What defines you as a 'mathematician'?

[matthewhaworth]

As the subject states really...

Is it perpetual studying? Interest? Do you have to be of a specific academic level?

[Tirian]

I believe that the jokes about mathematicians, physicists, and engineers walking into a bar have a grain of truth to them. Being a mathematician is about the way you intellectually approach any problem in life.

[Yakk]

Well, if you are a Formalist, then:
you := a mathematician
defines you as a mathematician.

If you are a Constructivist, proving that it is impossible that you are not a mathematician isn't sufficient.

As a Platonist, you either are or aren't a mathematician. All you can do is try to figure out which of the cases is true.

If you are an electrical engineer, if you write your j's backwards, you are a mathematician.

[t0rajir0u]

I'm not sure whether you want "mathematician" to mean "math enthusiast" or "professional person who does math," so you're going to have to clarify.

[matthewhaworth]

I'm not sure whether you want "mathematician" to mean "math enthusiast" or "professional person who does math," so you're going to have to
clarify.

I take it, asking questions like that defines you as a mathematician? lol

[stephentyrone]

A mathematician is someone who, when presented with two problems, one of which they know how to solve and one of which they don't, invariably chooses to work on the latter.

[Zetetic1123]

I suppose if you have an Erdos number of above 5 and are continuing to work on mathematics that would be sufficient grounds to call yourself a mathematician, though some people might require that you have a specific focus in research, or some formality such as a PhD in mathematics/Physics. I don't think that most undergraduates would qualify, but I am certain that some would.

Maybe it should be based on whether or not you have the experience to really direct your own research and be able to pick up a bunch of journals on a topic that you have enough background to understand and be able to come up with some interesting ideas that eventually culminate into a few problems which you then try to solve. After realizing you can't solve all of them, you notice that you have a lot more problems than you started with, most of which you can or have solved in the process of trying to solve the harder ones and so you publish your results in a paper with an exceedingly long name and follow it up with similar papers until you finally get that one problem you couldn't get and publish another paper. Then maybe write a book on calculus.

[t0rajir0u]

I suppose if you have an Erdos number of above 5

So people with Erdos number 5 and lower aren't mathematicians?

[mr-mitch]

They're gods

But on an Erdos related note, "a mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." - Erdos

[njperrone]

I would say when you ask your math professor a question and they say "Well... I've never thought about that before... I'll get back to you on that," and before the next class you run into them and an exchange of ideas occur based on the question, and you are a math major, then you are at least on your way to becoming one.

[Macbi]

Ian Stewart begins one of books by saying that a Mathematician is someone who not only does mathematics, but who also sees opportunities for doing mathematics, in the same way that a businessman is someone who sees opportunities for selling stuff, and then goes out and does it.

[Harg]

They're gods

But on an Erdos related note, "a mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." - Erdos

Of course, by categorical duality, a comathematician is then a machine for turning cotheorems into ffee.

[achan1058]

They're gods

But on an Erdos related note, "a mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." - Erdos

Of course, by categorical duality, a comathematician is then a machine for turning cotheorems into ffee.

A mathematician is a person who seeks to apply mathematics to real world situation when it clearly does not apply, such as the above.

[mike-l]

Of course, by categorical duality, a comathematician is then a machine for turning cotheorems into ffee.

A mathematician is a person who seeks to apply mathematics to real world situation when it clearly does not apply, such as the above.

When I threw a paper ball at a coworker, and she tried to throw it back at me but hit her boss instead, she said Epic Fail! And I said, no, you were throwing it in the other direction, it was a Monic Fail!

[doogly]

A mathematician is someone who, when presented with two problems, one of which they know how to solve and one of which they don't, invariably chooses to work on the latter.

I don't think mathematicians have a monopoly on curiosity. This definition would make most kittens mathematicians.
...
I approve.

[t0rajir0u]

When I threw a paper ball at a coworker, and she tried to throw it back at me but hit her boss instead, she said Epic Fail! And I said, no, you were throwing it in the other direction, it was a Monic Fail!

If your coworkers understood that joke, I want your job.

[mike-l]

If your coworkers understood that joke, I want your job.

My coworkers understand exactly zero of my jokes . But I still say them, because even though I don't work as a mathematician anymore, I'm still a giant math geek at heart .

[skeptical scientist]

This thread seems to be rapidly approaching the conclusion that what defines you as a 'mathematician' may be your sense of humor. At the very least, we can tell a lot about mathematicians by the jokes they tell.

[njperrone]

This thread seems to be rapidly approaching the conclusion that what defines you as a 'mathematician' may be your sense of humor. At the very least, we can tell a lot about mathematicians by the jokes they tell.

Thats beautiful.


The definition could also be thought of as the Parable of the Heap of Sand.

[Syrin]

Like the mathematician whose dog is named Cauchy, because he always leaves residues at poles.

[ti4]

I have always loved the incomplete defintion "A mathematician is a person who is considered a mathematician by another mathematician."

[achan1058]

I have always loved the incomplete defintion "A mathematician is a person who is considered a mathematician by another mathematician."

All you need from here is to add that Paul Erdos is a mathematician. Then the definition is just fine.

[JGefell]

Problem solving, communications, reasoning & proof, making connections, and using representations; being interested in any one of those categories would make a person a mathematician of process.

Number sense & operations, measurment, data analysis & probability, Algebra, geometry, calculus etc; being interested in any one of these categories would make a person a mathematician of content.

Being interested in multiple categories from both sets would make a person a mathematician in the middle of a Venn diagram.

[jestingrabbit]

In mathematics, i defines u (that's a mangling, but I just can't quite get it to the snowclone).

I think the question is mostly irrelevant. Most maths questions can either be answered by a talented undergrad, or only a particular subset of practicing mathematicians (pure vs applied vs stats, or more specialised divisions for more specialised questions) and I think that's what the task of any scholar is, to answer questions, with that set of understood questions defining the region of the scholar in the world of knowledge. I doubt that there are many questions that can't be answered by a reasonably attentive undergrad, but which can be answered by all kinds of mathematicians.

In short, by the time you're a mathematician, you're really a kind of mathematician, and what kind you are has real content, whereas imo mathematician doesn't really.