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mathematonymy

A list of 28 words by qroqqa.

About

Nouns and adjectives derived from the names of mathematicians. Includes names used predicatively (this space is Hausdorff, this sequence is Cauchy), but excludes those used merely in attributive or genitive function (Turing machine, Zorn's lemma). And I have to have at least a vague idea of what they mean.

Comments

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  • rolig not in the least! Tom Lehrer is hilarious. And so is his Russian accent. Sep 10, 2008

  • chained_bear *hoping rolig really wasn't offended and hasn't activated a serious sarcasm gene*

    Edit: P.S. I finally just made a Tom Lehrer list. Sep 10, 2008

  • rolig Bozhe moy! Tat Lehrer iss fahnni guy! End it fierced time I effer heert satch fahnni sonk about matematika. Spasibo, chend_bayer! Sep 10, 2008

  • chained_bear Wow... Oops, I mean, 0_o! Sep 10, 2008

  • qroqqa The song is extensively referenced, entirely straight-faced, s.v. 'plagiarism' in the Collins Dictionary of Mathematics. Sep 10, 2008

  • chained_bear Hee... close! I found it on YouTube, if you want to see it.

    No offense intended to anyone; Lehrer writes parodies/political commentary, that sort of thing. Like Bill Maher, but he's a mathematician and a pianist. *shrugs* See this list for more irreverent humor (that doesn't have to do with poor qroqqa's list, so I'll shut up now, after thanking qroqqa for his/her patience). Sep 10, 2008

  • rolig Thanks for the compliment, chained_bear, but no, I am not a mathematician. But I did have a good geometry teacher in high school and that, combined with my interests at the time in all things Russian, is why this image of the Lobachevskian saddle universe has stuck in my mind all these years.

    P.S. I don't know that Lehrer song, but I am guessing it is set to the tune of "There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o". Sep 10, 2008

  • chained_bear Or that Tom Lehrer song, which really rocks. ;)

    Thanks for the explanation, rolig. Do you teach this stuff? I'm wondering because I certainly don't have a mind for it, but found your comment remarkably clear and understandable. Sep 10, 2008

  • rolig Lobachevskian geometry is a non-Euclidean geometry based on a kind of saddle-shaped surface (instead of the "flat" plane). Unlike Euclidean geometry, where, given a line A and a point N not on the line but in the same plane, there is one and only one line B that includes point N and will never intersect with line A (thus lines A and B are parallel), in Lobachevskian space, there are an infinite number of lines in the same plane that go through point N but will never intersect with line A. This is also called hyperbolic space. And that's about all I know about it, except that were it not for Lobachevskian space we would never have had Einstein's theory of relativity or, heaven forfend, Star Trek. Sep 10, 2008

  • chained_bear Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevski is his name! Hey!*

    *Lyrics by Tom Lehrer. Sep 10, 2008

  • qroqqa It would if I had any idea what it meant. I looked through Wolfram and found a fair few I'd never heard of: no point listing those. (I've added a sentence to the list description to clarify this.) Sep 10, 2008

  • rolig Would lobachevskian belong here? Sep 10, 2008