A mathematician's apology

A Mathematician's Apology is a 1940 essay by British mathematician G. H. Hardy. It concerns the aesthetics of mathematics with some personal content, and gives the layman an insight into the mind of a working mathematician. Hardy uses the word "apology" in the sense of a formal justification or defense (as in Plato's Apology of Socrates), not in the sense of a plea for forgiveness. (quoted from Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mathematician%27s_Apology ).

You can download this famous document from ::


http://www.math.ualberta.ca/~mss/misc/A%20Mathematician%27s%20Apology.pdf

This is a "must read" for all my students, and colleagues.

And those want to know about Hardy, must see ::
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._H._Hardy

Hardy was the guru and mentor of Srinivasa Ramanujan. In an interview by Paul Erdős, when Hardy was asked what his greatest contribution to mathematics was, Hardy unhesitatingly replied that it was the discovery of Ramanujan. He called their collaboration "the one romantic incident in my life.


partha