Talk:Mark Kac

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Poland Mid‑importance

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Mathematics Mid‑priority

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Ukrainian?[edit]

I think he should not be in the category of Ukrainian mathematicians, he had nothing really to do with Ukraine, since he left Europe before the second world war. He was born in the Polish part of Russia which became part of the Polish Republic after the First World War.Pius (talk) 13:08, 23 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. I don't think it's appropriate to list him as Ukrainian, nor for that matter to list this article as a stub (it is more start-class). But since the article is protected, we need to go through channels to make such changes. Unless I see some significant dissent within a week or so, I'll make a protected-edit request to remove the Ukrainian claims from the article. —David Eppstein (talk) 21:07, 3 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind, I was about to make an editprotected request but then I realized that the article is only semi-protected, so I'll just go ahead and make the edits myself. —David Eppstein (talk) 19:00, 13 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Edit request from , 17 October 2011[edit]

{{edit semi-protected}} The question quoted in the passage

His question, "Can you hear the shape of a drum?" set off research into spectral theory, with the idea of understanding the extent to which the spectrum allows one to read back the geometry. (In the end, the answer was "no", in general.)

differs from the one in Kac's paper, whose title asked "Can one hear the shape of a drum?" (see, e.g., the page linked to the quote). I propose the text here be changed to agree with Kac's title.

VenetianRed (talk) 17:07, 17 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I changed it. You could register an account, make a few edits and change it yourself. But I think the protection on this article is a bit outdated. Volunteer Marek 18:15, 17 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment comment[edit]

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Mark Kac/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Comment(s)

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"He fled dictator-ruled militaristic and anti-Semitic Poland" - from this sentence I understand that at the time Poland was ruled by a dictator (what was his name?) who probably was anti-Semitic, which looks like similar to Third Reich. Is true indeed?

Also article on wikipedia defines "militarism" as following: "the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests" or "aggressiveness that involves the threat of using military force". As far as I know after regaining independence Poland used it's military forces exclusively for self-defense (which is from definition non-aggressive). Please correct me if I am wrong.

The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, to which the article refers, cite some of Kac's letters, where he states that not the state of affairs in Poland which in general was far from the given, a bit radical, description, but the tension between European states and the open anti-Semiticism of Germany, which at that time was becoming a threat for its neighbours. I would say that the stub is wrong in the sentence cited above. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.76.37.160 (talk) 15:48, 28 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Last edited at 15:49, 28 January 2009 (UTC). Substituted at 23:13, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

does the typo story involving the word "rigger" belong here?[edit]

offensive, not funny, maybe was at the time.--Jrm2007 (talk) 21:50, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Finished or furnished?[edit]

" ... finished the proof using sieve theory."

Is the word 'finished' intended to imply 'supplied' ? Or does it mean 'completed' ?

The usual expression is 'he furnished the proof that was required ( or lacking ) 121.44.36.227 (talk) 10:17, 31 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It means "completed". In the context of the previous "unable to provide a complete proof", "finished" is more natural than "furnished". —David Eppstein (talk) 11:35, 31 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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