Walter Grattser "Eureka and euphoria" Bashny.Net

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During the Civil War, the future Nobel Prize in Physics Igor Tamm was captured by a gang of Makhno. He was taken to the chieftain - "a bearded man in a high fur hat, who converged on the breast crosswise machine-gun belts and belt hung a couple of hand grenades».
- You son of a bitch, a communist agitator, why do you undermine the mother Ukraine? We will kill you.
- Not at all, - said Tamm. - I am a professor of Odessa University and came here to get a little food.
- Lies! - Ataman said. - What are you a professor?
- I teach math.
- Mathematics? - Asked chieftain. - Then find me an estimate of the Maclaurin series approximation of the first n terms. Decide - you are released, there is no - shoot.
Tamm could not believe his ears: the task belonged to the rather narrow field of higher mathematics. With trembling hands and under the barrel of a rifle, he still managed to withdraw the decision and showed his chieftain.
- It's true! - Ataman said. - Now I see that you are in truth the professor. Well, go home.
Tamm never learned the name of chieftain