{"id":3554,"date":"2019-10-12T04:20:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-12T04:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/10\/12\/beware-of-cranks\/"},"modified":"2019-10-12T04:20:06","modified_gmt":"2019-10-12T04:20:06","slug":"beware-of-cranks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/10\/12\/beware-of-cranks\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware of Cranks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.laphamsquarterly.org\/roundtable\/beware-cranks?utm_source=pocket-newtab\">It<\/a> starts like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt;\">The four impossible \u201cproblems of antiquity\u201d\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Angle_trisection\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trisecting an angle<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Doubling_the_cube\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">doubling the cube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Constructible_polygon\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">constructing every regular polygon<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Squaring_the_circle\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">squaring the circle<\/a>\u2014are catnip for mathematical cranks. Every mathematician who has email has received letters from crackpots claiming to have solved these problems. They are so elementary to state that nonmathematicians are unable to resist. Unfortunately, some think they have succeeded\u2014and refuse to listen to arguments that they are wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt;\">Mathematics is not unique in drawing out charlatans and kooks, of course. Physicists have their perpetual-motion inventors, historians their Holocaust deniers, physicians their homeopathic medicine proponents, public health officials their anti-vaccinators, and so on. We have had hundreds of years of alchemists, flat earthers, seekers of the elixir of life, proponents of ESP, and conspiracy theorists who have doubted the moon landing and questioned the assassination of John F. Kennedy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"asset-img-link\" href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/.a\/6a010535ce1cf6970c0240a4ddd877200b-pi\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Troost_mathematicians\" border=\"0\" class=\"asset  asset-image at-xid-6a010535ce1cf6970c0240a4ddd877200b image-full img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/.a\/6a010535ce1cf6970c0240a4ddd877200b-800wi\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"Troost_mathematicians\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It starts like this: The four impossible \u201cproblems of antiquity\u201d\u2014trisecting an angle, doubling the cube, constructing every regular polygon, and squaring the circle\u2014are catnip for mathematical cranks. Every mathematician who has email has received letters from crackpots claiming to have solved these problems. They are so elementary to state that nonmathematicians are unable to resist. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/10\/12\/beware-of-cranks\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Beware of Cranks&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436,476],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crackpottery","category-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}