George Pólya (December 13, 1887 – September 7, 1985, in Hungarian Pólya György) was a Hungarian mathematician.

Contents 1 Life and works 2 Legacy 3 Quotes 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Life and works

He was born as Pólya György in Budapest, Hungary to originally Jewish parents Anna Deutsch and Jakab Pólya who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1886^[1]. He was a professor of mathematics from 1914 to 1940 at ETH Zürich in Switzerland and from 1940 to 1953 at Stanford University carrying on as Stanford Professor Emeritus the rest of his life and career. He worked on a great variety of mathematical topics, including series, number theory, mathematical analysis, geometry, algebra, combinatorics, and probability.^[2] In his later days, he spent considerable effort on trying to characterize the methods that people use to solve problems, and to describe how problem-solving should be taught and learned. He wrote four books on the subject: How to Solve It, Mathematical Discovery: On Understanding, Learning, and Teaching Problem Solving; Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning Volume I: Induction and Analogy in Mathematics, and Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning Volume II: Patterns of Plausible Reasoning.

In How to Solve It, Pólya provides general heuristics for solving problems of all kinds, not only mathematical ones. The book includes advice for teaching students of mathematics and a mini-encyclopedia of heuristic terms. It was translated into several languages and has sold over a million copies. Russian physicist Zhores I. Alfyorov, (Nobel laureate in 2000) praised it, saying he was very pleased with Pólya's famous book. The book is still referred to in mathematical education. Douglas Lenat's Automated Mathematician and Eurisko artificial intelligence programs were inspired by Pólya's work.

He died in Palo Alto, California, USA.

[edit] Legacy

In 1969 the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics established the George Pólya Prize, given alternately in two categories for "a notable application of combinatorial theory" and for "a notable contribution in another area of interest to George Pólya."^[3] In 1976 the Mathematical Association of America established the George Pólya Award "for articles of expository excellence" published in the College Mathematics Journal.^[4] In 1987 the London Mathematical Society established the Polya Prize for "outstanding creativity in, imaginative exposition of, or distinguished contribution to, mathematics within the United Kingdom."^[5]

[edit] Quotes

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• To be a good mathematician, or a good gambler, or good at anything, you must be a good guesser.
• Observe also (what modern writers almost forgot, but some older writers, such as Euler and Laplace, clearly perceived) that the role of inductive evidence in mathematical investigation is similar to its role in physical research.
• How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics (This is a mnemonic for the first fifteen digits of π; the lengths of the words are the digits.)
• If you can't solve a problem, then there is an easier problem you can solve: find it.
• Wishful thinking is imagining good things you don't have...[It] may be bad as too much salt is bad in the soup and even a little garlic is bad in the chocolate pudding. I mean, wishful thinking may be bad if there is too much of it or in the wrong place, but it is good in itself and may be a great help in life and in problem solving.
• He was the only student that ever scared me (in reference to John von Neumann)
• Mathematics is the cheapest science. Unlike physics or chemistry, it does not require any expensive equipment.
• A Great discovery solves a great problem but there is a grain of discovery in the solution of any problem. Your problem may be modest; but if it challenges your curiosity and brings into play your inventive faculties, and if you solve it by your own means, you may experience the tension and enjoy the triumph of discovery (Polya, G. (1957). "How to solve it: a new aspect of mathematical method", second edition. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books. Page v.).
• To conjecture and not to test is the mark of a savage.
• A drunk man will eventually return home but a drunk bird will lose its way in space. (In reference to random walks in dimension 2 and 3).

[edit] See also

• Multivariate Polya distribution
• Pólya conjecture
• Pólya enumeration theorem
• Pólya Prize
• Landau–Kolmogorov inequality
• "Problems and theorems in analysis"

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: George Pólya

• The George Pólya Award
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "George Pólya", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Polya.html .
• George Pólya at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• PolyaPower -- an introduction to Polya's Heuristics
• George Pólya on UIUC's WikEd
• Memorial Resolution