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Article: A square root in a round world
- Article from:
- Sunday Star-Times
- Article date:
- August 29, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1999 Sunday Star-Times. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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THE MAN WHO LOVED ONLY NUMBERS
By Paul Hoffman, Fourth Estate, $25.95.
Reviewed by IAIN SHARP
WHAT'S 487 times 739? Most people, if they can be bothered at
all, will need to reach for a piece of paper to work out the answer.
But Hungarian genius Paul Erdos could multiply three-digit figures in
his head when he was just three years old.
Erdos's passion for mathematics was well-developed before he
entered his teens.
Jewish, he left his native Budapest for England in 1934, aged 21,
as anti-semitic fascism advanced across Europe. Thereafter he led an
itinerant life.
With all his worldly possessions packed in a small suitcase, he
would arrive on the doorstep of a fellow mathematician, announce he ...