erdos, paul

7/26/2019 Erdos, Paul

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PAUL ERDS

One of the most fascinating and charmingly eccentric mathematicians of the modern era is Hungarian-

born Paul Erds(March 26, 1913 e!tember 2", 1996#$ %hose &ho had

the !leasure of meeting him, no matter ho& briefly could not fail to be

im!ressed &ith his single-minded de'otion to mathematics$ Others &ho

became his friends, his collaborators, his hosts no& full &ell that he had

little time for anything but mathematics$ He &as a mathematical gy!sy) he

belonged to no country, had no &ife, no children, no !ermanent address, nor

the comfort of a !rofessorshi!$ *nstead +rds, one of the most !ublished

mathematicians, mo'ed about the &orld to tal to other mathematicians about his one true lo'e,

mathematics, and incidentally !roduce !a!ers for !ublication$ round 196., /as!er 0offman

concocted the idea of an +rds number$ %hose &ho co-authored !a!ers &ith +rds, and there &ere

some . of them, are said to ha'e an +rds number 1$ %hose &ho ha'e &ritten a 4oint !a!er &ith

someone &ho has +rds number 1 ha'e +rds number 2$ %hose &ho co-&rite &ith someone &ho has

+rds number 2 ha'e +rds number 3$ nd so on$ %he total number of !a!ers +rds !ublished in his

lifetime, &ith or &ithout collaborators, is a!!ro5imately 1,.""$

+rds long full life is filled &ith so many interesting incidents that it is im!ossible to e'en briefly

touch on the highlights in the s!ace here a'ailable$ 7ortunately, se'eral e5cellent articles and boos

ha'e been &ritten about this man &ho though small in stature had enormous talent not only for

!roducing mathematics but for generously sharing his ideas &ith anyone he felt he could !ush and

ca4ole into digging dee!er into the mysteries of mathematics$ +rds lied to let on that he &as absent-

minded so !eo!le &ould not e5!ect him to &aste his time on mundane things$ 8ut he ne& &here he

&as and &here he &anted to be by &hat time so he could tal mathematics &ith his ne5t host$ hen he


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sho&ed u!, often unannounced, at the home of a mathematician &ith &hom he !lanned to stay for

some uns!ecified time, he &ould announce, :My mind is o!en,; meaning he &as ready to do

mathematics$ %hen fortified &ith coffee and am!hetamines he &as !re!ared to do mathematics for 19

hours a day, se'en days a &ee, &ee after &ee$

+rds &as born in 8uda!est, Hungary about a year before the outbrea of *$ His father auls mother nna, &ho lost

t&o daughters to scarlet fe'er before >aul &as born, &as 'ery !rotecti'e of her son$ he !ro'ided for

the t&o of them, until her husband returned, by teaching mathematics, &hich &as also aBmany >eter in 193", from &hich he &as

a&arded a doctorate in 193$ %he ne5t year he left Hungary for a !ost-doctoral fello&shi! at

Manchester in +ngland$ 8y 193 +rds had mo'ed on to the A$$ at the urging of tanisla& Alam, &ho

&as then at the Ani'ersity of isconsin$ 7rom then on +rds &as constantly on the mo'e$

*n 193 +rds held a !art-time a!!ointment at >urdue Ani'ersity but the closest he came to taing a

!ermanent !osition &as in 19.2 &hen rnold =oss of the Ani'ersity of Cotre Dame arranged for him

to teach one graduate course, &ith an assistant &ho could tae o'er for +rds at a moments notice if

>aul got the urge to go off to tal to some distant colleague$ =oss arranged for +rds to be offered a

!ermanent !osition at Cotre Dame in &hich he &as to ha'e no s!ecific duties$ He could do &hat he

&anted &hen he &anted, and he could tra'el &here he &anted and &hen he &anted$ +rds many

friends, fearful of a man of his age trai!sing all o'er the &orld by himself, urged him to acce!t the

generous offer, but >aul, &ho &ould trai!se for another forty years, felt it &ould tie him do&n too


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much$

Meantime +rds, lie many others of the !eriod came under sus!icion of ha'ing communistic leanings

by enator ?oe Mc/arthy and others of his il$ %hose &ho &ere around at the time &ill recall that

uncon'entional beha'ior &as considered e'idence of !ossible disloyalty$ %eachers &ere reEuired to

tae loyalty oaths$ tudents &ere hired to s!y on their !rofessors and re!ort any sus!icious beha'ior$

+rds, &ho had ne'er a!!lied for citiBenshi! any&here fer'ently belie'ed in the freedom of indi'iduals

and classified all nations as im!erialistic$ hen he attended the *nternational /ongress of

Mathematicians in msterdam in 19., he &as not allo&ed to return to the Anited tates$ His only

crimes &ere nai'ely and truthfully ans&ering Euestions !ut to him about Mar5 and Hungary, ha'ing

corres!onded &ith a /hinese mathematician in 191, and innocently blundering into a radar installation

in 192, &hich left him &ith an 78* record$ +rds s!ent much of the ne5t ten years in *srael but finally

in 1963 &as allo&ed to return to the Anited tates$

7or most of the 19."s +rds li'ed !retty much hand-to-mouth, but in 19.F &hen the o'iets launched

!utni, the Anited tates go'ernment and its !roud citiBens could not understand ho& godless

/ommunists could ha'e beaten them so badly in this area of science$ Money &as !oured onto the

!roblem and merican friends &ere able to get +rds 'arious research sti!ends$ He didnt need 'ery

much money because fe& !eo!le &ere less materialistic than +rds$ *n his lifetime he &as honored

&ith many a&ards and !riBes including the olf >riBe of G.",""" in 193$ He didnt feel the need for

money so he !oceted GF2" of the !riBe and ga'e the rest a&ay$

+rds made his initial mar on mathematics at the age of 1, &hen he disco'ered an elegant !roof that,

for each integer greater than 1, there is al&ays a !rime bet&een the number and t&ice the number$

+rds not only &ished to !ro'e things, he &anted al&ays to do so elegantly, &hich he did$ His interests


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&ere mainly in number theory and combinatorics, &here he !osed and sol'ed many thorny !roblems$

He &as al&ays fascinated by relationshi!s among numbers$ ccording to =onald aul +rds li'ed

u! to their e5!ectations$ %he truth is that mathematicians, or at least the best of them, are 'ery much

lie other !eo!le, e5ce!t they may be a bit brighter, at least in res!ect to their mathematics$ Other than


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that, mathematicians ha'e the same strengths, &eanesses, faults, talents, interests, yearnings, etc$ as all

other !eo!le$ %hey are certainly enthusiasts for their sub4ect but then most intelligent !eo!le ha'e

something that lights their fire that to others, &ithout the same fascination, may consider a bit unusual

if not strange$ %he lo'e of mathematics is not for e'eryone, but it shouldnt be assumed that there is

anything &rong &ith those for &hom it is the biggest thing in their li'es$

Quotation of the DayJ :*f you see a really nice !roof, * say it comes straight from the 8oo K

0od has a transfinite 8oo, &hich contains all theorems and their best !roofs, and if He is &ell

intentioned to&ard those Lmathematicians, He sho&s them the 8oo for a moment$ nd you &ouldnt

e'en ha'e to belie'e in 0od L+rds did not, but you must belie'e that the 8oo e5ists$; >aul +rds

erdos, paul

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