
About Ron Graham - vo2maxer
http://www.math.ucsd.edu/~fan/ron/
======
melling
I saw that he lived to be 84, which seemed like a long life until I saw this
other story on HN about Olivia de Havilland living to 104.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23958566](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23958566)

Imagine if Einstein had lived another 30 years into the 1980’s. Richard
Feynman was 2 years younger than Olivia de Havilland, but he only lived to be
69.

~~~
dddbbb
There's a woman living in Japan who was born before George Orwell. It's
incredible to think that one could be in their 60s and still have half a
century left.

~~~
joedevon
As you get older that is less alarming! -said as a 52 year old

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dang
Related from a few weeks ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23765035](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23765035)

~~~
082349872349872
Thanks, don't know how I missed that. He was kind enough to geek out with me
several years back; had I realised he'd had any connection to Mills' Mess we'd
have had another topic of conversation.

In a different universe, he might have been a _Magister Ludi_ :
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Bead_Game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Bead_Game)

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gigatexal
He seems like an accomplished guy: comfortable in his field and in life to
explore other parts of it outside his chosen field. This balance is something
I’d like to achieve — to be secure enough in what I do to devote time to roger
things.

~~~
gigatexal
*other

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ColinWright
_I made this comment on an earlier post about Ron, but it seems relevant._

It's via Ron that I have my Erdos number (of the first kind) of 2. He was
warm, welcoming, kind, enthusiastic, engaging, and a wonderful person to be
with, let alone work with.

I wrote[0] about how I first met him, and while we didn't meet often, it was
always a pleasure, and he always greeted me warmly. I'm sad to think I won't
see him again. I'll miss him.

[0]
[https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/MeetingRonGraham.html?tg26hn](https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/MeetingRonGraham.html?tg26hn)

~~~
RyJones
What is special about 5551?

~~~
ColinWright
I don't know your background, so I don't know at what level I should pitch my
reply.

At the time, as far as we know, no one in the world had done it with the
possible exception (in hindsight) of Paul Klimek, Bengt Magnusson, Bruce
Tiemann, Mike Day, Adam Chalcraft, and me.

At the time it just wasn't known. When I was at juggling conventions I could
torture 7 ball jugglers by getting them to try 441, 5551, and 66661. If you've
never done SiteSwaps they feel seriously weird.

If that doesn't answer your question, tell me more about your background, what
you know, whether you can juggle, and I'll tailor my answer further.

~~~
RyJones
I know nothing of juggling; however, that 5551 was a previously unknown juggle
was all I needed to know. Thanks!

~~~
tzs
There's an animation of 5551 here:
[https://juggle.fandom.com/wiki/5551](https://juggle.fandom.com/wiki/5551)

------
netman21
Nice to learn he helped create the Mill's Mess juggling technique. I learned
how to do that in 1981 at UofM.

~~~
ColinWright
I talked to Ron about that. For some years the rumour had circulated that he
and Steve worked on it, but that Ron actually did the final inventing, but Ron
convinced me that while they did work on it together, they only had a "half"
version, and it was Steve who put together the "final" version.

------
stepstop
What is an approachable book on Ramsey's theory for non-mathematicians ?

(Graham's number applies to Ramsey's theory.)

~~~
ColinWright
There's a quick introduction to it here:

[https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/InfiniteRamseyTheorem.html?tg...](https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/InfiniteRamseyTheorem.html?tg26hn)

That's just a taste of the ideas. For an entire book there's this:

[https://www.amazon.com/Ramsey-Theory-2nd-Ronald-
Graham/dp/04...](https://www.amazon.com/Ramsey-Theory-2nd-Ronald-
Graham/dp/0471500461)

Many books on Graph Theory will have a section about it.

