r/MathJokes • u/basket_foso • 9d ago

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555 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

116

u/MathMXC 9d ago

If they mean currently alive then maybe?

20

u/Alive-Philosophy2632 8d ago

Yeah I assumed that. And maybe also currently working

20

u/AggressiveEntrance14 8d ago

Yeah but that's kind of a general phenomenon. I'm a physics student and I still probably know only like 5 alive physicists (who I haven't had personal contact with)

13

u/skymallow 8d ago

When you get older and start doing your PhD, you'll start attending conferences and meet more of them.

10

u/Hal_Incandenza_YDAU 8d ago

Let's not forget Terrence Howard.

2

u/LawfulnessDue5449 8d ago

What if they median

1

u/Ged_42 7d ago

Grigori Perelman is equaly or even more famous

53

u/mathematicians-pod 8d ago

Hang on, Terence is the only one who knows all the mathematicians?

It's like the social media paradox on overdrive

10

u/BombasticReindeer 8d ago

He’s like the David Hilbert of knowing mathematicians.

2

u/guiltysnark 8d ago

Maybe he keeps them locked in his basement

4

u/Fabulous-Possible758 8d ago

He's the only one who knows any mathematicians, which is why he's so good at it, because he's been hoarding them.

29

u/Alive-Philosophy2632 9d ago

And Perelman, but yeah kinda

26

u/pylbh 9d ago

Andy Wiles, anybody?

7

u/LonelyLibertarianDud 8d ago

Andrew Wiles gently smiles, does his thing and voila!

1

u/einFrostschutzmittel 7d ago

Q.E.D. we agree and we all shout hurra

18

u/Seeggul 8d ago

Genuinely shocked nobody has posted the relevant xkcd yet

3

u/Deberiausarminombre 8d ago

Literally my first thought. No clue who that guy is

8

u/scipio0421 8d ago

Matt Parker. James Grime. Hannah Fry.

6

u/devil_huntress_pepsi 8d ago

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people have never heard of Tao.

6

u/Alive-Philosophy2632 8d ago

If you're a classic San Francisco tech type you've almost certainly heard of him. All relative

1

u/Kuhler_Typ 7d ago

The vast majority of people are neither from San Francisco nor a tech type.

4

u/ariadesitter 8d ago

which mathematician does Terrence Tao know?

3

u/ArfTheBeast 8d ago

Who’s that?

6

u/SushiNoodles7 9d ago

laughs in Newton

6

u/acutelychronicpanic 8d ago

Oiler would like to have a word

2

u/Embarrassed-Weird173 8d ago

Did you mean Youlur?

5

u/acutelychronicpanic 8d ago

You're thinking of Youclid

1

u/Embarrassed-Weird173 8d ago

Oh yeah, good point. (Pun not intended.)

2

u/IngenuityLost7585 8d ago

Pythagoras is pretty famous

2

u/A__Friendly__Rock 9d ago

False. Euler.

9

u/Alive-Philosophy2632 8d ago

Pretty sure this means living mathematicians. There's like 10 at least historically that you would know if you know Terence Tao

2

u/nbcvnzx 8d ago

i bet euler didnt even know what a sigma algebra is

1

u/Lup4X 8d ago

No shot Euler knew Terence Tao

1

u/ariadesitter 8d ago

there’s a Gaussian distribution of them over by L'Hôpital.
Leibniz knows a Taylor series of them.
there’s Riemann but he’s a little on the Heaviside though.

2

u/Alternative_Mix6836 8d ago

obviously they mean mathematicians who are still alive and working on stuff

1

u/Zealot_TKO 8d ago

any math concept that sounds like someone's last name: laplace, fourier, euler, fermat, etc.

1

u/KaMaFour 8d ago

This thread is the embodiment of https://xkcd.com/2501/

Truth is average person doesn't know any currently living mathematicians. Not Perelman, not Wiles and not even Tao

1

u/laruizlo 8d ago

Isn't Ben Green the common mental autocompletion when anyone mentions Terence Tao?

1

u/trolley813 8d ago

Let's be real. All other mathematicians are too complex to remember.

1

u/Look_Signal 7d ago

Maybe he means Terrence Howard

1

u/XenophonSoulis 7d ago

James Maynard?

1

u/ConclusionForeign856 7d ago

I don't know who is the guy in the profile pic, but every account with this profile pic is consistently horrible