Subject: Re: [HM] "President Garfield's Proof"
From: Stephen Maurer (smaurer1@swarthmore.edu)
Date: Sat Jan 15 2000 - 11:55:53 EST
> A Garfield biographer responded to my inquiry that he has never
> encountered any direct support for "Garfield's Proof", and
> "... considering that G never mentions the proof or even shows much
> interest in geometry in his voluminous boyhood letters and diaries,
> I have my doubts."
>
> Clark Kimberling
Garfield taught math in the public school in Pownal, Vermont, for a year or
two after graduating from Williams College. Pownal is a small town in
southwest Vermont, just over the border from Williamstown in Massachusetts,
where Williams is. There is a historical marker along the road as you enter
Pownal about Garfield teaching there.
Also, I believe Garfield was a math major at Williams (or something like
that - in those days the idea of having a major instead of general studies
was just getting started). So maybe Garfield didn't have much interest in
geometry as a youth, but in college and immediately afterwards he would
have.
Maybe someone at Williams reads this list and can comment; I imagine
Garfield's math exploits are common knowledge there.
Steve Maurer
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