What are the odds?

The comments on yesterday’s post remind me of an experience I had some years ago. I was at a conference in Germany, and one of my colleagues took me to where Carl Friedrich Gauss had once lived.

My colleague and I had both heard the story of how the world first learned that Gauss was a mathematical genius. When he was a child in school, his teacher gave the class an exercise to keep them busy.

In those days, every student had a slate and a piece of chalk to write with. The teacher told them to add up the numbers from one to one hundred.

While all the other children toiled away at the task, young Gauss simply wrote a number down on his slate and then set it down. The teacher asked him why he was just sitting there.

Gauss showed his teacher the slate, which had the proper sum on it. The boy had figured out the formula in his head, had solved it, and had written down the proper answer.

We then discussed whether that was actually a true story. “What are the odds”, my colleague asked, “that the story is real?”

Never in my life have I been fed a better straight line. “I would say — fifty fifty.”

One thought on “What are the odds?”

  1. And what are the odds that this story happened as told? Based on what I know of Ken: 100 percent.

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