Three high-stakes math exams (Q2574458)

Three examples are given of dramatic life situations in which to answer or of a mathematical question became decisive for the fate of some today wellknown mathematicians. Jacob David Tamarkin had to answer a question of analytic geometry raised by an American consul. Igor Tamm (co-recipient of the Nobel prize in Physics, in 1958) had to answer a question of estimation of error one makes by cutting off MacLaurin's series at the \(n\)-th term, raised by an Ataman. Gaetano Fichera had to give a sufficient condition for interchanging limit and integration, a question raised by a student of mathematics from the University of Bologna.