No. 2817: CREATIVITY
by: Krešimir Josić
Click here for audio of Episode 2817
Today, let’s talk about creativity. The University of Houston Mathematics Department presents this program about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
Where do ideas come from? How did Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla come up with a continuous stream of inventions over decades? An often repeated tale about Edison says that when facing a tough problem he would sit down in a comfortable chair with a metal ball in his hand. As he drifted off to sleep the ball would fall to the ground waking him, and the solution to the problem would be there — clear in his mind.
I don’t know whether this story is true. But many mathematicians have solved difficult problems while dreaming, or while not consciously working on them. The famous Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan claimed that his family goddess would present him with complex mathematical equations in his dreams. In another example, a mathematician included a dead friend as a co-author on a manuscript that was a culmination of years of work. The deceased friend was not a mathematician. However, he appeared to him in a dream and provided a crucial insight that allowed him to complete his efforts.
by: Krešimir Josić
Click here for audio of Episode 2817
Today, let’s talk about creativity. The University of Houston Mathematics Department presents this program about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
Where do ideas come from? How did Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla come up with a continuous stream of inventions over decades? An often repeated tale about Edison says that when facing a tough problem he would sit down in a comfortable chair with a metal ball in his hand. As he drifted off to sleep the ball would fall to the ground waking him, and the solution to the problem would be there — clear in his mind.
I don’t know whether this story is true. But many mathematicians have solved difficult problems while dreaming, or while not consciously working on them. The famous Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan claimed that his family goddess would present him with complex mathematical equations in his dreams. In another example, a mathematician included a dead friend as a co-author on a manuscript that was a culmination of years of work. The deceased friend was not a mathematician. However, he appeared to him in a dream and provided a crucial insight that allowed him to complete his efforts.
