― G.H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology
“I had better say something here about this question of age, since it is particularly important for mathematicians. No mathematician should ever allow himself to forget that mathematics, more than any other art or science, is a young man's game. To take a simple illustration at a comparatively humble level, the average age of election to the Royal Society is lowest in mathematics. We can naturally find much more striking illustrations. We may consider, for example, the career of a man who was certainly one of the world's three greatest mathematicians. Newton gave up mathematics at fifty, and had lost his enthusiasm long before; he had recognized no doubt by the time he was forty that his greatest creative days were over. His greatest idea of all, fluxions and the law of gravitation, came to him about 1666 , when he was twentyfour—'in those days I was in the prime of my age for invention, and minded mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since'. He made big discoveries until he was nearly forty (the 'elliptic orbit' at thirty-seven), but after that he did little but polish and perfect.
Galois died at twenty-one, Abel at twenty-seven, Ramanujan at thirty-three, Riemann at forty. There have been men who have done great work a good deal later; Gauss's great memoir on differential geometry was published when he was fifty (though he had had the fundamental ideas ten years before). I do not know an instance of a major mathematical advance initiated by a man past fifty. If a man of mature age loses interest in and abandons mathematics, the loss is not likely to be very serious either for mathematics or for himself.”
αναλόγου ύφους παρατηρήσεις κάνουν και θεωρητικοί φυσικοί
από την άλλη ο Μαθηματικός φωκάς,αναφέρει πως είναι μύθος όλο αυτό!και δίνει ως παράδειγμα τον εαυτό του
ο feynman πιστεύει πως αυτό που συμβαίνει είναι πως κάποιος που πέτυχε μετά αναλώνει τον χρόνο του σε επιτροπές κ.λπ και έτσι δεν εστιάζει στην έρευνα.
η συγκέκριμένη έρευνα δείχνει να επιβεβαιώνει πάντως τον Hardy
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/fa ... Genius.pdf
μην αρχίζω τα snapshots κ επικολώ τα σχεδιαγράμματα
συνοπτικά γύρω στα 50 κατα κανόνα πέφτει σιγή ...ασυρμάτου για τους θεωρητικούς φυσικους(η δε κορύφωση επέρχεται πολύ πιο νωρίς)
για τους πειραματικους φυσικους και τους χημικους ωστοσο τα πράγματα είναι σαφώς καλύτερα(και ακομα καλύτερα για τους βιολογους)
γενικά οσο πιο δυσκολο το αντικειμενο,οσο μεγαλυτερες απαιτησεις χρειαζεται απο τον εγκεφαλο για να αποδωσεις κατι αξιολογο τοσο πιο νωρις επέρχεται το peak των ανακαλυψεων ,οπως και η "σιγη ασυρματου"
αλλά τελικά μήπως δεν είναι έτσι τα πράγματα; τι πιστεύετε;