[t]he More The Public Is Confused, The

As I Have Often Said, Electrons And Gerbils Don't Cheat. People Do.

One Day, When I Was Doing Well In Class And Had Finished My Lessons, I Was Sitting There Trying To Analyze The Game Of Tic-tac-toe... The Teacher Came Along And Snatched My Papers On Which I Had Been Doodling... She Did Not Realize That Analyzing Tic-tac-toe Can Lead Into Dozens Of Non-trivial Mathematical Questions.

When Reputable Scientists Correct Flaws In An Experiment That Produced Fantastic Results, Then Fail To Get Those Results When They Repeat The Test With Flaws Corrected, They Withdraw Their Original Claims. They Do Not Defend Them By Arguing Irrelevantly That The Failed Replication Was Successful In Some Other Way, Or By Making Intemperate Attacks On Whomever Dares To Criticize Their Competence.

One Would Be Hard Put To Find A Set Of Whole Numbers With A More Fascinating History And More Elegant Properties Surrounded By Greater Depths Of Mystery--and More Totally Useless--than The Perfect Numbers.

A Surprising Proportion Of Mathematicians Are Accomplished Musicians. Is It Because Music And Mathematics Share Patterns That Are Beautiful?