Talk:John Edensor Littlewood

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comments[edit]

"He was the Senior Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos, beating out even G.H. Hardy." Is this correct? I had the impression that Hardy was on staff at the time. --Simen rustad 07:36, 16 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, Hardy was some eight years older than Littlewood. In his Miscellany Littlewood says that getting full marks on Analysis was his first contact with "a startled Hardy" who had just joined the staff of Trinity College. OTOH, Littlewood was bracketed equal with Mercer.

I'm adding a note about his collaboration with Mary Cartwright. Richard Pinch 18:32, 20 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why is there no equivalent English-language Wiki page for Hardy? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.39.18 (talk) 12:32, 28 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Um...[edit]

In Hardy's own words: "John's a cool cat but he's one crazy mofo."

Is there any way to verify this? I've looked around a bit but I haven't found any mention of the quote, and it doesn't quite sound like something a mathematician would say. Amphy 03:17, 24 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Amusing though this is I think it's very unlikely. Hardy died in 1947 and the word "mofo" wasn't in use back then as far as I know. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Meltingpot (talk • contribs) 13:14, 4 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Meltingpot (talk) 13:15, 4 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:JELittlewood.jpg[edit]

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BetacommandBot (talk) 22:25, 13 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Littlewood as pseudonym for Hardy[edit]

Steven G. Krantz, in Mathematical Apocrypha (MAA, 2002) pp. 44-45 reports that the statement that Littlewood was a pseudonym Hardy used on his lesser papers is told in many versions and is attributed to Edmund Landau and to Norbert Wiener. He doesn't give any citations, though. --Uncia (talk) 14:38, 26 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It is then a documented rumour. It is quite funny but unless it had some effect beyond making people giggle its not really encycopedic.Billlion (talk) 17:29, 26 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

True. The anecdote is really a joke about the person (whoever it was) who thought Littlewood was a pseudonym, not an insight on Littlewood. The previous anecdote, relayed by Bohr, is not quite as bad. It says that Hardy and Littlewood were highly regarded, although we don't know by whom. In its present form it is "some people say", that is WP:WEASEL. So it might be salvaged if we knew who said it. --Uncia (talk) 00:22, 27 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Three great English mathematicians: Hardy, Littlewood, Hardy-Littlewood[edit]

This story is not helpful as stated, since (1) there is no source (2) we don't know whose opinion it is. If anyone has more information please provide it, both in this article and in G. H. Hardy where the same story is told. Robert Kanigel in The Man Who Knew Infinity quotes the story on p. 165 and in the footnotes says "This has become a commonplace in mathematical circles", which means it may be unverifiable. Thanks. --Uncia (talk) 13:10, 27 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I dug up the source for the Bohr story, and gave an extended quote which shows that Bohr shares the high regard this story illustrates. Unfortunately Bohr did not name the original source, giving it only as "an excellent colleague". --Uncia (talk) 00:20, 15 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

1901[edit]

The work of von Koch in 1901 is indeed proof of the isolated state of British maths at the time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alaskan Wanderer (talk • contribs) 08:49, 30 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

J.E. Littlewood[edit]

Littlewood published and is known to mathematicians as "J.E.", not "John Edensor". Surely this should be reflected in either the page title or the intro. I propose a page move, per WP policy that the page name should be the commonly used name. Zaslav (talk) 21:15, 29 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]