Mark Kac: Quotes about problems

Mark Kac was Polish-American mathematician. Explore interesting quotes on problem.

Mark Kac: 34 quotes1 like

“I then reached for a time honored tactic used by mathematicians: if you can't solve the real problem, change it into one you can solve.”

Source: Enigmas Of Chance (1985), Chapter 6, Cornell II, p. 122.

“In the summer of 1930 my academic future, however, was not uppermost in my mind. I had been stricken by an acute attack of a disease which at regular intervals afflicts all mathematicians and, for that matter, all scientists: I became obsessed by a problem.”

Prologue, How I Became a Mathematician, p. 1.
Enigmas Of Chance (1985)

“As a mathematician Erdös is what in other fields is called a "natural". If a problem can be stated in terms he can understand, though it may belong to a field with which he is not familiar, he is as likely as, or even more likely than, the experts to find a solution.”

Source: Enigmas Of Chance (1985), Chapter 4, On Toast!, p. 93.

“There are, roughly speaking, two kinds of mathematical creativity. One, akin to conquering a mountain peak, consists of solving a problem which has remained unsolved for a long time and has commanded the attention of many mathematicians. The other is exploring new territory.”

Source: Enigmas Of Chance (1985), Chapter 2, Lwów, p. 39.

“Independence is the central concept of probability theory and few would believe today that understanding what it meant was ever a problem.”

Source: Enigmas Of Chance (1985), Chapter 3, The Search For The Meaning Of Independence, p. 48.