What do people usually mean when they call someone a "math…
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What do people usually mean when they call someone a "math prodigy"?
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What do people usually mean when they call someone a "math prodigy"?
Suppose there are two 18-year-olds:
* Person A knows a lot of advanced mathematics, including undergraduate-level topics and beyond, but has never produced an original mathematical result.
* Person B knows much less mathematics (perhaps not even calculus), yet independently discovers an original theorem or result.
an important detail: Person B's result is genuinely original, but it is not groundbreaking or field-changing. It's the kind of result that would be considered a legitimate new observation or theorem, not something on the level of solving a famous open problem.
In this situation, who would be more likely to be considered a prodigy?
Would people judge it mainly by:
1. The amount of mathematics someone knows for their age?
2. The originality of what they produce?
3. Some combination of all two ?
For example, if someone knows relatively little advanced mathematics but still manages to discover several original results on their own, does that count more toward being a prodigy than someone who has mastered a large amount of advanced mathematics but has never created anything original?
I'm curious how mathematicians usually think about this.
#science
#
What do people usually mean when they call someone a "math prodigy"?
Suppose there are two 18-year-olds:
* Person A knows a lot of advanced mathematics, including undergraduate-level topics and beyond, but has never produced an original mathematical result.
* Person B knows much less mathematics (perhaps not even calculus), yet independently discovers an original theorem or result.
an important detail: Person B's result is genuinely original, but it is not groundbreaking or field-changing. It's the kind of result that would be considered a legitimate new observation or theorem, not something on the level of solving a famous open problem.
In this situation, who would be more likely to be considered a prodigy?
Would people judge it mainly by:
1. The amount of mathematics someone knows for their age?
2. The originality of what they produce?
3. Some combination of all two ?
For example, if someone knows relatively little advanced mathematics but still manages to discover several original results on their own, does that count more toward being a prodigy than someone who has mastered a large amount of advanced mathematics but has never created anything original?
I'm curious how mathematicians usually think about this.
#science
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