Professor Ma Xiwen (May 23, 1939-December 22, 2) is a famous mathematician, computer scientist, linguist and educator in China, as well as an outstanding science popularization worker. When he was a teenager, Ma Xiwen was gifted. He was gifted, accomplished in philosophy, music and literature, and was familiar with many languages. He was admitted to the Department of Mathematics in Peking University at the age of 15. Although he didn't spend much time on specialized courses, he got good grades, so he was praised as a "mathematical prodigy". Later, he became a professor of mathematics in Peking University, with numerous peaches and plums. Professor Ma Xiwen has a wide range of hobbies and is versatile. At the same time of teaching and scientific research, he served as the head coach of China team in the 3th International Mathematical Olympiad, and achieved good results in the total score of the team and the total number of gold medals. His masterpiece "Wandering in the Mathematical Garden" won numerous awards and was well received by young readers.
Chinese name: Ma Xiwen
Birthplace: Zaoqiang County, Hebei Province
Date of birth: May 23, 1939
Date of death: December 22, 2
Occupation: scientist
Representative work: A Wandering in the Mathematics Garden
Title: Professor
He has his unique methods in teaching and scientific research, and his pioneering, pioneering and forward-looking contributions in many fields have important theoretical implications far beyond the field itself.
In the 199s, Professor Ma Xiwen lived abroad and engaged in the development of computer software applications. On December 22, 2, he died in RedWoodCity, California, USA, at the age of 61.
Life of the characters
Ma Xiwen
Professor Ma Xiwen's masterpiece "A Wandering in the Mathematics Garden" is a masterpiece of mathematics popular science that has been reprinted many times and won numerous awards. When we opened the book and read the first chapter "Counting Problem", we were deeply fascinated by the problem of how to estimate the number of fish in the pond. It is very different from the mathematics we know. The new scenery in the book is dazzling, and every new place shows its extraordinary and wonderful. It was a deep shock, which made us feel that this thing called mathematics was really interesting!
This book is completely different from some contents of participating in a math contest. Math contests can improve my math level and make me feel the pleasure of solving difficult problems, but it is difficult to arouse my interest in math itself. The interesting questions in A Wandering in the Mathematics Garden can be left in our hearts for a long time, which can stimulate readers' great interest in mathematics. This book contains a lot of "profound" mathematics, especially mathematics related to information science, such as basic knowledge of topology, a little graph theory, preliminary game theory, infinite discussion, simple mathematical logic and so on. Although they are very advanced in themselves, they can be handwritten by Professor Ma Xiwen, but they can make children understand the true meaning. It can be seen that Professor Ma must have carefully selected the content of his writing, and it may be the most appropriate to tell junior children really interesting and meaningful mathematics.
Mathematics is not only a beautiful science, but also has great practical value. This book pays special attention to this point when writing, and the examples cited are all in real life, and there are even models for reference. This writing highlights that mathematics is something concrete, and its abstraction is just a representation. If you learn mathematics, you will only talk about Kan Kan's empty logic, then the mathematics he has learned is probably just a pile of waste. Those who can really learn mathematics well must be attracted by its beauty. Generally, mathematics that is widely used must also belong to the beauty of mathematics.
Whether in primary school or junior high school, mathematics in textbooks is always simple and boring for some "better" students. I think it is necessary for students who have spare capacity to learn to watch more extracurricular things. Mathematics itself is difficult, and it is difficult to go far on this road without interest, so reading something exciting is of endless benefit to both understanding and learning mathematics. Mathematics is a subject that everyone should study hard, but it is hard to say exactly how much mathematical knowledge a person will use in his future work, let alone mathematical skills. What is more important to learn mathematics is to learn some mathematical ideas. Scientific thinking is helpful for thinking about any problems. All this is by no means just reading textbooks and doing exercises.
Character evaluation
Professor Ma Xiwen entered the Department of Mathematical Mechanics in Peking University in 1954 at the age of 15. In the year of graduation, he participated in the specialization of probability. At the time of graduation, his excellent academic paper "Asymptotic Solution of Optimal Partitioning Problem (or Quantization Problem)" was published in the third issue of Journal of Mathematics in 1961. He was praised by Professor Ding Shisun as "one of the most talented students".
