The math in this story seems very real, though the specifics of it are
inconsequential to the plot. A mathematical physicist in an isolated
city needs help finding a solution to a linearized version of
Maxwell's equations, and he finds an offer for such help in a
surprising ad in a newspaper. Going to the address listed in the
paper, he finds that he is at the local insane asylum. Although this
worries him, he is very pleased with the results: he shortly receives
a package containing an absolutely brilliant, handwritten solution to
the problem he posed. His theory that one of the residents at the
asylum happens to be a great mathematician is shattered when he
submits another question which is similarly answered, but in another
person's handwriting. Eventually, he finds the truth, that a Nazi war
criminal is working in the asylum on a method for taking ordinary
people and making them into brilliant mathematicians (for the rest of
their shortened lives) through electro-magnetic stimulation.
Originally published in Russian Science Fiction (edited by Robert Magidoff, 1969), this story was also reprinted in Mathenauts.
| Contributed by
shankar prasad
an excellent theme well knitted with characters
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