Number charm: Paul Erdös

2019/09/27 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Matematika

At three years he could multiply the numbers of three figures and at 10 he had discovered 37 tests of the Pythagorean theorem. Hey! I didn’t want a family and I didn’t live anywhere: I was traveling around the world, from village to village, with a semidesierta suitcase (“The property is harmful,” he said, humorously and seriously).

If you are interested in a mathematical article also written in the most unknown journal, go to the author (on any continent!) and, for example, despite arriving at his house at 4 in the morning, he knocked on the door and simply threw: “I am Erdös. Do you open?” No! For a few days they devoted themselves to mathematics, in the deepest sense of the word. The most alive. For many mathematicians, the biggest prize was to receive Erdös's surprise visit.

Gold was not tempted. Erdös dedicated most of the money to talks: family, students, strangers. After receiving the monthly salary, he saw a beggar and, after keeping some coins for him, gave everything else to the startling homeless.

Gold was not for Erdös. There were friendship and, of course, numbers. He was a mathematician and was crazy… for his fortune. Oh, if all the madmen were like Erdös!