What is the definition of Mathematician

Steven G

Steven G

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My friend, who IS a mathematician, did not like my definition of a mathematician. I feel that a mathematician is someone who holds a PhD in math and does (real) mathematical research. My friend disagreed with me. I even have minor problems with my own definition. Like after you retire from research are you no longer a mathematician? I think you still are.
In the end my friend and I agreed that a mathematician is someone who sees beauty in math.
How would you define a mathematician?
 
Jomo said:
My friend, who IS a mathematician, did not like my definition of a mathematician. I feel that a mathematician is someone who holds a PhD in math and does (real) mathematical research. My friend disagreed with me. I even have minor problems with my own definition. Like after you retire from research are you no longer a mathematician? I think you still are.
In the end my friend and I agreed that a mathematician is someone who sees beauty in math.
How would you define a mathematician?
Click to expand...

I have problems with the 'holds a PhD' part of the definition but it isn't because I don't hold a PhD. I had an older friend who held the belief that a PhD just taught the person to regurgitate answers in a lot of cases [yes, he had a PhD (in Psychology not Mathematics) because he had to have it for his work since no one took him seriously without that piece of paper]. He wasn't against the continued study and the kind of teaching which taught people 'how to learn' rather than just regurgitate answers but he thought there was way too much of the latter. I think my attitude is a reflection of his although I have thought about the subject myself.

As far as the definition of a mathematician goes, I think I might be inclined to ignore (to a small extent) competence itself but rather link it to the level of learning, i.e. beginning mathematician, budding mathematician, professional mathematician, etc. and only require a love of mathematics. Now, in that sense, I feel I am a mathematician and might place myself in the budding mathematician category.
 
WARNING: Beer soaked rambling/opinion/observation/reckoning ahead. Read at your own risk. Would be readers can take it seriously or take it with a grain of salt. In no event shall the wandering math knight-errant Sir jonah in his inebriated state (usually in his dead tired but mentally revived inebriated state) be liable to anyone for special, collateral, incidental, or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of his "enhanced" beer (and tequila/absinthe) powered views.

Not exactly a definition but let's see what more I can dig up while me Lady Absinthe is still massaging me brain.

IN MATHEMATICAL

C I R C L E S A SELECTION OF MATHEMATICAL
STORIES AND ANECDOTES

HOWARD W. EVES
QUADRANTS I AND II
5° A classification of mathematicians. Francis Bacon (1561-
1626), the English moralist, prophet, philosopher, and man of letters,
often engaged in scientific writings studded with aphorisms, many of
which are particularly applicable to mathematics and mathematicians.
For example, he divided philosophers into three groups-the ants, the
spiders, and the bees. The ants are those who diligently but stupidly and
unsystematically gather many little and generally useless bits of knowl-
edge; the spiders are those who spin out intricate and insubstantial
theories from their own minds; the bees are those who go to nature for
raw material and inspiration, and through exacting labor transfer
these into sound theories. These last he called the true philosophers.
One can pretty well here replace "philosophers" with "mathema-
ticians."
 
WARNING: Beer soaked rambling/opinion/observation/reckoning ahead. Read at your own risk. Would be readers can take it seriously or take it with a grain of salt. In no event shall the wandering math knight-errant Sir jonah in his inebriated state (usually in his dead tired but mentally revived inebriated state) be liable to anyone for special, collateral, incidental, or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of his "enhanced" beer (and tequila/absinthe) powered views.

MATHEMATICAL
CIRCLES REVISITED
A SECOND COLLECTION OF
MATHEMATICAL STORIES AND ANECDOTES
HOWARD W. EVES
350°
What is a mathematician? Perhaps the most frequently repeated anecdote about Lord Kelvin concerns the occasion when one day he asked his class if they knew what a mathematician is. Stepping to the blackboard he wrote \(\displaystyle \int_{ - \infty }^\infty {e^{ - x^2 } dx = \sqrt \pi }\)
Turning to the class and pointing to what he had written, he said: "A mathematician is one to whom that is as obvious as twice two makes four is to you."

==========================================================================================================
I get the feeling that trying to define a mathematician is like trying to define the geometric point.
 
Some quotes:

“Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity I do not understand it myself any more.” ― Albert Einstein

“No mathematician in the world would bother making these senseless distinctions: 2 1/2 is a "mixed number " while 5/2 is an "improper fraction." They're EQUAL for crying out loud. They are the exact same numbers and have the exact same properties. Who uses such words outside of fourth grade?” ― Paul Lockhart, A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form

(with apologies to Stapel) “Women have a passion for mathematics. They divide their age in half, double the price of their clothes, and always add at least five years to the age of their best friend.” ― Marcel Achard

“The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment... We are told that by its aid the stars are weighed and the billions of molecules in a drop of water are counted. Yet, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, this great science eludes the efforts of our mental weapons to grasp it.” ― Alfred North Whitehead, An Introduction to Mathematics
 
jonah2.0 said:
WARNING: Beer soaked rambling/opinion/observation/reckoning ahead. Read at your own risk. Would be readers can take it seriously or take it with a grain of salt. In no event shall the wandering math knight-errant Sir jonah in his inebriated state (usually in his dead tired but mentally revived inebriated state) be liable to anyone for special, collateral, incidental, or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of his "enhanced" beer (and tequila/absinthe) powered views.

MATHEMATICAL
CIRCLES REVISITED
A SECOND COLLECTION OF
MATHEMATICAL STORIES AND ANECDOTES
HOWARD W. EVES
350°
What is a mathematician? Perhaps the most frequently repeated anecdote about Lord Kelvin concerns the occasion when one day he asked his class if they knew what a mathematician is. Stepping to the blackboard he wrote \(\displaystyle \int_{ - \infty }^\infty {e^{ - x^2 } dx = \sqrt \pi }\)
Turning to the class and pointing to what he had written, he said: "A mathematician is one to whom that is as obvious as twice two makes four is to you."

==========================================================================================================
I get the feeling that trying to define a mathematician is like trying to define the geometric point.
Click to expand...

It is sad that Lord Kelvin did not get to meet my grandchildren!!

According to them:

One and one makes V.

And "twice two makes" W - or - upside down M .

It is all in the eye of the beholder....
 
The definition of a mathematician depends on your perspective. I would agree with other responses about the 'must have a PhD' component of your definition - it seems unnecessarily elitist to me. Are you (or your friend) suggesting that working with algebra, trigonometry and probability at "lower" levels doesn't qualify you as a mathematician? If so, you'll need to provide an alternative title for the various people in schools, colleges and universities who do this kind of numerical/mathematical work but don't have a PhD and therefore don't meet the requirements being proposed.

If you want to refine your definition to mean a 'professional mathematician' then that's different. An alternative term would perhaps be 'qualified mathematician'?

For me - since it's an open question - a mathematician is somebody who works with numbers (or does maths) as its own pursuit - i.e. not necessarily intending it to be applied to the "real world". I'm a graduate level chemist, and when I was studying, I did maths to inform my chemistry - I would call myself a chemist, even though I did some nasty maths. For me, maths was a tool to help me make sure I didn't cause a serious explosion in the lab (for example), so I wouldn't call myself a mathematician (by my own definition).

I'd probably have to tighten up my definition to exclude puzzlers such as Sudoku-ists, but I'd make the definition of a mathematician significantly wider than "holds a certificate".

No offence is intended, to you or your friend.
 
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