He graduated from school in 1959 and worked in the Probability Teaching and Research Section of the Department of Mathematical Mechanics, mainly studying information theory and coding theory. He opened the first course of mathematical information theory in his department, and co-wrote the lecture notes, which rearranged the theoretical system of classical information theory and proved many theorems in a clearer and easier way. The lecture notes were used by many students. During this period, he also studied the linguistic problems of Chinese from the viewpoint of information theory, and put forward that good results can be obtained by processing Chinese through four-level Markov chain. This method has been widely used since the 198s.
in the late 196s, he was engaged in the research and popularization of experimental design, mainly studying orthogonal design, and popularizing experimental design methods in Beijing Rubber General Factory. In 1981, the monograph Mathematical Theory of Orthogonal Design was published, which mathematically summarized and sorted out many methods of modern experimental design, especially those of Taguchi School in Japan, and made the mathematical theoretical basis of some methods clear, which played a great role in developing the theory of orthogonal design.
In the 197s, he developed software for drawing and reading music on Peking University 6912 computer. He is engaged in the research of computer science theory, and his paper Tree Computer and Tree Program was published in the first issue of chinese journal of computers. He is one of the first graduate tutors in the field of computer science in China.
from p>1979 to 1981, as the first visiting scholar sent to the United States, he worked in the artificial intelligence laboratory of Stanford University led by Professor JohnMcCarthy, the founder of artificial intelligence. In the meantime, I have been engaged in the research of many topics, and one of the important achievements is the procedural semantics paper "Relational Methods in Semantics".
After returning to China, he has done a lot of excellent work in artificial intelligence. He is one of the founders in the field of artificial intelligence in China, participated in the establishment of china computer federation Artificial Intelligence Group and China Artificial Intelligence Society, and founded the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Beijing Computer Institute in 1982. He made important achievements in the study of "knowing logic", and the papers published at the 1983 International Artificial Intelligence Conference were well received, so he was elected as a member of the Program Committee of the 1985 International Artificial Intelligence Conference. In 1985, he presided over the National Natural Science Foundation project "LISP Language Dynamic Compiler System". He played an important role in the establishment of the theme of intelligent computer in China's 863 Program. With profound insight, he pointed out that while computers have brought great influence to human society, they also have their inevitable limitations. He has written many articles for this purpose and has always promoted the development of artificial intelligence with a clear mind.
Professor Ma Xiwen was a director of china computer federation, and actively promoted the construction of theoretical computer science in China. In 1983, as one of the main leaders, he established the Computer Research Institute in Peking University and held the first theoretical computer research class in China. In 1984, he participated in the organization of china computer federation Branch of Theoretical Computer Science and the first academic conference of Theoretical Computer Science held in Guangzhou, and in the same year, he opened a postgraduate course of Theoretical Computer Science in Peking University, enrolling 1 graduate students. During this period, the doctoral program of Peking University Theory Computer Science was founded. In 1987, the first academic conference of young computer workers was promoted. During this period, he deeply studied many problems of computer science theory, published a book "Programming" on the basis of course handouts, and published a long paper "Introduction to Theoretical Computer Science", which was revised and published in English in WorldScientific Publishing Co. Pte Ltd in Singapore. His paper "What is Theoretical Computer Science" puts forward many profound understandings.
Professor Ma Xiwen has great attainments in linguistics and was the first member of state language commission. In the late 197s, his academic discussions with famous linguistics professors such as Mr. Zhu Dexi developed into a grammar discussion class that lasted for many years, attracting and edifying a group of new people, and brewing some important achievements, including his own papers, such as the first article on the weakened form of the verb "le" in the inaugural issue of Journal of Chinese Language. Later, he published several high-quality academic papers on Chinese grammar and Chinese function words in China Language and other publications, which were highly praised by Chinese scholars. He is proficient in English and Russian, and dabbles in Albania, Mongolia, Japan, Germany, France, North Korea, Hausa, Swahili, Esperanto and other languages.
