This is the second instalment in the series of
famous mathematicians being interviewed. This week is very special, because I
am interviewing YouTube mathematics sensation Dr James Grime. Dr Grime has his
own maths channel, singing banana which regularly uploads exciting maths and is
regularly on Numberphile, YouTube's most popular mathematics channel. I would like
to thank Dr Grime for answering my questions and I hope everyone enjoys
reading.
1. What inspired you to become a
mathematician?
It had been a quiet, secret
ambition from when I discovered that was something you could do. And, because I
don't come from an academic family, I learnt that was something you could do
through childrens TV, programmes like How 2 and presenters like Johnny Ball. I
didn't tell anyone that was my ambition, because it seemed very unlikely I
would achieve it.
2. What is your favourite area of
mathematics and why?
The area I got my PhD in and
researched was Group Theory - that's the study of symmetry. In maths, symmetry
means there is something you care about that you want to stay the same, which
might shape, angle, length, volume, magnitude or something like that. But the
maths appealed to me, it takes a step back and considers the broader picture
rather than the minute details. I'm also quite fond of number theory and
statistics, I want to have a broad knowledge, but sometimes it's like trying to
drink the ocean.
3. If you could discover any
conjecture or problem what would it be and why?
This is a difficult one. There are
some problems that I never finished when I was working in research that would
be personally satisfying to solve - but they wouldn't change the world. The
Millennium Problems are the biggest unsolved problems with lots of important
consequences, but being the guy who solved one of those would probably take
over your life (this fantasy doesn't involve any actual work does it?)
4. What is your favourite maths
book and why?
A general audience book would be
Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh. I read that when I was in sixth form,
it's a great story, with bits of maths in the appendices, and it showed me what
it could be like to be a mathematician. It was an influence on me.
For an actual maths book... maybe
One Million Random Digits. You'll never see the twist coming.
5. What do you think could be done
to encourage more interest in maths in children and young people?
Everyone is different. What works
for one person will not work for someone else. We are a combination of many
influences. So when I make maths videos, that isn't to replace teaching or
anything else, but it is there for people to take it if they like it, or leave
it if they don't. However, there are ways to teach maths badly, making it a
chore is one example!
6. What advice would you give to a
16 or 17 year old who is thinking of studying maths at university?
If you are thinking that I think
that's great. University is a great experience, regardless of which subject you
want to study. For maths all I would say is, if you pay attention in lectures
you can do the coursework, if you can do the coursework you can do the exams.
If you want to do more than just pass exams I would say, try and understand why
things work, and how things work and you will go far.
7. What breakthroughs do you think
are imminent in maths?
Some recent breakthroughs have
seemly come out of nowhere, including progress on the twin prime conjecture
which says there are infinitely many pairs of primes with a difference of 2.
Yitang Zhang was a little known mathematician who showed there are infinitely
many pairs of primes that differ by 70 million or less. A collaborative project
then reduced that figure to 246. This is not quite 2 but huge progress
otherwise. Similar collaborative projects have recently proved other unsolved
problems. It's hard to say which will be the next breakthrough.
8. Who is your favourite
mathematician past or present and why?
I talk a lot about Alan Turing who
was not only a World War II code breaker, but as a young man before the war
solved one of the big unsolved problems at the time known as the Decision
Problem. The question was, is there a single method that could solve all
mathematical problems after some (possible large) finite steps. To solve this
problem Turing conceived of a machine that could perform any mathematical
operation a man could do. This is the beginning of computer science which our
whole modern world depends on. He solved the problem in the negative, there is
no such method. After the war he then makes huge contributions to computer science,
artificial intelligence and mathematical biology where he modelled why zebras
have stripes and leopards have spots. His contributions were groundbreaking in
not just pure mathematics but in several fields and are still important today.
9. What do you feel is your
greatest contribution to mathematics?
I would like to say my greatest
contributions are my research, but it's probably my promotion of the subject to
others through YouTube. I can live with that.
