Reflections from the Mirror: Julia Robinson

This Blog's Focus, or lack there of

Edith Wharton said "There are two ways of spreading light ...To be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it." That's what this blog is about, how the light of other people and the world around me have reflected off and in me. . .or other things when I need to write about other things, like walking, lizards, or fruit. There will be pictures of plants. All pictures are taken by me, unless noted.

I say what's on my mind, when it's there, and try to only upload posts that won't hurt or offend readers. However, readers may feel hurt or offended despite my good intentions. Blog-reading is a matter of free choice, that's what I have come to love about it, so if you are not pleased, surf on and/or leave a comment. I welcome any and all kind-hearted commentary.

It's 2012 and my current obsessions are writing and walking, sometimes at the same time. And books. I'm increasingly fascinated by how ebooks are transforming the physical book, forcing it to do more than provide printed words on a page.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Please Look Me in the Eye

So maybe mathematicians don't make the best party planners. We rode our bikes to the festival, the day warm and clear, air like velvet. When we arrived, the first thing we had to do was sign a photo release, then go to another table to get a name tag, a smiley face on the tag revealing our consent to be documented, then we could sign up for events with alluring names like Linguistic Challenge, Solving a Cubic, and Triangle Inequality. No eye contact yet. On the up side, the kids got cool black nylon string bags.

We then needed to enter one of two rooms, both crammed with long tables and people huddled over polyhedrons, tessellations, and graphs. The air in the rooms is stuffy. The man selling books in the back of the room we'd chosen won't look up from his book. He sits like an uncomfortable statue. Still no eye contact.

On the table near the human statue, I found a fat book about mathematics at Berkeley with a tiny postage stamp sized image of Julia Robinson on the cover. She was my teacher for abstract algebra the year before she won the MacArthur fellowship. Five years of income to free her up to be the genius that she was. When I read about her winning, I thought that must be the greatest prize in the whole wide world. Naturally, I wanted one. She had begun to solve Hilbert's tenth problem. What could I do?

So far. . .nothing.

Still no eye contact. We left the festival and toodled home on our bikes.

I still like geeks, but wouldn't recommend one to plan a social event beyond perhaps a late night cup of coffee.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Julia Robinson and the Infinite Awesomeness of Mathematics

Today I'm going to a Math Festival. Like a coming out fest for geeks. I use the term affectionately, since I have always been fond of intellectual smarty pants. I love the high foreheads, the furrowed brows, the inability to engage in small talk, the frenetic bursts of laughter at inappropriate moments. Very cool. The festival is named for one of my old professors, Julia Robinson. Her rise to fame was for solving one of David Hilbert's 23 unsolved problems in mathematics. Hilbert had presented 10 of these problems in 1900 at the International Congress of Mathematicians (aka the World Cup of Geeks), later publishing 23 in total for mathematicians of the 20th century to ponder. To date, here's the score:

Solved or disproved: 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 14, 17, 18, 21
Partially Solved: 5 and 6
Still Being Pondered: 4, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 22

My great grandfather spent most of his life tackling #8.
Julia Robinson got #10 started and it was eventually put to rest in 1970 by Yuri Matiyasevich. It's all explained in his book, Hilbert's Tenth Problem (MIT Press, 1993). I love it that there are books published about one math problem. Can you feel the universe of geeks expanding beyond your wildest dreams? Can you prove that this universe is infinite? If so, you are in that universe.

So what was problem 10?
Question: Are diophantine equations solvable?
Answer: No

Fantastic!