Mathematical folklore can also refer to the unusual (and possibly apocryphal) stories or jokes involving mathematicians or mathematics that are told verbally in mathematics departments. Compilations include tales collected in
G. H. Hardy's ''
A Mathematician's Apology'' and ; examples include: •
Srinivasa Ramanujan's
taxicab numbers. •
Galileo dropping weights from the
Leaning Tower of Pisa. • An apple falling on
Isaac Newton's head to inspire his theory of gravitation. •
John von Neumann's encounter with the famous
fly puzzle. • The drinking, duel, and early death of
Galois. •
Richard Feynman cracking safes in the Manhattan Project. •
Alfréd Rényi's definition of a mathematician: "a device for turning coffee into theorems". •
Pál Turán's suggestion that weak coffee was only suitable for
lemmata. • Sir
William Rowan Hamilton, in a sudden moment of inspiration,
discovered quaternions while crossing
Brougham Bridge. == See also ==