Seeing him on stage demonstrate the commonality of what is normally perceived in social occasions as a miraculous coincidence was one of those mind-opening experiences for me. He showed me that math is everywhere, and that it’s fun. I was able to talk to him a bit during WSF’s webcast of the panel. I showed him the doodle above, which I had drawn for the occasion, and I remember how amused he was by it. The Birthday Problem was a major inspiration for Sufficiently Remarkable, which is thematically about how common seemingly impossible events actually are. Amir Aczel, Author of Scientific Cliffhanger, Dies at 65 – The New York Times Thanks to Jennifer Ouellette for bringing this to my attention. Side note: Aczel and science communicator Simon Singh both have books titled Fermat’s Last Theorem. Which confused me at first.
