Editing Mathematical folklore (section)

==Stories, sayings and jokes==
{{See also|Mathematical joke}}
{{Wikiquote|Mathematicians}}
{{Wikiquote|Mathematics}}
Mathematical folklore can also refer to the unusual (and possibly apocryphal) stories or jokes involving mathematicians or mathematics that are told verbally in mathematics departments. Compilations include tales collected in [[G. H. Hardy]]'s ''[[A Mathematician's Apology]]'' and {{Harv|Krantz|2002}}; examples include:
* [[Srinivasa Ramanujan]]'s [[taxicab numbers]].
*[[Galileo]] dropping weights from the [[Leaning Tower of Pisa]].
*An apple falling on [[Isaac Newton]]'s head to inspire his theory of gravitation.
*[[John von Neumann]]'s encounter with the famous [[John von Neumann#Mathematical quickness|fly puzzle]].<ref>{{cite web |date=February 15, 2014 |title=Fly Puzzle (Two Trains Puzzle) |url=http://mathworld.wolfram.com/TwoTrainsPuzzle.html |access-date=February 25, 2014 |publisher=Wolfram MathWorld}}</ref>
*The drinking, duel, and early death of [[Galois]].
*[[Richard Feynman]] cracking safes in the Manhattan Project.
*[[Alfréd Rényi]]'s definition of a mathematician: "a device for turning coffee into theorems".<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Theorem.html|title=Theorem|last=Weisstein|first=Eric W.|website=mathworld.wolfram.com|language=en|access-date=2019-11-30}}</ref>
*[[Pál Turán]]'s suggestion that weak coffee was only suitable for [[Lemma_(mathematics)|lemmata]].<ref name=":2" />
*The "[[turtles all the way down]]" story told by [[Stephen Hawking]].
*[[Fermat]]'s [[Fermat's Last Theorem#Fermat's conjecture|lost simple proof]].
*The unwieldy proof and associated controversies of the [[Four Color Theorem]].
*The murder of [[Hippasus]] by the [[Pythagoreans]] for his discovery of [[irrational numbers]], specifically, [[square root of 2|√2]].<ref>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-a-secret-society-discovered-irrational-numbers/</ref>
*Sir [[William Rowan Hamilton]], in a sudden moment of inspiration, [[History of quaternions|discovered quaternions]] while crossing [[Brougham Bridge]].<ref>https://md.spacegrant.org/quaternions-turn-175/#:~:text=The%20discovery%20was%20made%20%E2%80%94%20in,famous%20equations%20on%20the%20bridge.</ref>