The classroom was quiet and the students looked at each other. At this time, a student walked unhurriedly to the podium, picked up the second cup and poured red water into the seventh empty cup, then picked up the fourth cup and poured red water into the ninth empty cup, and put them back in their respective positions. Empty cups and full cups are staggered.
This child is martin gardner. He moved two cups, but changed the water content of four cups. The teacher praised Martin happily. Then the teacher took away seven cups, leaving only three empty cups on the table. He took out 10 shells from the drawer and asked: Who can put these 10 shells into three plastic cups so that each cup is odd?
The students thought and thought, tried various schemes and failed. Martin gardner stepped onto the podium again, put 10 shells into two cups evenly, and then picked up a cup and put it into the third empty cup.
The teacher praised loudly, "Martin, you are really good at thinking." Can you tell me what you think? " Xiao Martin said, "The number of shells will not change. We can only find a way on the cup within the scope of conditions, so I came up with this practice. "
Martin gardner's train of thought made the students feel enlightened, thinking like a tide, and came up with many methods in an instant.
1936 Gardner graduated from the university of Chicago, majoring in philosophy. Before entering the university, he was a Protestant fundamentalist who believed that God created the world in seven days. Through rational thinking, his faith disappeared in the university, and in the following years, he became a skeptic (in the United States, skeptics are almost synonymous with atheists). After graduation, he worked as a reporter in his hometown newspaper. During the Second World War, he became an army reporter for the US Navy, and he has been to India, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Turkey, and many countries and regions in the Middle East and the Near East, with a wide range of knowledge. After the war, he began his career as a freelance writer.
1957, Gardner opened a column on mathematical games in Scientific American magazine, which lasted until1/4th century, until 198 1. It is this column that determines Gardner's position in the field of interesting mathematics. People who write articles in Scientific American magazine are generally experts in various fields of science and technology. As we all know, few people have published more than two articles in this magazine, and Gardner is a rare exception. From the first issue 1957 to the end of 1980, I have written articles almost every month for 24 years, with more than 200 articles before and after.
Gardner has not only made great achievements in the field of mathematics, but also made outstanding achievements in other aspects. He first read Alice in Wonderland when he was eleven or twelve, but he didn't leave a deep impression. At the University of Chicago, when Gardner picked up the book again, he was suddenly deeply attracted by the plot. This is the beginning of his study of Carol's works and Carol herself. At first he thought that someone would write notes for Alice in Wonderland. He often suggested that publishers ask the philosopher Brandt Russell to write an annotated version of Alice in Wonderland (it is said that the hatter image in the original illustration came from Russell), but Russell replied that he had no intention of writing such a book. So Gardner decided to write an annotated version of Alice in Wonderland himself.
1960, Gardner finally found a publisher who was willing to publish this book. In this book Alice in Annotated Edition, Gardner, with the enthusiasm of a lover of Carol's works, gives quite wonderful annotations, including introducing the author's background, explaining the history, legends and poems in the book, scholars' comments and arguments on some plots, and even excavating some words hidden in the text.
When Gardner published this book, he probably didn't think that it was this book that made him the most famous expert on Carroll studies in the world. Since then, Gardner has also published The Universe in the Handkerchief, introducing some math games of Carol. In addition to Carol's works, Gardner also wrote The Wizard of Oz. He even wrote a sequel to The Wizard of Oz, in which Dorothy and others came to modern new york.
In addition to the creation of popular science in mathematics, Gardner's strong counterattack against pseudoscience is also his specialty. As early as 1952, Gardner wrote a book that comprehensively criticized the popular pseudoscience theory in the United States at that time: fanaticism and fallacy: in the name of science. This book is regarded as a classic of supernatural skepticism. In this book, Gardner comprehensively analyzes various pseudoscience myths, some of which are still popular today. The most wonderful thing is that when we see Gardner's description of the "mad scientist", we will find that it is similar to the "folk scientist" who clamors for "overthrowing the theory of relativity" and "solving Goldbach's conjecture with elementary mathematics". Gardner summed up the characteristics of such people as: 1. He thinks he is a genius. He thinks all his colleagues are ignorant fools without exception. If they fight back, it will deepen his illusion that he is fighting a group of thugs. He believes that he should not be suppressed and discriminated against. He compared himself to Bruno, Galileo, Copernicus, Pasteur and other great men who were unjustly persecuted for heresy. Under the irresistible impulse, he tried his best to attack the greatest scientist and the most certain theory. Mathematicians proved that an angle can't be divided into three parts, so paranoia insisted on dividing it into three parts. You can't make a perpetual motion machine. He insisted on making one. 5. Articles often like to use complicated and difficult words. Many typical works of absurd science have a taste of "madness".
Gardner is a skeptic. He and Sagan, Asimov, Paul Courtesy and others jointly founded the "Supernatural Advocacy Scientific Investigation Committee" to crack down on all pseudoscience by scientific means. Because Gardner knew the secret of magic, he exposed many people who claimed to have "special functions". In the book "Dr. Matrix's Magic Number", he skillfully used mathematical means to break people's superstition about numbers.
Martin gardner is brilliant, knowledgeable and knowledgeable. According to incomplete statistics, he has written more than 50 books so far. Representative works include Legend of Cryptography, Relativity that Everyone Can Understand, Universe with Different Representations, Good Science, Bad Science, Pseudoscience, The Magic Number of Dr. The Matrix, Mathematical Carnival, Aha and so on. A brainwave, from surprise to thinking-the wonder of mathematical paradox.
In the second half of the 20th century, isaac asimov, carl sagan and martin gardner were the three masters who dominated American science popularization for decades. Today, the first two have passed away, but Mr Gardner is still alive and continues to play an irreplaceable role in the field of mathematical communication.