In terms of mathematical
genealogy, it appears that I am one of the thousands of distant
descendants of Sir Isaac
Newton. The ancestral path from Newton
to me
goes through Roger
Cotes, Robert
Smith, Walter
Taylor, Stephen
Whisson, Thomas
Postlethwaite, Thomas
Jones, Adam
Sedgwick, William
Hopkins, George
Gabriel Stokes, John
William Strutt (Lord Rayleigh), J.J.
Thomson, G.I.
Taylor, Michael
Glauert and David
Acheson. So there is a sense in which my Newton number is 15:
in terms of the student-advisor relationship, Newton is my
great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. |