A slacker was 20 minutes late and received two math problems… His solutions shocked his professor.
2020 ж. 8 Қыр.
9 677 527 Рет қаралды
Today I will tell you a relatively short story about a young man, which occurred many years ago. Even though the story contains nothing supernatural, I’m not exaggerating when I say that it was able to change the lives of millions across the world. In one way or another, every self-respecting successful person knows about it, and I think each one of you should hear it as well.
His statistics Professor must be recognized and awarded too, for not stealing it and taking the credit.
Damn that pretty low bar for professor... Which I admit is probably true and that very sad....
How would he be able to prove it?
@@carknower Yea he can prove it, he was amazed as how he got the answer. Many people that time was manipulative even in other inventions they took the credit, But George's Professor was indeed a great professional. Once you are a mathematician, if you encounter a first time problem, you only need to see a solution in how to get it to understand the whole things. But it's a low bar to a professor to take someone's work. A very beautiful history💓💕
@@carknower if u talking about how can the professor stealing the work. Well who ever the student was already wrote down the answer. It's just the matter of taking it back and examine it or reverse it to see how's it done
But he didn’t know that the student didn’t know that... Oh, never mind.
That reminds me of the time I myself was late for class. There was a problem written on the blackboard of which I thought it might be homework. So I spent a week trying to solve it. Then it hit me, that was surely an unsolvable problem! The next week I told the professor I tried hard, but failed to solve the problem, thus concluding it has to be unsolvable. Turned out, it was a normal homework assignment and I was just bad at it.
I feel
I touch
it was getting interesting until the last part.
F
@@kni8owl07 umm..cherry on the cherry cake?
A similar thing happened to me, though obviously on a vastly smaller scale. I was taking my maths degree at Oxford (which was a mistake - I would have done better at a less pressured university), and had a reputation as a poor student. I hadn't left myself much time to complete my homework and did it in a rush. In my tutorial my tutor looked at me oddly, and asked if I'd read this one question. I thought I had, but she added "and did you notice the part at the bottom pointing you to the section of the book that explains how to tackle questions like this?" I think I blushed, because I'd been going too fast to notice it. But she hadn't finished. "Well, congratulations. You've come up with a much better way of solving the problem. This is far more elegant, and I'll be using it in future." Best maths moment of my life. I wish I could remember what the question was!
Maths?
@@jimklemens5018 Yep, we studied more than one mathematic... 😉
@@elvwood r/BRITISHPERSONSPOTTED
@Science Revolution You mad bro?
The human mind is complicated and prefers complicated solutions . It takes much longer to create accurate simple solutions .
This is so true. I have fixed problems very easily when I thought they were easy and others thought they were difficult. It's in our mindset.
I'm going to tell a newborn baby to simplify the universe into a simple equation and say it's easy
@@han-huo bruh.hahahaha
I have love and hate and relationship with math. I do enjoy math,but my back hurts like hell.
I learned this in life: "If you don't know what you can't do, you can do anything".
Profound words but useless in real life
When I had a small custom printing company we had a sales woman who called on Coca Cola. We never could have taken on that account and we certainly didn't ask her to call them. But she was ambitious and we used to joke that she didn't know what she couldn't do. 😊
Success is when opportunity meets preparation. Without the years of solving geometry problems he would be sitting on his arse in class like all the other students.
It took me 1 month to understand this.
It’s very true that check and balance with in our mind keeps most people away from truly discovering one self. If I don’t know what I can’t do then path for doing anything is open due to the unknown.
"The person who says it can't be done should not interrupt the person already doing it." - Old Chinese Proverb
So true much is derailed by those who do nothing but interrupting those busy doing ...
ROTFLMAO
Why am I thinking about SpaceX and the ULA? ;-)
Preminded. What's there as Chinese in it?
@@rogersthilaire8179 bhhiy
Towards the end of my senior year in high school, I met with my HS school guidance instructor. When he asked me what I was going to do after graduation, I told him I was going to go to UT in Austin, TX. He smirked and told me to go to the local community college instead and learn a trade. Many years later, after obtaining my degree in economics and my juris doctorate, I ran into him at a grocery store. When I reminded him of our conversation many years back and that he had been completely wrong about my intellectual abilities, he replied that he was not wrong. In fact, he said, it was his intention to challenge me. He explained that by pretending to have zero faith in my abilities, I became motivated to prove him wrong. I thought it was a clever way to get out of it.
Reverse psychology is a common and often a very successful technique in motivation - especially with adolescents who like to prove authority wrong!
I suspect he was being disingenuous, and that he took the cowardly way out. He gave you bad advice, which speaks to his own character. What if you had taken it? He never followed up with you to make sure you hadn't pivoted because of his response did he?
Two points of view optimism and pessimism. I’ll take the positive can do view. 👍🏻
Using the simplex method to solve linear programming is such an elegant way to solve the problem. Not many steps are taken in order to reach the optimal solutions and it saves a lot of time. The inventor of this method really helped moved society towards a better future because every industry is using his techniques to solve their problems which results in a more efficient production.
And what is the answer? 🤔
Imagine what he could have accomplished if he had not attended at all.
🤣 🤣
You're hilarious
You made my day. LOL
now i am inspired to not attend my next class
Omg this is absolutely hilarious, I laughed out load for ages 😂
He never knew it was unsolvable that is why there was no limit for his brain to seek the answer...amazing story.
My parents were both school teachers. My father loved science, including math. I was more right-brained! I've often wished I had been a better student however. I remember both my parents complaining how the State of California was changing both math and reading books for the worse ( this was mid to late '60's). Since those days, one need only look around at the generations since, who can't do simple sums in their heads in order to charge you the correct amount for a cheeseburger and fries. More's the pity! The language of the universe is math. Eternal truth and truths, are absolute and eternal. They do not change from one planet to the next, from one universe to another. Nor from one plain of existence (or time) to another. It just IS. The only mysteries to us, in this mortal life, are these unsolved, mathematical problems. I guess it sounds silly, but of all that we lack and don't understand in this life, we must overcome through love. Love of self, love of others, and love of God. Really, this love is all we've got. Share it freely. All the rest will eventually fall into place. Just my 2 cents worth...!
@@1allanbmw They said the mathematical solution for love after 6 months remains unsolved ;)
how can professor know tht answer was correct even himself said tht question was remain unsolved for a decades..
It wasn't unsolvable, just that it hadn't been solved yet. In Math, once a problem is proven unsolvable, it's final - not solvable
@@MrNobody_7967 coz they cannot find the right path or approach to the formula
I'm 48 years old and lived my whole life in the US. I have met many, many more people who overestimate their ability, their knowledge, and their expertise, full of confidence, lacking introspection or any sense of self doubt, than people who just needed to believe in themselves in order to accomplish greatness.
What’s your point?
There is far too much overconfidence in this world, much of it is feigned and not even real. Most such people fall flat on their faces.
"I have never let school interfere with my education." Mark Twain
A friend told me a story about her grandfather who was a mathematics professor. He had a student who came to one class and received a 98% as a final grade. The professor met the young man and asked him how he attained the mark he got when he only attended one class. The student’s reply, ‘Well sir, I think the first class confused me.’
i don't get it...
@@ernestbien2346 I think he is indicating that he would have gotten 100 % if not for attending the class, and getting confused. It's a jab at the professors teaching ability I suppose
@@shinom0ri ohh ok, thanks
Well, in my case, I can only remember my maths professors are so bad at teaching difficult concepts in a simpler way I just tuned off after the 1st lecture. I subsequently spent my time in the library scouring the right books to self teach. I only attended the final lectures to hear from them what topics would possibly be examined. I graduated with maximum effort from myself and little understanding from the lessons taught by some of the most horrendous lecturers. You may wonder where? Well, I'm from Singapore, so you can go figure out...lol....There were times I thought I might as well attend distance learning program than go to this University.
@@ymhktravel dam the horrendous bit made me go insane
He's lucky the Professor didn't take all the credit!
Math teachers have high respect to their peers. I don't think this could happen
@@Melpheos1er Agreed. I had something similar happen to me - where my professor gave us a challenge assignment to create a new molecule. Took me 5 minutes to work it out and had my experimental written up to submit by the end of the lecture. My lab partner messed up the procedure and I was unable to complete the separation. (He grabbed the wrong separating agent - a nonpolar solvent). But my professor saved the work. It took six months of rotovapping to finally dry the oily substance (which I predicted) to a purity where its structure could be confirmed. Personally I didn't care about the credit. But the professor did give me the credit due. Of course, proving my work was his effort. So he more than deserved that credit. Frankly it would have gone much faster to re-run the experiment - this time with the right separating agent. But ... I was working with uranium in an effort to find a way to reclaim it from waste or contamination.
It's generally stupid to even do so. You have to prove the method used to prove you are the correct recipient of the credit for the solution. If you don't fully understand the method used, then you cannot break down the method into simple terms and thus you cannot teach it on to the next in an easy way. Yes, math teachers and professors love to calculate stuff. But they're also lazy and will always take the easy way out. Calculating things the easy way is always to be preferred
@@Arterexius Not in my experience. Math professors love proofs, not number crunching. It is more important to work out mathematical relationships than answers. It is physicists who hate deriving equations and go begging math professors for those.
if he had taken credit , he still has to explain how exactly he had done it and fail.. the professor wouldnt get away with lies unless he can exactly explain the way he solved the problem
Once upon a time, I took an exam for my Chemical Structures and Bonding class and solved a problem using 2 ratios of unknown quantities which allowed me to give a quantitative answer. The prof brought up my answer later saying she was only looking for a qualitative answer and did not know it was possible to solve it quantitatively. Felt good!
Kristine, you ARE Smart! 👍
The mind is powerful. He unlocked that hidden potential we gain with determination. He never knew it was unsolvable so that doubt obstacle never arose.
The biggest problem with the institution’s of higher learning is their population of lecturers who think that their knowledge is perfect and that they have nothing to learn. A mind works best when it is open ! Knowing methods doesn’t mean that they are the only successful methods …. I believe that the crews of Spacex and Tesla Autos are leading edge because they don’t just depend on what is, they strive to beat the rest of the market ….
Yep!
I'm going to raise a baby and tell it gravity is optional
Exactly right.
That’s why I firmly believe in a saying: “If we all think the same, then no one is thinking.” 🤓
Progresive college campus "debate" = no alternative views or opinions allowed.
Nardz Arrieta Yes there was a similar situation in the early 1960,s at Cambridge . A student 👨🎓 shirked and loafed about , his lecturers wearied Of Him , and wanted to send him down . But a fair minded lecturer decided no we will allow him a Viva Voca , so they got a hard professor to come in and set him a Viva Voca . Hours seemed to go by and nothing , then suddenly the professor came rushing out more than enthusiastic , declaring he would not allow the undergraduate a Third , but a First he had such a brilliant mind . The lecturers were up in arms because they wanted to deprive the student of a Third even and ranted and resisted the First award 🥇 so after much arguing and ranting he had to detract from the First award to one lower a 2/1 as they wanted to award a First to a more sober studious Student 👨🎓. You just never know if a person is hiding their light 💡 under a bushel.
How does someone know how to think out of the box, when they're in that box? Best example...Nicola Tesla.
@@carlfrye1566 I doubt that. Prove it
There are flaws in that theory.
Context: " Go late to lecture to unlock your full potential."
r/madlads
Genius 👍 I might try that
😂
Jokes on you, I’m always late
@@tatarotoda3618 he was good at arithmetic,what about you?
The world mathematicians: This is impossible to solve! George: I missed the part where that's my problem.
He missed the part where the teacher explained that it wasn't his problem
I understood that reference 😉
kzhead.info/sun/nKd6kaaPpH2Kd58/bejne.html
Lol, 🤣🤣🤣😎👍
My father, born in 1921, went to school in OK and had to drop out pick cotton, his dad was a Constable, he went back to school and was able to up even going up 6 grades higher, joined Navy, electrical Engineer and all that helping his big family as the youngest boy during depression on up! Amazing the drive people have to accomplish dreams ❤
As one joke says: Never say, that something cannot be done, because there is always some idiot, who doesn't know about that and will do it :)
Ill keep that in mind!😂
He can’t be an idiot if he/she can solve it!
@@sandramcmann4720 he certainly was not. It is quite the opposite, thats the joke about. That lazy people say it cannot be done, so they don’t have to do it or don’t know how, and then there is this one person, who didn’t hear , that this problem “is” insolvable and does it. The “Idiot” is in quotes here, because he in fact makes idiots from all those, who said it can not be done.
keeping that in mind
So how did the scratch yer right elbow with yer right hand experiment go?
Many people will say "ha, you just have to believe in yourself" and forget the 17 years of tough prep that George's math teacher dad gave to him growing up.
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% transpiration. -- Edison
Ha Ha. But it is PER spiration.
@@richardcollier1912 other languages....
No one in this video said that soooooooo….. not really central to the overall point kid
@@p2pportal Read the comments, blinders-boy.
This story is true. I met George Danzig back in the early 80's at an Operations Research conference. He was a humble regular guy.
Woowow man...
Cool
WHEN I MET GEORGE HE STOLE MY LUNCH AND SAID SOLVE THIS
@@fukusamon4277 Yeah, most geniuses are bullies.
That was actually George foreman, it's what started his career. @@fukusamon4277
I WHOLEHEARTEDLY believe that it’s the truth. Our problems are a result of our perception. Effectively - telling ourselves it’s impossible takes away our belief that it’s impossible!
1st requirement of being a true teacher: Don't tell your students that anything is unsolvable. Tell them it hasn't been solved... yet.
The school system will never be legitimate until predatory teachers who harass students are immediately fired.
@@lanceknightmare bro what
@@wisdomisawesome5934 Predators include anyone who causes harm through words or physical contact with a student. Verbal abuse for many students causes far more harm than a physical attack.
Except, you ignore human psychology. Tell me I can't do something, then stand back and watch me do it!
@@larryjones8848 I believe a person's ability to do something or not do something has to do with their mental aptitude. If the task exceeds your aptitude then you need to increase your aptitude up to the value needed to accomplish the task. If your aptitude exceeds the task then it is only a matter of time before you solve it.
"The Fool didn't knew that he couldn't do it , so he did it "
this comment is wickedly underrated
This is a genius comment
He forgot how to fail
@@BuddinGHP No, he didn't knew he could fail
😄
He took "It's all a part of the plan." to a next level.
something similar happened to me at my company. A problem that was being worked on for 25 years was assigned to me when I was first hired... 5 months later, while I was thinking I was going to be fired for not finding the answer quick enough, the answer came to me. I was on a call, and in a meeting, and wanted to run to the lab to try my new theory, and while I couldn't at the time, when I realized I solved it, I was elated! it was only after I presented my findings that I was let in on the secret that nobody had figured it out.. before I did.. Thank you for this! I love stories like this!
I was horrible in regular math and when I had to take Algebra I knew I'd get an "F". Not only did I get an "F" for the class, I got an "F" on every test, exam and homework assignment. I asked my teacher for help, with tutoring, willing to come to school early, stay late, skip lunch to study to no avail. His time was his time and it was up to me todo the work. The last day of school my Algebra teacher told me I would amount to nothing. I'd be a complete and utter failure in life. I graduated all right by the skin of my teeth. I joined the Army and when I got out I became a police officer. I was working traffic enforcement one day when I stopped this speeding car. It was being driven by my former Algebra teacher. I recognized him immediately and of course he had no clue who I was, other then the cop that just pulled him over. He asked for a break, one more chance, willing to do anything to get out of the ticket. He promised he would obey all traffic laws and be a better driver.I asked him, do you remember an Algebra student who got "F's' on everything and asked for help? He was willing to come to school early, skip lunch, stay late for a little tutoring. You told him he would amount to nothing and be a complete and utter failure in life. That student was me and here is your traffic ticket.
Thankyou kind sir
But, sorry to say; then you were no better than him.
sweet, sweet revenge :D
@@burchardisbasement2671 Yes, he was. Shouldn't let someone putting the public in danger go just because you need to feel like you are better than them.
@@burchardisbasement2671 false equivalency
He’s lucky the professor didn’t claim the answers as his own
Professor probably knew he couldn’t replicate it.
Happened to me in high school. I figured out a shortcut for geometry, because our teacher would let the first person to solve a problem, close to the end of the school day, to leave early. He asked me how I did it. He decided to pass it as his own with some college professors. He was offered a job, then came to me to explain my system, but I had found out about it and said no. His job offer disappeared since he couldn't duplicate it. I was upset because he was favorite teacher. If he had asked me first, I would have agreed.
@@carmenortiz5294 did you publish it in the end? Check if the proofs been published yet in a paper through an online search and if not, you could publish it on one of the mathematics communities online.
@@carmenortiz5294 You shouldn't agree, it was your work, not his, he doesn't deserve it, it's fair, meritocratic
@@lilianzhang2789 No, I was still a minor. Plus, he couldn't figure out the formula and I did not tell him. I saw it as a betrayal. He got his punishment, when they took back the offer. I ran into him years later and he was obviously drunk.
Read the book "The Man Who Knew Infinity", about an Indian boy who solved theorems that University math professors could not. His name was Ramanajuan. He was constantly writing equations on scrap paper, on metal with pieces of coal, whatever he could find. He died young while at Cambridge University from pneumonia in the late 1890s. His equations are still being discovered to solve modern day problems in space, etc.
Yes, Ramanajuan was an amazing genius and I believe he said that a god was telling him the equations. Another amazing guy is Tesla figuring out alternating current and applying.
Ramanujan passed in 1920 he went to Cambridge in 1915-ish. He was born in 1887
@@johnferrara392 not a god but a local goddess... probably an emanation of Sarasvati.
@@MrCookding He credited his acumen to his family goddess, Namagiri Thayar (Goddess Mahalakshmi) of Namakkal. This godess is for wealth, not knowledge (Sarasvati ).
@@rayrwyr Thanks. It seems her salutations or sloka praises her as embodiment of knowledge as well: "... Who is Lakshmi, Who has within her all Vedas, who is learned and intelligent..."
Got to admire anyone that solves a math problem with a fountain pen.
imagine your a scientist and heard that the unsolved question you were trying to solve was just solve by a person late to class everyday and just took a few days when you took years
It happens quite often. Mathematicians have the shortest peak period than almost any other professional. The real math geniuses are in their 20s, likely just in graduate schools. The work that are approved to be revolutionary later on sometimes were just their school paperworks. After peak time, most of them do research work which is important too
@M R I was a student of math in my first university study and a teacher of math in high-school. I was not a student of math history tho. The comment came from my readings not research. Key words in the comments are geniuses and revolutionary.
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There was once a famous problem in math announced in like the 18th century, and LOTS of mathematicians took the year off just to work on it, while Leonard Euler solved it in one afternoon.
You are = you're
"I'm not going to talk about his childhood..." *Proceeds to talk about his childhood*
Yesnt
He gets more money the longer he can draw it out. More room for ads. I fast forwarded thru it in 90 seconds.
@@happydays8171 Yup, 90 seconds was about the point where I was like, "fuck this, get to the point"
Also, "he was not a genius"...goes on to have many genius level accomplishments.
Over 7 minutes to tell a 1 minute story. I hate these stupid channels.
Great story, great unsung hero, great moral to the story. If you don't know what you can't do, there's less stopping you from doing it.
I'm a maths student Now I'm struggling with an assignment form the past two days....and feel too exhausted ...... This story inspires me to solve that problem and regains my self belief
The great thing about solving impossible problems is that there's no competition. If everybody believes it's impossible, you're the only one trying.
Well said.
Here here...
No there's plenty of people that try to solve unsolved problems. The problems werent even described to be impossible, just not solved yet........
I believe, "There are no problems -- there are only increasingly creative solutions!"(TM)
Lack of competition breeds complacency. Competition breeds innovation. Simply stated, if you make a product for sale and you are the only one making it there's no reason to improve it as long as it sells but if there's 2 other companies making similar products and they come out with a better product then you are forced to improve upon the original in order to stay competitive. Competition creates progress, progress is what drives society forward.
Anyone who does math in ink must be a genius.
Hahaha
Have you never used a pen for math class
Work with the tools at your disposal and allow your skills and abilities to be honed or enhanced as you adapt to the more demanding challenge. Limiting ones own ability to succeed by not believing that the possibility of success is unrealistic also works in the opposite as depicted in this story.
Nah, just means that they forgot a pencil
@@demonic_minotaur9148 ..good..
In my high school final exam for probability and statistics class, there was one problem that I could not recall ever having encountering during the semester, so I just used what I knew and derived what I thought would be the formula to calculate the odds. It turned out to be correct and when afterward I asked my teacher the following semester, she show me how the problem was suppose to be solved (according to the teacher's manual) and it turned out I had derived a different approach to solving the problem just not the way the people who designed the exam thought it should be done.
Perception, Perspective, and Interpretation are everything!
I'm guessing when George went to do a PHD, the Uni told him to just use his old homework as his PHD thesis.
The story has been pretty distorted... He was already enrolled on the doctoral programme at UCB when this happened
He was already in his PhD program at that point but when he was ready to start his PhD and was unsure what his thesis topic should be, he went to his thesis advisor who told him to basically just pretty up those pages and hand them in as his thesis.
@@MiniAgnostic I was just wondering about that. Typically you would need some good foundations in real analysis and even complex analysis before solving any open math problem.
The Thesis is connected to a Masters degree, the Ph.D vehicle is a Dissertation, not a thesis.
@@jimfowler5930 It actually depends on the particular program. Some call it the PhD thesis, although dissertation is the standard term. See, for example, dmse.mit.edu/graduate/programs/doctoral/thesis
A slacker?........No, not hardly. He was a brilliant person who “marched to the beat of a different drummer.” It takes all kinds to make this world.👍
I GOT ASKED TO LEAVE COLLEGE BECAUSE MY ART WORK MADE THE OLD RICH WOMEN FEEL WEIRD. 3.82 GPA.
Truth
I have to remind myself that when my 14 year old boy doesn't get up until noon but gathers full marks on his sciences tests... still, it is sometimes hard to live every day with a gifted minded person. I told him he would have to praise me for my patience and support if he receives a Nobel Prize. It has become a family joke everything he's "slacking" :-)
Love the story. This reminds me of the book: The obstacle is the way. Sometimes The solution is the problem itself. But in this the problem is the framing of the problem, not the actual problem. We create our own impossible wall by focusing on the "impediment." I wonder how many more "geniuses" would have solved it if the professor had said he was providing an "easy" riddle for those that wanted extra credit.
yeah or at least test them, then say don't worry it is no possible. others might have continued to try afterwards.
I'm going to raise a baby and tell it that gravity is optional
What is the book you are referring to?
Yes, I think he would have had a lot of students Trying to work it out.
@@JS-jh4cy "The obstacle is the way" written by Ryan Holiday.
Thank God for outliers and the teachers who do not automatically dismiss them. Needed more of this during Covid.
bruhhhh imagine coming late to class then accidentally solving one of the worlds most mysterious questions thinking it was homework.
Coming late and falling down a flight of stairs in front of the professor but hey am A on the Final, I helped my friend study the night before - he was a bit embarrassed 🙃
And he solved them all bcs he felt guilty for being late
My mother always said, "They said it couldn't be done but the darn fool didn't know it and went ahead and did it anyway."
Mac gardner lot of woman told me they didn't want to do it but I did it anyways. I'll be damned if you tell me what I can and can't do. ;) Roadhouse!
Thanks! now ill always attend my classes 20 min late
Certainly not nearly to this extent but in school I'd struggled a bit with Calculus and thus made an honest attempt at grasping the subject to the very best of my ability by working every problem in the entire textbook by hand on paper, in and out, back and forth, until I became quite proficient. There was one last problem in the textbook which I hadn't attempted to work through and thus decided I was prepared. This was no doubt the most challenging problem in the entire book so I knew I must tackle it to prove to myself I'd learned how to perform Calculus to the greatest extent possible from this textbook. Well, my result differed from the result given in the textbook and by following through the example I'd concluded the author had made a mistake! So, I presented my finding to the professor, explaining I believed there was a mistake in this challenging textbook example. He completely blew me off and was not in the least bit interested.
That school teacher should have been hauled up to the school headmaster...by your parents...he is there to teach, and also inspire students. If I had an English teacher like that I would never past English and Englis Lit. for my leaving certificate. Instead, our English teacher thought nothing of staying back a bit longer to help me with my Shakespeare, and Chaucer as well. I passed with decent marks because we had a teacher who cared, and wanted us ALL to succeed, we all passed. (My other subjects were OK but English was my best subject. It qualified me years later to be a 'grammar nazi' in social media...😅😂😅 All those years of training paid off.)
I love showing up arrogant teachers. I remember my little sister, 4 years younger struggling with high school math. The teacher tried to put her on the spot by doing the home work on the blackboard. Little did he know I showed her how to do the homework faster using Calculus that would not be taught for several more years and she understood it. The teacher did not have a lot to say when other students did not understand her method yet she had the correct answer.
I have a similar story. When my son was about 16 years old, he hated asking me for homework help in his Math. I loved Math in school but had forgotten most of it, on purpose, but he was desperate one time because he really could not grasp an Algebra concept. I knew of a trick to get the right answer with a minimum of calculations. His teacher wondered what was going on since it was not something he taught and didn't even know about that 'cheat solution'. He phoned me the next day because he was impressed. Glad, since I thought I was going to be told that it was better not to show alternate ways of doing the problems.
Lol, I still remember the day I learned how to solve square roots using calculus. It's so much easier.
@@islandgal500 when I was a graduate student, I moved out of town so I took one of my last classes at a different school and transferred the credit. It was an advanced biomechanics class. The Professor taught a solution to a problem that had an easier solution. I happened to learn it at the other school I attended. The students there weren't familiar with it and had a difficult time solving the problems using the more difficult way. It was a small class so I was able to show everyone in class the easier way before the exam. All he could say was "yeah, you can solve it that way too."
@@MR-fn7rw Sometimes the ego of a teacher gets in the way of being impressed by an alternative and easier method of solving. Glad at least you got to show everyone.
I mean lets all be real calculus could be taught to a mich younger audience because it isn t really a difficutl concept to grasp and once you grasp it it is all about practise
Showing algebra to describe "the boy was solving geometry problems" .... two demerits.
Yep, showing math in movies but it's actually sports
And you have never read the work of René Descartes?
Wrong. At advanced levels algebra is the language of geometry
@@martinmuller3244 Exactly, "like he's shaking his fist from the grave, LOL."
@@higherbeingX Algebras are the core of all maths, I state this with the greatest of humility...."We gonna get all abstract on your buttocks."
"I didn't know that it was impossible. I just did what I had to do." For centuries, college professors have dreaded hearing such words... and their students have dared to surprise themselves anyway.
There is a story of a philosophy professor who gave an exam and the question was simple. He writes the world "Why?" on the board and students are writing, filling up blue book after blue book. However one student turns in a very short answer and gets an A. The answer he wrote was "why not?" Another one: I knew someone that had a college essay question. It was What is the riskiest thing you have done in your life? He drew a big X through the question and sent it back. (back before college applications were computerized). He got accepted.
Awesome. In both cases, they finished the challenge so quickly and got passing marks to boot.
dumb -
@charlesflannery4610- I remember hearing the "why" story decades ago. I thought that if the student who wrote why not was someone the prof didn't like then that student would have gotten a failing grade and we would never have heard this story. That's life.
Never tell kids that something is impossible. You'll stunt their abilities. Instead only present them the challenges.
Man will never fly was a constant refrain before man figured out how to fly.
In math nothing is impossible untill proven. "No one solved it yet", that's different. That is exactly what you're saying, to present a hard challenge.
That is mean to not tell them that pi can not be represented as a ratio of integer. They could solve real challenge instead of chasing wild geese.
You're a legend
Kinda lying don’t you think?
I feel that not believing in ourselves is the largest problem to solve. Another though is the normal human routine is, if there's a problem which is deemed too difficult, nothing ensues.
Your mind is the most powerfull think u will every have!!!! We are humans ouer brain and mind is all we got ;) You can and you will do everything if you just NEVER give up!!!!!!!!
Edit: kzhead.info/sun/lcyeeM6prZ2XlIE/bejne.html
@@hmcredfed1836 Mind and Spirit are not one and the same.
I battles with it all my life
What is needed is motivation. With motivation, people don't quit, even when the problem is extremely hard. That's how hard problem is solved
I was taking my first college level chemistry course and was quite anxious about it. I decided I would have to try extra hard to be good at it. On final exam, my calculator died. Yes, these were ancient times. I told the instructor, hoping there would be one I could borrow. There was not. I had to do all the calculations by hand, and they were long. I thought I would flunk out. Turns out, I had the highest grade in the class and the teacher asked if I would tutor other students, which I did.
This story reminds me of a friend. We were studying Logic at high school and he was always kinda distracted in class or arrived late. When the final exam arrived, I used the logical solution the teacher was expecting from us to solve it. However, my friend came up with a totally different solution we had not studied to solve it. He of course had it right to my surprise and the shocked face of the teacher. We always remember that moment fondly and laugh at it. He went on to study telecommunications engineering.
just because it reminds you does not mean that your friend made as monumental a discovery as George Danzig actually made here.
@@anastassiosperakis2869You're quite a ray of sunshine 😉
For those who don't have patience... Kid comes late to class and accidentally answers problems that he thought were the homework but were in reality 2 "unsolvable" math problems. Done
thank you
thx now i dont have to waste 7 mins of my life
@@magicianwizard4294 np
Underrated comment tbh
If you just read this, you'll miss 7 min of completely unrelated images showing scribbled notes of just about anything but statistics.
Einstein said 'Imagination is more useful than knowledge ' I was wrong, he said it " ... is more important than ... ".
I have shocked many with a college education who think you are stupid w/o a college degree. Don't think I don't think a college degree is important because it is VERY IMPORTANT. BUT many punish you for climbing (thinking) out of the box. This is a major flaw of collage Education. Thinking only inside the box. All walks of life think this way. Many times I have been asked what college I went to. You can see them discount you as stupid when you tell them The college of hard knocks. It's not my Problem they are STUPID.
Actually he said, “I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
No he didnt
Love Einstein's quotes. Look at Winston Churchill's quotes. He was also a genius.............
Catherine Rogers - doesn't it help to have at least a little knowledge before your imagination takes over . . . . ? ?
My dad drove a chicken truck in Mississippi in the early 1930s. There was a depression. He went on to earn 3 masters degrees from MIT and was a Captain in the Naval Reserve. You can do many things if you are not told that it is impossible.
This reminds me when I was working construction and on weekends I was a janitor as a very prestigious college. One of the math professors used to put on a chalk board in the hallway and I anonymously solved equations until I got caught. Since I grew up in a foster home I was in trouble with the police a lot. The math professor found me and got me a deal with the court as long as I saw a therapist. The therapist helped me finally get my life straightened out. Now I make bank doing classified math problems. I live in California with my wife who's a British Dr.
Brilliant 😂😂
So, you're the inspiration for Good Will Hunting, eh?
My Mother had a saying, "He was young and innocent and didn't know it couldn't be done, so he did it anyway."
And RIGHT she was.
My son wasn't listening when his math teacher told the class there wasn't enough information given to solve one of the problems so don't try. (She was wrong.) He was working the problems out. About the time she finished talking, he handed in the assignment. He then had to explain to her how. She wasn't very good at math.
Stash the Iconoclast my mother had a saying, "woman are trouble."
Luke: “I don’t believe it!” Yoda: “That is why you fail.”
lol, hahaha🤣🤣🤣
Thank you. I have gone through a rather stressful time in my life. These videos does what most other videos don't do. They calm me down. And, just as important, they remind me, that there's more to life than material wealth.
Loved this story .. it has a lot in it for all of us to learn n grow from .. the fact that it was an ‘unsolvable’ problem was a problem… because if the problem was even presented at all tells that there’s an answer .. just not yet. I’m glad that this regular student who was willing to do the work figured it out .. I hated math n my mom used to tell me you’d better learn it because when you grow up you’ll have to figure out mathematical issues everyday … I thought she was crazy … and then I grew up .. I’m good at math now n very quick .. life’s funny isn’t it ?
Incorrect. Just the fact that something can be presented as a problem does not mean there is a solution. There are any number of maths problems that have been proved to have no solution.
I once told my boss to bring me any product that the customer told him they had been told "it couldn't be printed" and I would find a way to do it. Three years later we had 20 printers working full time, all employing my tricks. The "think out of the box" "don't give up" "It can be done" attitude. is real, It can MAKE NEW THINGS HAPPEN.
The problem is in mistaking has not been done with cannot be done. There are definitely some things that can never be done but they are a very small number of things and the only thing I consider impossible is something that has been formally proven to be impossible, not simply something that simply hasn't been done as of yet. Too many times people say "it can't be done" when they really mean "I won't be doing it."
You are lucky you didn't have a jealous boss ...and not get fired and he took credit for you Ideas....IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME!!!!
Narrator: he's not a genius But yet still he solved something no one in the world could I don't know what you called that but it sounds pretty genius to me
Hear hear ^^^
One simply cannot define genius based on public performance or appearance, there are for sure many gifted people out there with extraordinary capabilities that fly under the radar.
@@HansensUniverseT-A I agree
What about Pickle RIck tho
And really, really smart.....
What a marvelous story! Way to go, George :-)
Great story. Good on you George, miracles do happen.
This is why your kid can operate things you think are impossible. They don't know that they can't !!
Wow I’m 8 I can think of stuff very very weird
And I ha e a lot of nightmares
Have*
Like figure out a "childproof" bottle seal.
@@darthbiker2311 Childproof is intended for toddlers and younger though. At 5 or older they can typically read or figure how to open the bottle.
When “impossible” becomes “I’m possible”.
wasn't that a qoute from Audrey Hepburn?:)
Yes, could be. I heard it a long time ago and it fit in this situation.
Corny af
Except if it is impossible, it is impossible. The problem is people thinking, "well no one has solved it yet so therefore it cannot be solved." There are actually problems that have been proven to be unsolvable (and by proven to be unsolvable, I do mean yet, there is a proof that demonstrates that the problem itself is unsolvable) -- there is a whole class of problems in mathematics and computer science that are in this category - don't even bother to try to solve them, you never will and any "solution" you offer will always contain an error. However, there is also a much larger class of problems that have never been solved. Go solve one of these as yet unsolved problems and reap the rewards!
Or, Kim Possible.
Reminds me of my math class in college. Teacher thought I was the laziest student by never buying her extra book of notes to help with the math class. I kept quiet and did the work. At the end of class I was the highest rank student.
Certainly not in English. Ranked.
This is too motivational for a guy who needs to sleep
The Philosophy of Bruce Lee …..“Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation”
@Baxter James ofc one has to have the talent and work ethic needed. However if we take this example the person with the talent and work ethic would have never even attempted the question if he knew it to be impossible to solve.
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Having no pants as your pants
A classic : he did it because he didn't know it was impossible.
I agree with George saying he would not have tried to solve the maths problem if he had heard that no one has been able to solve it. The professor could have stolen George’s work and told everyone he solved the problem. What a great guy he was.
Jerzy Neyman, the professor involved here, would never have done that, but I do know of a stats prof in that department who 'shared' a PhD student's thesis topic with someone else at a conference, and that person beat the student to the answer.
Indeed! Had heard this story in the 70's. Was taken back by it then, and again reminded of it as a well told story!
Man didn’t know it was impossible, so he did it.
Yes,human mind is just extraordinary
Sigma Grindset
I'm going to raise a baby and tell it that gravity is optional
@@han-huo 😹
Most geniuses are broke - money is not a motivator, challenges are.
My Dad, a math professor, told me a version of this story when I was growing up as a lesson about assumptions. Just because everyone tells you something is impossible, doesn’t mean it is.
My favorite movie, Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon
This story truly is an example of "Where there is a will, there is a way," Remember: Just because someone says that something is unsolvable, does not mean that it can't be solved. All it takes is someone who is more than willing to give it a try, and keep at it and before you know it, an answer will come to you.
People say it is impossible to build a space elevator from current materials but I realized it would be possible if done in stages as we now build rockets in stages. On a space elevator the heavy lifting is done at the center where multiple tethers could be used in the first stage and gravity is virtually zero which means no weight penalty. Fewer tethers would be used on consecutive stages as you move out from center. Patents are not granted for things that are impossible. I now have a patent on this method.
A friend of mine in high school was in AP math and solved the derivative of x on his own without it being first explain to him. in his words it just made sense. There was a test and his answer took a quarter page of work. The rest of the class including the teacher needed two pages to show their work. His Professor did not understand his method and had to go to his old college professor to get it explained to him and then my friend got to explain it to the whole class. a real genius. He worked in computer programming for a while and the last time I looked he's selling real estate. Kind of weird but how many people are working in their planned occupation?
lol the derivative of x is 1, doesn't take a genius
@@warpromo6636 is there work involved? Maybe I stated it wrong. It was something like that. College calculus in 11 grade hs.
@@geniferteal4178 the derivative of f(x) = x is 1. since at any point on the function, the slope is 1, u get it?
@@geniferteal4178 currently doing pre calc in 9th
@@warpromo6636 ty don't care. Lol. He did something spectacular. He was also a great programmer. Surprised he's doing realestate now.
People who are very talented have a gift to see through the problems that arise in front of them with ease .. while the rest of us struggle ..they seem to know were everything goes without much thought ... It's like they can clearly see the finished product ... They just have to decide how to get there...
Nice story to hear! This is the right person at the right place the right time! The missing of the fact about "nobody in the field has solved the problem" allowed him to focus on the problem itself! In my field of computer engineering, I also had similar incidents, although less dramatic and nobody would talked about... lol.
Awww bro. You only need to realize tiosw experiences are miniatures of bigger ones to come! 😊
Why didn't he just ask a friend from his class what he'd miss? :P
Probably a loner like me (╥_╥)
same
worked in his favour
He didn't have any friends, lol
Even if he had a friend , he wouldn't ask ihm or her, because he doesn't needed other helps and he believes in himself , so the cause if this reaction was to solve the Impossible problem in Mathe/ Geometrie.
Going forward I'll be 20 minutes late for everything.
The best advice to Graduates be human and be real about your convictions.
OUTSTANDING how do you sum up an ABSOLUTE GENIUS super story.
My dad, a pathologist, was in a meeting with colleagues who were presenting cases on a powerpoint. One doctor was presenting a biopsy of a colon in which cancer had been ruled out and he was seeking input on what it could be. My dad, whose mind had wandered so he did not hear that cancer had been ruled out, was asked directly what he thought and he emphatically declared that it was cancer. A week or so later the doctor called my dad and informed him that since he had been so emphatic he ordered another biopsy and they found the cancer. He may have saved the patient's life by not listening in a meeting.
awesome dad. Thanks for sharing this!
No, he just knew what he was looking at
This story has brought to my mind an experience that I had in high school. I was in a plane geometry class that I found boring and very seldom turned in any home work. My instructor had a habit of assigning the most challenging problems from our text book to be presented on the class black board. The problem that he tasked me with kept me up most of the night until I discovered an obscure way around the problem's "trap". After I filled the class room boards with my solution my teacher said that my solution was accurate but that I had wasted allot of time involving unnecessary steps. I challenged him to show me a shorter proof for that problem. He then suggested that I should have used a particular axiom that would have made the problem much more easy to solve. I said to him that the method that he had now mentioned was not one that was available to us until the next chapter in our text book. For a few moments, he was without words. He said that the problem could not be solved without that particular axiom, but he stepped back from the board and thought about it and admitted that somehow I had managed to do what should not have been possible.
Well done
Good work
My ancestor invented the wheel, FACT!
@@philipocallaghan Wow.. Mine too... maybe we are related. :D
@@paulhope3401 The dude must've watched Good Will Hunting before he commented.
In reality, he came to the class at the perfect time, right on time. I like when a parent asks me to give a child guitar lessons and all I have to tell them is your child doesn't need my help, just your encouragement.
The Slackers rarely do well In life.This story is an exceptional situation.
Judging a book by it's cover are we? Most "slackers' are just bored to tears by having to listen to lectures structured by the less capable, for the less capable.
If at first you don't succeed, pass the assignment to one of your students.
... and then take the credit. Jocelyn Bell
Pippi Longstocking is a great series showing kids exactly this: "I never tried that before, so I should definitely be able to do it" I tell my son every day being stubborn (in Dutch we call it "your own way" ~ eigenwijs ~ an even more succinct definition of this trait) is a great trait to have. If I ever fall in the trap of telling him he is being stubborn, for sure he will tell me that it is a good thing. And knowing myself, I will step back and agree. Its just lazy parenting, ego or peer pressure to call your kid stubborn as a negative. It should be celebrated!
To be fair, Pippi Longstocking did have the overwhelming advantage of being the strongest (and richest) little girl in the world. ... That, and the fact that she was fictional. ;) But I still agree that children should not be held back except when absolutely necessary for safety of life and limb (their own or others').
hmmm so youre saying if you tell people that they wont progress because people are keeping them down and they shouldnt try, that would be a bad thing to do? i agree and we have a good amount of that here in america.
@Melkior Wiseman The latter of course clearly outways the first as the first is only a result of the latter ;-) Fair enough, but many phylosophers have done thought experiments to come to a verifiable real life conclusion and in that vein one could argue there is abundant empiric evidence Pippi was on to something :D
Agreed. Growing up, my mom seemed to define the word "stubborn" as having my own perspective and not instantly conceding to her. Too many kids today give up the moment they face adversity; they could use a little stubbornness.
What you mean is persistent, not stubborn. Stubborn is about self, it's "my way or no way, no matter what". Persistent is about goal, it's "I will achieve this, despite all the difficulties".
My late Mother attended schools in England during the nineteen twenties. She was hopeless at math. One test she handed in to be marked was reviewed by the teacher and when returned, bore the notation, "I have given you 10 marks out of 100 because your answers are so neatly written but all so neatly wrong."
My father had a similar story. He graduated HS when he was 21 because he'd been diagnosed with diabetes a few years before. That would have been 1924. I am not sure what year he graduated college in Florida in, I would have to look that up. But I am thinking he waited a few years before going. A professor presented the problem on the board and said it was unsolvable. Daddy rolled up his sleeves and got to work. And he solved it! He tried in later years to explain what the problem was and what the answer meant but my eyes glazed over. I have always wondered what the problem was. I wonder if it was this same one....He had a brilliant mind and worked at Oat Ridge during WW II. later he taught HS science and loved it.
Imagine if there was a 3rd problem that deals with dividing by zero
Good thing it wasn’t or we would have to do it
If he figured that out, he would discover how to destroy energy.
I know the answer to that, it's was infinity. If think logically
@@elamsyar7745 I used to think that way, too. But then I realize there are numbers less than zero, the negatives and going by that logic dividing by negative should give us a results larger than infinity
@@aimar2122 in 3 months of time you will find out that we already know what happens when a number is divided bya negative number. Spoiler alert : Its not even close to being large
Whenever you think you can’t, you are correct. What you can conceive you can achieve.
At first I knew that he was going to get it correct but then it was correct so I was correct that he was correct about being correct.
For 40 years I taught math and physics courses at the university level. From time to time I would make out an exam for the students and include a problem that I had not already solved, assuming that I could solve it before grading the students exams. On a few occasions I found I could not solve the problem. However, in most instances there was one or more students who submitted a correct solution. Pressure appears to at times allow us to accomplish what we could not do under normal conditions. I tried to award those students accordingly.