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George Polya
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GEORGE POLYA Jo C Tu Contemporary Mathematics Prof. Marcelo Llarull June 13, 2003 Mr. George Polya would seem to be an excellent teacher for an individual like me. Why? I believe I can’t understand math and maybe if he was still around he can answer my questions about why math seems to be intertwined with everything in the world. Under his tutelage I believe he can devise a personal method of problem solving for me so that math wouldn’t be such a scary subject. Unfortunately, he passed away at the ripe old age of ninety-seven on September 7,1985(Young 401). I thought maybe if I found out a little bit more about him, I could find the meaning of math. “It is a shortened but not quite wrong to say: I thought I am not good enough for physics and I am too good for philosophy. Mathematics is in between.”(Alexanderson 247). A quote of Polya’s that has been echoed in many articles and books about whose most well known published work is How to Solve It. Born on December 13, 1887 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, Polya was the second youngest of five children to Jakob and Anna Deutsch Polya (O’Conner Robertson). At a young age Polya enjoyed geography (Young 401), Greek, Latin and the modern language of German and Hungarian (O’Conner Robertson). Persuaded by his mother (Anna Deutsch Polya), George pursued law just like his father at the University of Budapest (Young 402). Unfortunately, he could only bear with the subject for just one semester (Alexanderson 248). Instead, he turned to languages and literature earning teaching certificates in Latin and Hungarian (Alexanderson 248). At a young age Polya seemed not to be fascinated with math: “It is rather unusual that someone who went to spend their life being so fascinated by so many different branches of mathematics should not have fallen in love with the subject at school but in Polya’s case this is exactly what happened. He did not score particularly high marks in mathematics at the Gymnasium (Polya attended Daniel Berzsenyi Gymnasium before enrolling into University of Budapest), his work in geometry being graded as merely “satisfactory.” He did score rather better in arithmetic, however. The reason for his lack of success in mathematics may well have been due to poor teaching, and he would later describe two of his three mathematics teacher at the Gymnasium as “despicable teachers.” (O’Conner Robertson) Even Polya himself interviewed by G.L. Alexanderson described his road to mathematics in Mathematical People: Profiles and Interviews: “I was partly influenced by my teachers and by mathematical fashion of that time. Later I was influenced by my interest in discovery. I looked at a few questions just to find out how you handle this kind of question. I was influenced also-this is farther away-because I did not come straight to mathematics. I was influenced by the tortuous way I came to mathematics.” Polya’s understanding of math was strengthen when he started to take an interest in philosophy(Young 402). Advised by his professor Bernat Alexander Polya took physics and mathematic courses to understand philosophy, which eventually paved the groundwork for the very beginnings of his contributions to the world of math (O’Conner and Robertson).
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