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Lot 64
EINSTEIN SOLVES "TRICKY" MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM FOR THE WESTLAKE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. EINSTEIN, ALBERT. 1879-1955. Autograph Mathematical Explanation Signed with initials ("A.E.") for Johanna Mankiewicz of the Westlake School for Girls, "... I realize that you are a very busy man, but you are the only person we know of who could supply us with the answer ...,"
24 April – 4 May 2023, 12:00 EDT
Online, New YorkSold for US$21,675 inc. premium
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EINSTEIN SOLVES "TRICKY" MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM FOR THE WESTLAKE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.
EINSTEIN, ALBERT. 1879-1955. Autograph Mathematical Explanation Signed with initials ("A.E.") for Johanna Mankiewicz of the Westlake School for Girls, "... I realize that you are a very busy man, but you are the only person we know of who could supply us with the answer ...," 1/2 page, mathematical diagram with 3 lines of explanation, Princeton, NJ, post-marked May 12, 1952, written on the verso of Miss Mankiewicz's 2 pp request and explanation of the problem, old folds, light smudge, original transmittal envelope.
Provenance: Johanna Mankiewicz, by descent.
EINSTEIN SOLVES AN INTRACTABLE GEOMETRY PROBLEM FOR THE WESTLAKE SCHOOL GEOMETRY CLASS — a charming exchange between Einstein and Johanna Mankiewicz, "secretary of softmore class, Westlake School," the daughter of Citizen Kane screenwriter and Hollywood legend Herman Mankiewicz. In full: "Our geometry class, here at Westlake School for Girls, found itself completely at loss today when after seeing that no one in the class had done a certain problem, our teacher tried to explain it. She, too, could not do this problem, and that is why I am writing to you.
I realize that you are a very busy man, but you are the only person we know of who could supply us with the answer and let us keep ourselves busy at our other business. So if you could possibly work this problem for us we would be very grateful.
This is the problem:
The common external tangent of 2 tangent circles of radii 8" and 2" is —
I think you will agree it is the hardest thing — when our own teacher couldn't do it!"
She adds a post-script, which may explain how she was emboldened to write to Einstein in the first place, "P.S. I think you knew my grandfather, Professor Frank Mankiewicz, of C.C.N.Y."
Einstein responded with a mathematical diagram of the problem, and a 3-line explanation on how to derive the solution, leaving Johanna and her classmates to complete the problem itself.
That would have likely been the end of it, but in this case the student Johanna Mankiewicz also happened to be the daughter of famed Hollywood screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz and the story of Einstein's assistance to "went viral" according to a 2017 article in Physics Today. In any case, the story and Einstein's response was immediately picked up by both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, as well as Time magazine, spreading to local outfits, as far as the Sydney Herald in Australia.
In an unlikely twist, a high school math teacher in Ohio, Harold Lee, as well as a Beverly Hills dentist and accomplished amateur mathematician, Leon Bankoff, both stepped forward to declare that Einstein's published solution was incorrect for the proposed question. The LA Mirror quipped "Doctor Albert Einstein had better concentrate on discovering theories of nuclear fission and winning Nobel prizes..." In publishing the dentist's protest.
A supremely entertaining and charming Einstein autograph, well-known and much commented on, and never before offered for sale.
Provenance: Johanna Mankiewicz, by descent.
EINSTEIN SOLVES AN INTRACTABLE GEOMETRY PROBLEM FOR THE WESTLAKE SCHOOL GEOMETRY CLASS — a charming exchange between Einstein and Johanna Mankiewicz, "secretary of softmore class, Westlake School," the daughter of Citizen Kane screenwriter and Hollywood legend Herman Mankiewicz. In full: "Our geometry class, here at Westlake School for Girls, found itself completely at loss today when after seeing that no one in the class had done a certain problem, our teacher tried to explain it. She, too, could not do this problem, and that is why I am writing to you.
I realize that you are a very busy man, but you are the only person we know of who could supply us with the answer and let us keep ourselves busy at our other business. So if you could possibly work this problem for us we would be very grateful.
This is the problem:
The common external tangent of 2 tangent circles of radii 8" and 2" is —
I think you will agree it is the hardest thing — when our own teacher couldn't do it!"
She adds a post-script, which may explain how she was emboldened to write to Einstein in the first place, "P.S. I think you knew my grandfather, Professor Frank Mankiewicz, of C.C.N.Y."
Einstein responded with a mathematical diagram of the problem, and a 3-line explanation on how to derive the solution, leaving Johanna and her classmates to complete the problem itself.
That would have likely been the end of it, but in this case the student Johanna Mankiewicz also happened to be the daughter of famed Hollywood screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz and the story of Einstein's assistance to "went viral" according to a 2017 article in Physics Today. In any case, the story and Einstein's response was immediately picked up by both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, as well as Time magazine, spreading to local outfits, as far as the Sydney Herald in Australia.
In an unlikely twist, a high school math teacher in Ohio, Harold Lee, as well as a Beverly Hills dentist and accomplished amateur mathematician, Leon Bankoff, both stepped forward to declare that Einstein's published solution was incorrect for the proposed question. The LA Mirror quipped "Doctor Albert Einstein had better concentrate on discovering theories of nuclear fission and winning Nobel prizes..." In publishing the dentist's protest.
A supremely entertaining and charming Einstein autograph, well-known and much commented on, and never before offered for sale.