一个有趣的比方

在一篇关于Gamma函数的历史论文最后，有下面这个比方。

George Gamow, the distinguished physicist, quotes Laplace as saying that when the known areas of a subject expand, so aslo do its frontiers. Laplace evidently had in mind the pictures of a circle expanding in an infinite plane. Gamow disputes this for physics and has in mind the picture of a circle expanding on a spherical surface. As the circle expands, its boundary first expands, but later contracts. This writer agrees with Gamow as far as mathematics is concerned. Yet the record is this: each generation has found something of interest to say about the gamma function. Perhaps the next generation will also.

Laplace是中性的，Gamow是乐观的。万一是双曲平面怎么办？呵呵


原文
Leonhard Euler's Integral: A Historical Profile of the Gamma Function: In Memoriam: MiltonAbramowitz
Author(s): Philip J. Davis
Source: The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 66, No. 10 (Dec., 1959), pp. 849-869
Published by: Mathematical Association of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2309786