Do you know a young person?

[icecolbeveridge@mathstodon.xyz]

@ColinTheMathmo Fred (11yo): (I asked for five or else he'd miss school): "Anne Frank, Charles Dickens, Jesus, John Snow, Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage (it feels wrong to have one without the other.)"

[colinthemathmo@mathstodon.xyz]

@Twotired Bit of both. It's hard for some to come up with names spontaneously, but prompting runs the risk of them vaguely thinking they may have heard the name.

I'm just interested to see what names come up ... it's not a challenge, it's data so I can mention names when I do talks and hope that a sizeable proportion of my audience will have a clue about who I'm referencing.

[lkundrak@metalhead.club]

@ColinTheMathmo asked a child

answer: ozzy osborne

*deep sigh*

[avtpiavva@mastodon.social]

@ColinTheMathmo asked my 12 year old. He said George Washington and a lot of the presidents, Jesus, lots of Kings and Queens of England, Pharaos, Leonardo Davinci, Mona Lisa (probably a celebrity since she was painted) Queen Elizabeth who was an adult before 1950, not sure about celebrities, the scientist who discovered uranium, a guy who discovered a bunch of bugs in the 50s, Shakespeare.

[colinthemathmo@mathstodon.xyz]

@avtpiavva Fabulous collection ... thank you!

And thank him!

[robinadams@mathstodon.xyz]

@ColinTheMathmo @Scmbradley My 6-year-old son knows Albert Einstein and Jesus. I will keep you posted on developments.

[colinthemathmo@mathstodon.xyz]

@robinadams Super ... thank you!

CC: @Scmbradley

[robinadams@mathstodon.xyz]

@ColinTheMathmo @Scmbradley Oh, and Dr Seuss and A A Milne

[colinthemathmo@mathstodon.xyz]

@robinadams

CC: @Scmbradley

[robjmills@indieweb.social]

@ColinTheMathmo define young… my 9 year old could name every single one of those. Largely this is from being obsessed with watching Horrible Histories though!

[colinthemathmo@mathstodon.xyz]

@robjmills It would be interesting to know if they know who comes before whom.

But the knowing of them is impressive ... HH has much to be proud of!

[wynke@mendeddrum.org]

@ColinTheMathmo She was not very interested in the question. She did ask how old her grandparents are/were and if they count (the oldest of them was born in 1940 and none of them are particularly famous, so no). Then she turned back to the more pressing matter of getting ready for her three-day school trip, which I guess is fair.

[colinthemathmo@mathstodon.xyz]

@wynke Totally fair.

[sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online]

@ColinTheMathmo
I was reading the lists (usually know the name, sometimes not what they were famous for oh hello Wikipedia), and saw a list of which I knew little. Ah! famous somewhere other than western Europe. My life is narrow.

My list would be heavy on musicians before 1900.

Do some people know of Old Masters because of turtles?
I suspect my sons think Donatello and Raphael were, though they'd know Leonardo and Michelangelo.

I'd heard of Babe Ruth, thought it was a chewy sweet.

[jonathan859@someplace.social]

@ColinTheMathmo Define young? And define famous, I'm a 17 yo german, Hitler comes to mind here first...

[colinthemathmo@mathstodon.xyz]

@jonathan859 Both are intended to be fuzzy, interpreted by the person answering.

Anything in the 1900s is still relatively recent history and I was thinking about pre-1900, but all answers are useful.

And 17 is certainly young enough

[bit101@mstdn.social]

@ColinTheMathmo when I was a teen, we'd play a game of naming a band for every letter of the alphabet.

[karlauerbach@sfba.social]

@ColinTheMathmo In pursuit of that question you may be donning the garb of Diogenes - you will need a bathtub and lantern.

I bet that few people, whether young or not young, know Diogenes.

Diogenes - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

[sinabhfuil@mastodon.ie]

@ColinTheMathmo @robjmills Not good on Ireland, haveta say

[chantaryu2@pataterie.ca]

@ColinTheMathmo at least 15 years ago, my brother's gf who was maybe... 24(?) didn't know who Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Fred Astair or Robocop were... maybe not the best example since she didn't know what celery was either.