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stoutfellowThat was interesting.
One of my Senior Project students is working on continued fractions. I was looking over his (in progress) paper today, and reached a point where he discussed a theorem discovered by Galois in the 19th century. I stared at what he'd written, and could not make the proof gel. Something was wrong; I e-mailed him, saying that we would have to meet to discuss this bit. Then it occurred to me: thanks to Project Gutenberg, calibre and Kindle, I have Galois' complete mathematical writings right here. I pulled up the copy on my computer; the very first paper was the one my student was referencing, and a brief perusal made clear why the proof works. My student had left out some crucial computations, which he'll have to add to his paper.
Isn't it neat, how things work out sometimes?
One of my Senior Project students is working on continued fractions. I was looking over his (in progress) paper today, and reached a point where he discussed a theorem discovered by Galois in the 19th century. I stared at what he'd written, and could not make the proof gel. Something was wrong; I e-mailed him, saying that we would have to meet to discuss this bit. Then it occurred to me: thanks to Project Gutenberg, calibre and Kindle, I have Galois' complete mathematical writings right here. I pulled up the copy on my computer; the very first paper was the one my student was referencing, and a brief perusal made clear why the proof works. My student had left out some crucial computations, which he'll have to add to his paper.
Isn't it neat, how things work out sometimes?
