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George E. Andrews
(4 Dec 1938 - )
American mathematician who is an expert on the theory of partitions, and a past president of the American Mathematical Society. In 1976 he uncovered in an English library some of the final manuscripts of Srinivasa Ramanujan. He studyied the 140 pages, a chaotic scrawl of more than 600 equations. By 1981 he was reported to have verified 350 of them, but only three of them false.
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Science Quotes by George E. Andrews (2 quotes)
The manuscript looks chaotic, even by mathematics standards.
[About newly-found late work of Srinivasa Ramanujan.]
[About newly-found late work of Srinivasa Ramanujan.]
— George E. Andrews
Quoted in John Noble Wilford, 'Mathematician's Final Equations Praised', New York Times (9 Jun 1981), C1.
There is great exhilaration in breaking one of these things.
Ramanujan gives no hints, no proof of his formulas, so everything you do you feel is your own.
[About verifying Ramanujans equations in a newly found manuscript.]
[About verifying Ramanujans equations in a newly found manuscript.]
— George E. Andrews
Quoted in John Noble Wilford, 'Mathematician's Final Equations Praised', New York Times (9 Jun 1981), C1.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
