Martin Gardner (1914 – 2010) was best known for his articles on recreational mathematics, especially his column in Scientific American which he wrote from 1956 to 1981. Once Gardner wrote a letter of recommendation for a young man applying to graduate school at Harvard.
I don’t know a lot about mathematics, but this kid invented two of the best card tricks of the last ten years. You ought to give him a chance.
The kid was Persi Diaconis. At the time, Diaconis, like Gardner, was something of a mathematical outsider, someone with more creativity than credentials. Diaconis went on to become a mathematics professor at Harvard and won two MacArthur genius awards. He is now a professor at Stanford.
Source: Magical Mathematics
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Karl 11.02.11 at 19:46
(was a professor at Harvard, now a professor at Stanford, unless something has changed the last few days)
John 11.02.11 at 19:50
Thanks. I’ll update the post. I didn’t realize he’d moved.
Igor Carron 11.03.11 at 01:52
John,
Only on the interwebs do you get to appreciate people you would have had zero chance of meeting before :
http://nuit-blanche.blogspot.com/2011/08/we-are-not-pleased-with-your.html
Speedmaster 11.03.11 at 07:30
Now I gotta know, what ARE the best card tricks?!
SteveBrooklineMA 11.03.11 at 09:15
Yes, I would like to see those two card tricks as well.
AntiSlice 11.03.11 at 13:27
He’s giving a public talk at Stanford at the end of the month, maybe he’ll talk about it there?
http://math.stanford.edu/index.html (There is a link to the event flier on the front page)
Igor Carron 11.03.11 at 14:27
@AntiSlice , The video I featured was ome of the most enjoyable piece of math I have ever viewed. Do you believe there will be a camera in that room ?
Should we crowdsource the question to ask Persi ?
human mathematics 11.04.11 at 19:01
Saw Diaconis give a talk several years ago and I’ve still not forgotten it. He used the Poisson distribution to disprove Karl Jung’s “Synchronicity”.
Igor Carron 11.12.11 at 11:24
Got a confirmation from Stanford that the talk will NOT be taped. Dr. Diaconis does not like being taped from what i was told. Too bad.