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Mathematical Monsters*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2016

J. L. B. Cooper
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Extract

Tonight I shall deal with some examples of mathematical reasoning which have in common only one feature: that of being surprising, or, even, of once having been surprising. We may picture them as monsters, waiting to leap on our loose ideas about mathematics and to tear them to shreds.

I shall not concern ourselves with elementary errors. Every one of you, no doubt, can “prove” that all triangles are isosceles, and that 2 = 1 by simple algebra.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 38 , Issue 326 , December 1954 , pp. 258 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1954

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Footnotes

Page 258 of note *

Presidential address to Cardiff Branch of the Mathematical Association, 5th November, 1952.

References

Page 265 of note * For a recent discussion see Hamel, G., Theoretische Mechanik, (Springer 1949), pp. 543-549, 629-636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar