At this time, someone came to tell the mathematician who had been blind for a long time that he had found a suitable corneal donor and needed to go to the hospital for corneal transplantation immediately.
But Erdos refused to give up the speech. Mathematics seems to be more important to the old man than his eyes. Friends were resolute and persuaded again and again, and Erdos finally got off the plane.
Who knows that I just entered the operating room and quarreled with the doctor again. Because the doctor dimmed the lights for the operation, Erdos could not read. In desperation, the doctor had to call the Department of Mathematics of the University of Memphis-"Can you send a mathematician to let Erdos talk about mathematics during the operation?"
The mathematics department met the doctor's requirements, and finally the operation went smoothly.
Up to now, the most prolific mathematician is full of confidence only if he stays in the field of mathematics. Once he left this field, he was almost at a loss.
Ordos has lived in the care of relatives and friends all his life. He can't close the window or use the shower. At a party on 1948, Erdos, 35, always couldn't tie his shoelaces properly, so he had to put out his foot for help in public.
More than eight years ago, because Erdos was "clumsy and unconventional", Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies was only willing to renew his contract for six months. Although the salary is low, Ordos doesn't care at all. His only allowance and salary were given to relatives, friends, colleagues, students and even strangers. Every time he meets a homeless person in the street, he always gives some money. In 1960s, Erdos, who was already a minor celebrity, was invited to give lectures in London for one year. Just after receiving the first month's salary, a beggar asked him for tea money, so Erdos only kept a small part of his living expenses and gave the rest of his salary to the beggar.
He leads an ascetic life himself. Apart from money, he doesn't like dealing with the opposite sex, which also makes some people rumor that he is gay. He hates female nudity so much that he is even teased for it. In the 1940s, Ordos participated in the activities of collecting food for war-torn China. Some guys know that Ordos hates naked women, so they propose that if Ordos goes to see striptease with them, they will donate $65,438+000. In order to raise the $65,438+000, Ordos accepted their proposal.
With the turbulence of the world situation, the Hungarian mathematician often wanders around Germany, the United States, China and India with two suitcases that are not full of clothes. These two boxes are all his possessions in this life.
Erdos seems to have no idea about the dispute over the priority of grades that often occurs in mathematics. "Paul is a unique wandering Jew. He traveled around the world and shared his guesses and opinions with other mathematicians. " Soifer, who has worked with Ordos, said.
On the streets of Princeton, people will see Ordos walking around, waving their hands and painting like no one's watching. Anyone who knows him knows that at this time, Ordos is often studying a mathematical problem. All a friend needs to do is watch him in case he gets lost and can't find his way home. Once, a friend accidentally got lost in Erdos. Finally, with great effort, they found Ordos in front of a wall. He is in vain because he can't figure out this math problem.
Sometimes, in order to discuss a mathematical problem or a mathematical discovery, Ordos will keep stuffing coins into public telephones all night and call mathematicians all over the world. He can remember the telephone numbers of these mathematicians, but he can't remember their names completely.
Ordos often goes to the corridor of mathematician trotter's house at 4 am, and then goes to the bed and asks the other person, "Is his brain open?" He wants to discuss some problems and assumptions with him.
The discussion about mathematics even brought trouble to Erdos. 1954, US immigration officials refused to grant Ordos a re-entry visa. In the archives of Ordos, they found that Ordos wrote a letter to Hua who resigned and returned to China in 1949 to discuss mathematical problems. Officials worry that those gobbledygook mathematical symbols in Erdos' letter to China may be passwords.
Of course, mathematics also solved the crisis for this person who can hardly take care of himself. Ordos often goes out without an ID card. 1963 was detained in Los Angeles for not obeying traffic regulations. Just as the police were about to send the penniless man to prison, Erdos took out a thick anthology of papers he carried with him, The Art of Computing, and the photo of him smiling in the first illustration set him free.
In Erdos' eyes, only mathematics is perfect and eternal, and it is worthy of his lifelong love and pursuit. In the last 25 years of his life, Erdos studied 19 hours of mathematics almost every day, so he often used stimulants to stimulate himself. When his friends advised him to have a rest, he always replied, "There is plenty of rest time in the grave." And his favorite sentence is, "Mathematicians are machines that turn coffee into mathematical theorems."
1March, 996, half a year before his death, Erdos, who was giving a speech, fainted in the middle, and all the participants left in shock. The speaker's first sentence after waking up was, "Tell them not to leave, I have two more questions to talk about."