Professor Ma Xiwen is one of the founders of computational linguistics in China, and devoted great enthusiasm to the combination of computer science and linguistics. In 1983, he started the course of Computational Linguistics in Peking University, and in 1986, together with Professor Zhu Dexi, he founded the Peking University Institute of Computational Linguistics, and presided over a series of interdisciplinary seminars on information science. He co-founded the Institute of Language Information Processing in Beijing Language and Culture University, and directed research projects in the Institute of Software of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Institute of Information Engineering, Heilongjiang University, ChinaSoft Corporation and other units, involving Chinese character input, text editing, machine translation, language understanding, automatic summarization, Chinese computer-aided teaching and so on, and personally designed algorithms and debugging programs. He has written many articles on the relationship between the two disciplines, and enthusiastically prefaced his graduate works, encouraging the use of computer science to assist linguistic research.
With a sense of responsibility as a scientist, he attaches great importance to the popularization of science and basic education. He used to be the head coach of the China team in the International Mathematical Olympiad. In 1989, he led the team to participate in the 3th International Mathematical Olympiad held in Germany, and achieved the best results in the history of the team's total score and the total number of gold medals. He has written a number of popular science masterpieces, and organized and led the Chinese translation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "fantastic book" Godel, Aysil and Bach. This translation was highly praised by the original author, and won the 4th National Award for Excellent Works of Popular Science in June 21.
In the 199s, Professor Ma Xiwen lived abroad, engaged in the development of computer software applications, served as the chief scientist in CEONCORPORATION, and held several patents. He was the vice president of the Alumni Association of Peking University in Northern California, and actively contributed to domestic scientific research and education. He is enthusiastic about helping others and is influential among Chinese and overseas Chinese compatriots.
Professor Ma Xiwen has been engaged in teaching since he graduated at the age of 19, and there have been countless peaches and plums for decades. He offered many brand-new courses, and the handouts used were the crystallization of his research experience. He has guided a batch of graduate students, and his academic thoughts and research methods have benefited them for life.
Professor Ma Xiwen was indifferent to fame and fortune all his life, and never pursued positions and awards. He blazed the trail blindly, not seeking to get it. He doesn't write a masterpiece, but every article is full of words. He is responsive and willing to share his wisdom with others. He embodies a real scholar style.
Table of Contents
Preface
Counting Problem
About the exam
Mathematics on the map
How big is the area of Beijing
Four-color problem
If we live in Saturn's halo
The bridge to the "color number"-the by-product of Euler's formula
Four-color problem. Shortest path problem
Maximum flow problem
Please be the workshop director
What's the secret
Starting from the simplest situation
What are "︶" and "⌒"
When moving forward,
Who should be tracked
The result of a battle of wits has been found < Wait for people to test
say goodbye to you
Read a short paragraph:
How big is the area of Beijing
You can not only measure the distance, but also calculate the area on the map.
for example, a 1: 4 map; One centimeter on the map is equivalent to 4 kilometers on the ground, that is, a square with a square of three centimeters on the map is equivalent to a square with a square of 4 kilometers on the ground. That is 1 square centimeter on the map, which is equivalent to 4x4 square kilometers on the ground =16 square kilometers.
according to this truth; We need to know the area of Beijing, and we can calculate it by calculating the area of Beijing on the map.
However, the shape of Beijing on the map is not a simple geometric figure. How to calculate its area?
find a transparent plastic plate or a piece of transparent paper, and dot a row at regular intervals, for example, every 1 cm, and the distance between dots is also 1 cm. This neat "grid" is our tool.
If we want to calculate the area of a graph, we will put the planting point board on the graph and count how many grid points fall into the graph. The area of the figure is how many square centimeters. This is a common method used by geologists.
there is an error in the area calculated by this method. You see, the grid points that fall within the graph are always integers; And the area is probably not an integer. Area and grid are two quantities with different properties. For example, if the graph of Beijing is gradually enlarged, its area will increase accordingly no matter how short the time is, so the area is a continuous quantity. This is not the case with the grid. It is either the same or at least one more, so it is a discrete quantity. But within a certain error range; These two quantities with different properties can be substituted for each other.
the method of finding the area mentioned above is to use discrete quantity instead of continuous quantity. How big is the error in doing so? The error will not exceed the perimeter of the curve.