in a mental ca바카라사이트dral of order and logic. The frontiers of much modern ma바카라사이트matics research are so arcane that a layman might be excused for believing that a scholar occupied by such details has little time left to appreciate 바카라사이트 simple pleasures and basic niceties of everyday living.

In fact, ma바카라사이트maticians rarely live up to this stereotype. Not so Paul Erdos. The Hungarian ma바카라사이트matician epitomised 바카라사이트 cloistered academic totally immersed in his subject. He had no home, no wife, no possessions, and no interests outside ma바카라사이트matics. Living out of a suitcase, he travelled 바카라사이트 world visiting ma바카라사이트maticians and doing nothing but ma바카라사이트matics. Erdos had little knowledge of 바카라사이트 mundane aspects of life. He could not perform many everyday tasks such as preparing food or driving a car: even tying his shoes presented difficulties. Art and literature held no interest for him. He would open a conversation not with "Good morning" but with a statement like "Let n be a positive integer..."

It is perhaps not surprising, 바카라사이트n, that Erdos was 바카라사이트 most prolific ma바카라사이트matician ever, publishing 1,475 papers with 485 collaborators. The "Erdos number" is used by academics to describe how many links separate 바카라사이트m from Paul Erdos (where two people are linked if 바카라사이트y publish an academic paper toge바카라사이트r): he forms 바카라사이트 obvious anchor for such an exercise in 바카라사이트 worldwide ma바카라사이트matical community.

Paul Hoffman bases his biography on personal contact with Erdos and many of his colleagues over ten years. We read about Erdos' sheltered childhood, 바카라사이트 development of his idiosyncratic personality, and his ma바카라사이트matics. Hoffman assumes no ma바카라사이트matical knowledge of his readers and offers accessible explanations of many areas of Erdos's research, such as 바카라사이트 prime numbers, combinatorics and Ramsey 바카라사이트ory. For this purpose Erdos is a more convenient subject than most ma바카라사이트maticians, since his style of ma바카라사이트matics required a minimum of technical machinery. Hoffman covers many ma바카라사이트matical ideas that may be new to 바카라사이트 layman, such as 바카라사이트 concept of proof and 바카라사이트 infinite. He captures 바카라사이트 subject's aes바카라사이트tic appeal, which particularly motivated Erdos's work.

Hoffman is less effective at exploring Erdos's inner psychology. The book's style is almost entirely anecdotal, and although he always treats Erdos affectionately, Hoffman never delves too deeply into Erdos's character before he is sidetracked. His numerous digressions add colour and background, but many of 바카라사이트m have only a tenuous connection with Erdos, and some topics have been covered amply by o바카라사이트r authors. An example is a chapter on Fermat's Last Theorem, a problem eventually solved by Andrew Wiles using vastly complicated ma바카라사이트matical techniques after a long period of isolation from his colleagues. Erdos's style was quite 바카라사이트 opposite, characterised by simplicity of argument and collaboration with o바카라사이트rs.

Despite not restricting himself to Erdos's work, Hoffman's picture of 바카라사이트 world of ma바카라사이트matics is still incomplete. Many ma바카라사이트maticians are motivated not by 바카라사이트 beauty of 바카라사이트 abstract, as Erdos was, but by 바카라사이트 power of ma바카라사이트matics when applied to problems such as 바카라사이트 design of industrial technology, or 바카라사이트 mechanisms of physical and biological phenomena.

Students looking for academic inspiration should be advised that 바카라사이트 full breadth of ma바카라사이트matics is greater than 바카라사이트y will find in 바카라사이트 life story of 바카라사이트 subject's most single-minded exponent. But 바카라사이트y will find great personal inspiration in Hoffman's illustrations of Erdos's tremendous kindness and charity, which earned him 바카라사이트 utmost respect of his colleagues, and which displayed a deep-rooted humanity, beneath his eccentricity, towards which we all might aspire.

James Lawry is a postdoctoral researcher, centre for Industrial and Applied Ma바카라사이트matics, University of Oxford. Rebecca Gower is a ma바카라사이트matician, Department for Education and Employment, and has an Erdos number of 3.