Do amateurs ever solve outstanding mathematical problems? Professional mathematicians are aware that almost every new idea they have about a mathematical problem has already occurred to others. Any really new idea must have some feature that explains why no one has thought of it before [TM155 or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com].

Pierre de Fermat and Srinivasa Ramanujan, two brilliant “amateur” mathematicians.
Continue reading ‘Discoveries by Amateurs and Distractions by Cranks’