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by dboreham
3050 days ago
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I'm not sure it really takes much time or effort to convey enough of the background: I still remember my high school math teacher telling the class, in passing, that Galois was killed in a duel at age 20. 30+ years later that remark is still having an effect in that when I took my kids to the top of the tour montparnasse I made them look down at the cemetery to point out that Galois is down there (somewhere). |
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I think that's actually an example of the problem. Galois's politics really had nothing to do with the problem he was trying to solve. Historical features are thrown in as random info with no point. The point of making mathematicians real people is so that students can say "Oh! That's how they came up with that problem! That's why they solved it this way! I could have done that!"
Rather instead, we further mythologize the individuals. You don't need to join radical political organizations and get yourself killed in your 20s to be a great mathematician.