mathematics

Imre Simon

Imre Simon is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Imre Simon rather than just read about it. In short: Imre Simon (August 14, 1943 – August 13, 2009) was a Hungarian-born Brazilian mathematician and computer scientist. His research mainly focused on theoretical computer science, automata theory, and tropical mathematics, a subject he founded, and which was so named because he lived in Brazil.

Key takeaways

Imre Simon belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Imre Simon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Imre Simon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Imre Simon (August 14, 1943 – August 13, 2009) was a Hungarian-born Brazilian mathematician and computer scientist. His research mainly focused on theoretical computer science, automata theory, and tropical mathematics, a subject he founded, and which was so named because he lived in Brazil. He was a professor of mathematics at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. In 2005, the journal RAIRO-ITA published an issue dedicated to his life and work. He was also actively interested in questions about the impact of computing and information networks on human collaboration and the production of intellectual commons, and was an enthusiastic advocate for open collaborative information systems, of which Wikipedia is an example.

Biography Simon came to Brazil with his parents after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He studied electrical engineering at the University of São Paulo, received his diploma in 1966, and his Ph.D. at the University of Waterloo in 1972, under Janusz Brzozowski with the thesis: Hierarchies of Events with Dot-Depth One. He died of lung cancer in São Paulo, Brazil on August 13, 2009, one day before his 66th birthday.

Career Simon was a Full Professor of the Instituto de Matemática e Estatística's Department of Computer Science and received the Emeritus title, post-mortem.

References

External links Imre Simon at the Mathematics Genealogy Project Personal home page

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Imre Simon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Imre Simon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Imre Simon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Imre Simon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Imre Simon

In research: Imre Simon appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Imre Simon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Imre Simon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1943 births, 2009 deaths, 20th-century Brazilian mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Imre Simon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Imre Simon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Imre Simon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Imre Simon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Imre Simon in simple terms?

Why does Imre Simon matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Imre Simon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Imre Simon.