Theorem Quotes
More Theorem Quotes
We completely ignore the human value of the information . A selection of 100 letters is given a certain information value, and we do not investigate whether it makes sense in English, and, if so, whether the meaning of the sentence is of any practical importance. According to our definition, a set of 100 letters selected at random (according to the rules of Table 1.1), a sentence of 100 letters from a newspaper, a piece of Shakespeare or a theorem of Einstein are given exactly the same informational value.
— Léon Brillouin (1962) Science and Information Theory, second edition. p.9
After the class have exhausted their energies on the theorem of the right triangle, tell them something about its discoverer – how Pythagoras, jubilant over his great accomplishment, sacrificed a hecatomb to the Muses who inspired him.
Florian Cajori—
I confess that Fermat's theorem as an isolated proposition has very little interest for me, because I could easily lay down a multitude of such propositions, which one could neither prove nor dispose of.
carl friedrich gauss— A reply to Olbers' 1816 attempt to entice him to work on Fermat's Theorem. As quoted in The World of Mathematics (1956) Edited by J. R. Newman
We completely ignore the human value of the information. A selection of 100 letters is given a certain information value, and we do not investigate whether it makes sense in English, and, if so, whether the meaning of the sentence is of any practical importance. According to our definition, a set of 100 letters selected at random (according to the rules of Table 1.1), a sentence of 100 letters from a newspaper, a piece of Shakespeare or a theorem of Einstein are given exactly the same informational value.
léon brillouin— Léon Brillouin (1962). Science and Information Theory, second edition. Academic Press, New York. p. 9. ISBN 0-48643-918-6.
A mathematician, then, will be defined in what follows as someone who has published the proof of at least one non-trivial theorem.
— Mathematics and Mathematicians (1992); published in Is Mathematics Inevitable? A Miscellany (2008), edited by Underwood Dudley, p. 3. ISBN 0883855666
As a boy of six I could understand the proof of a mathematical theorem more readily than that meat had to be cut with one's knife, not one's fork.
ferdinand eisenstein— Curriculum Vitae - an autobiographical statement written when Eisenstein was 20, often referred to as his "Autobiography" (1843)
A proven theorem of game theory states that every game with complete information possesses a saddle point and therefore a solution.
richard arnold epstein— Chapter Two, Mathematical Preliminaries, p. 36
The goys have proven the following theorem…
john von neumann— Statement at the start of a classroom lecture, as quoted in 1,911 Best Things Anyone Ever Said (1988) by Robert Byrne
A theorem is a proposition which is a strict logical consequence of certain definitions and other propositions
Anatol Rapoport— Rapoport, Anatol. "Various meanings of “theory”." American Political Science Review 52.04 (1958): 972-988.
It is not so much whether a theorem is useful that matters, but how elegant it is.
stanislaw ulam— Chapter 15, Random Reflections on Mathematics and Science, p. 274
We re-make nature by the act of discovery, in the poem or in the theorem. And the great poem and the deep theorem are new to every reader, and yet are his own experience, because he himself re-creates them.
jacob bronowski— Part 1: "The Creative Mind", §9 (p. 20)
We may consequently state the fundamental theorem of Natural Selection in the form:;: The rate of increase in fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time.
ronald fisher— Defining the fundamental theorem of natural selection, Ch. 2, p. 35
Professor Eddington has recently remarked that 'The law that entropy always increases the second law of thermodynamics holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of nature'. It is not a little instructive that so similar a law [the fundamental theorem of natural selection] should hold the supreme position among the biological sciences.
ronald fisher— On the fundamental theorem of natural selection, Ch. 2, p. 36
To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well.
— Albert Camus, in Memorable Quotations: Philosophers of Western Civilization 01-Jan-2000, p.47 Carol A. Dingle
...a theorem of propositional logic if and only if f(p1, p2 ,..., pn) is a tautology . ... He (Emil L.Post) uses the word to discuss the adequacy of a system of functions to express all the possible truth tables (this is nowadays called truth-functional completeness). In this way he shows not only that through the connectives of Principia (? and ?) one can generate all possible truth tables but also that there are only two connectives which can, singly generate all the truth tables.
— Emil L.Post, in The Adventure of Reason: Interplay Between Philosophy of Mathematics and ..., p.104
A proven theorem of game theory states that every game with complete information possesses a saddle point and therefore a solution.
— Richard Arnold Epstein (1977) ''The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic (Revised Edition) Chapter Two, Mathematical Preliminaries, p. 36
The theorem that all angles inscribed in a semicircle are right angles is attributed by some ancient writers to Thales, by others to Pythagoras.
— p. 18 (The Greeks)
Analysis and natural philosophy owe their most important discoveries to this fruitful means, which is called induction. Newton was indebted to it for his theorem of the binomial and the principle of universal gravity.
— Laplace, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities, [Truscott and Emory] (New York 1902), p. 176.
Bell’s theorem is the most profound discovery of science.
— Henry P. Stapp, "Bell's Theorem and World Process", Nuovo Cimento, Vol. 29B, No. 2, p. 270 (1975).
Physicists continue to debate whether Bell's theorem is airtight or not. However, the real question is not whether Bell can prove beyond doubt that reality is non-local, but whether the world is in fact non-local.
— Nick Herbert Quantum Reality - Beyond The New Physics Chapter 13, The Future Of Quantum Reality, p. 238
Let us now (at last) state the basic theorem: If God exists, then God is identical to the Universe. That is, the theorem is a statement of conditional pandeism. If God exists at all, God must be absolutely everything that exists.
— Robert G. Brown, Ph.D., "The Pandeist Theorem," A Theorem Concerning God, 2009.
A deist who believes in God that is the Universe is a pandeist, and is not only compatible with the theorem, but is now affirmed in their conditional belief as being demonstrably proven as a theorem of information theory.
— Robert G. Brown, Ph.D., "Deism," A Theorem Concerning God, 2009.
Analysis and natural philosophy owe their most important discoveries to this fruitful means, which is called induction. Newton was indebted to it for his theorem of the binomial and the principle of universal gravity.
— Laplace, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities, [Truscott and Emory] (New York 1902), p. 176.
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of this theorem which this margin is too small to contain.
Cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane detexi hanc marginis exiguitas non caperet.
— Note written on the margins of his copy of Claude-Gaspar Bachet's translation of the famous Arithmetica of Diophantus, this was taken as an indication of what became known as Fermat's last theorem, a correct proof for which would be found only 357 years later; as quoted in Number Theory in Science and Communication (1997) by Manfred Robert Schroeder.
Our offense is like the pythagorean theorem: There is no answer!
— American retired professional basketball player and sports analyst
Geometry has two great treasures; one is the theorem of Pythagoras; the other, the division of a line into extreme and mean ratio. The first we may compare to a measure of gold; the second we may name a precious jewel.
johannes kepler— As quoted in The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number (2003) by Mario Livio, p. 62
Comparatively few of the propositions and proofs in the Elements are his [Euclid's] own discoveries. In fact, the proof of the "theorem of Pythagoras" is the only one directly ascribed to him.
— Florian Cajori, A History of Mathematics (1893)
