19 thoughts on “Learning Center: John Conway”

1. Ben, your blog post was stunning to look at and logically laid out. Additionally, I found John Conway’s story to be incredibly interesting, it is so unfortunate that he passed away so recently. Reading through the blog post I had one question, How would you describe game theory?

2. Hello!
   I loved your website! It was well designed and gave important information in your eminence section. I was wondering, what do you think led to your eminent person to mathematics?

3. Good job! You did a fantastic job with the website design and you had a lot of fascinating information throughout. My only critique would be to add more images to the body of your text. Other than that, you did a great job. The question I have for you is, Since he is a mathematician, were there many problems he could not solve?

4. Hey Ben! Great job. Loved your learning centre and how detailed and informative it was. I enjoyed learning about John Conway’s eminence and his life. Just wondering, how are you inspired and do you relate to John Conway?

5. Hi Ben, I was happy to see John Conway’s name on the list! He’s one of rare mathematicians who makes math feel like art and also like fun. Thanks for sharing his story!

6. Hi Ben
   What made you decide to choose a mathematician as your eminent person? Your presentation was very informative

7. Ben, great personal choice. Who were some other mathematicians who influenced his work? How did he go about developing his mathematic theories?

8. Did a good job conveying Conway and his attitude towards mathematics. What do you think was his favourite discovery/contribution?

9. Hello Ben.
   Your presentation was really great. I found it quite informative. I like the web site you made it is simple to follow, and understand. My question is what made him pursue being a mathematician. Do you reflect this same things?

10. Hey Ben! Thank you for sharing John Conway with us! What a fascinating fellow! I love that he was a mathematician with such varied accomplishments! I think I am most interested in his Doomsday calendar concept. What do you think made him interested in figuring this out?

11. Thank you Draedon!
    Combinatorial game theory is a branch of mathematics in which mathematicians typically analyze sequential games with perfect information (like chess where you can see all of the pieces rather than cards where you can only see your hand.

12. Thank you Kalayla!
    That is a hard question to answer. John Conway was an avid reader, so some insperation must have come from that. Also his dadplayed cards for a living so that might have been the insperation for his games years later.

13. Thank you Glen! Due to the nature of his work, there were many problems he could not solve, in fact, he put up a $1000 dollar reward if you could solve any of the following problems. ‘Sylver’ coinage game, 99-Graph, The Thrackle Problem, The Dead Fly Problem, and Climb to a Prime.

14. Thank you Josee!
    I feel that I relate to John Conway because like him, I want to become a mathematician and enjoy learning about complex math.

15. Thank you Caroline!
    I chose john Conway because I felt that he was so inspiring and eminent and that not enough people knew about him or his work. (I also like playing his games.)

16. Thank you Ms. Mulder!
    John Conway worked with a variety of different coworkers like Elwyn Berlekamp, Robert Curtis, and Simon P. Norton. To develop his mathematic theories he was inspired by anything from Children’s games to complex mathematical theories like Stephen Kleene’s theory of state machines.

17. Thank you Pavel!
    In an interview With Dierk Schleicher in 2011 he said this regarding his most proud creation:

    “I don’t know. I am proud of lots of things,
    and I don’t think there is one thing I consider
    my greatest achievement. My colleagues would
    probably say the work on group theory. I don’t
    consider that to be my greatest achievement. I
    think it’s pretty good, but that’s about it. I am
    glad they value it, so it means that in their eyes I
    am not regarded as totally frivolous. In my eyes,
    I am totally frivolous. But I have two particular
    things I can mention. One is fairly recent, the
    Free Will Theorem, and the other, rather less
    recent, is the surreal numbers. I value them, or
    estimate them, in different ways: with the surreal
    numbers I discovered an enormous new world
    of numbers. Vastly many numbers, inconceivable.
    Nobody else has discovered more numbers than
    I have. In a sense, it beats so-called conservative
    mathematicians at their own game, because it
    produces a simpler theory of real numbers than
    the traditional theory, which has been on the books
    for nearly two hundred years now. So I am very
    proud of that and astonished I was so lucky to find
    it.”

18. Thank you Mark!
    I have said this in a previous reply but, I think being an arid reader and his father playing cards for a living definitely contributed to him becoming a mathematician. As for me, I am also an avid reader but most of my inspiration to become a mathematician comes from the games he created.

19. Thank you Ms. Wasstrom!
    This is a very difficult question to answer. If I had to guess, I say that he discovered it by noticing something small (like a few days fall on the same date every year). And then, he tested it repeatedly until he got it to where it is today.