Math Stories: The Moment a Famous Mathematician Woke Up - An illustration featuring the word "Math" in large letters on top, and the word "Stories" in smaller letters below it.

I tend to read interesting stories from the mathematical world and the academic world quite often. Some of these stories are accounts of real-life events, while others are legends that have grown wings of their own while the details have become somewhat murky.

The story that I am about to tell you belongs to the second category. The exact details of the story might have been fictionalized by those who have been sharing it over the years. But if you have anything to do with or are interested in the mathematical community or the academic world, I reckon that you would find this story relatable.

The Sleeping Mathematician

It is common in the academic world for researchers to share their findings via peer reviews and talks. A young Postdoc, say M, was giving such an impressive talk at a renowned university. The nature of this talk was a special one, for he was sharing his findings on a topological invariant — essentially a formula with over 150 terms (not for the faint of heart)!

Now, the lecture room was densely packed as this was a popular topic within the community. Over at the front row sat a famous mathematician, say C. As soon as M started to go into the technicalities, C started sleeping. M was shocked to see this and thought to himself:

“Oh no! He finds my work boring!”

Although he was concerned, M convinced himself to focus on the other listeners and powered through his talk. As the talk went on, he gained more confidence as the audience grew more and more fascinated.

As M was concluding and preparing for any questions, C woke up startled. To everyone’s surprise, he shouted in a high-pitched voice:

“What a coincidence! Your work strongly resembles the Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch Theorem!”

The Stressed Postdoc

The entire room was stunned. M started sweating, while he tried to make sense of C’s comment in his head. The man was fast asleep for the entire talk, after all. Could he have really understood what M had derived?

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Or perhaps C derived the results and simplified the terms in his dream to arrive at the Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch Theorem. How could his work with a topological invariant be connected to algebraic geometry? No matter how hard M tried to make sense of it, he couldn’t!

As he was entertaining all these thoughts in his head, unaware of himself, he was pacing briskly left and right on the podium. On the one hand, if he acted as if he understood what C had just remarked, he might win everyone’s respect. But he would not be able to sleep with a clear conscience at night. On the other hand, if he revealed that he did not understand how C arrived at the Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch Theorem, he would lose everyone’s respect and trust.

The Fascinating Conversation

In the end, within the 2 minutes he had taken to run through all of his thoughts, he came up with a very simple, yet, practical answer. A question!

“How so, my dear sir?”

To this, C responded:

“Well, at the end of your derivation, you have an expression on the left.”

M nodded in agreement as C continued:

“And an expression on the right-hand side.”

“Yes, my dear sir”, said M, as C continued:

“And you claim that these expressions are equal” concluded C. “Just like the Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch Theorem!”

The “Moral” of the Story

I presume that you might have chuckled already. But in case you did not get the joke, this legend depicts the tension that exists when a young and upcoming mathematician has to interact with an established and well-known mathematician.

Math Stories: The Moment a Famous Mathematician Woke Up — An illustration featuring the word “Math” in large letters on top, and the word “Stories” in smaller letters below it.
Math Stories — Illustration created by the author

Furthermore, the funny part of the legend is how it conveys the twist — as everyone thinks that the famous mathematician is about to share something deep and profound, he delivers a seemingly moot and obvious point.

As funny as it sounds, none of this is unheard of in the community, and that is what makes this legend so relatable.

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Further reading that might interest you: 

Credit: Original thread that inspired this story.

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