GEORGE POLYA: The Father of Problem Solving

George Pólya was born in Budapest on December 13, 1887, the son of Jacob
and Anne (Deutsch) Pólya. Early in life he was urged by his mother to take up his
father’s profession, the law, and he dutifully began his work in this subject at the
University of Budapest, but this lasted only for one semester. He then studied
languages and literature for two years. Fond of philosophy and of literature,
particularly the poetry of Heinrich Heine, some of which he translated into Hungarian,
he was also attracted to physics. A philosophy professor with unusual insight
convinced him that the study of mathematics and physics would help his
understanding of philosophy, so he eventually came to the serious study of
mathematics. This led to Pólya's statement: “I thought I’m not good enough for
physics and I am too good for philosophy. Mathematics is in between.”

At the university his physics professor was Lorand Etövös, but the faculty
member to influence him most was the mathematician Lipót Fejér. Fejér drew a
number of talented students into his circle: Mihály Fekete, Otto Szász, Gabor Szegö,
and later Paul Erdös. Pólya spent the academic year 1910-11 at the University of
Vienna, and returned to Budapest to receive his doctorate in 1912. He then went to
the University of Göttingen in 1912-14 where he encountered Felix Klein, David
Hilbert, Carl Runge, Edmund Landau and other eminent Göttingen professors. Even
the list of Privatdozents was impressive: Hermann Weyl, Erich Hecke, Richard Courant,
and Otto Toeplitz.

In the spring of 1914 Pólya went to the University of Paris, where he met Emile
Picard and Jacques Hadamard. In the fall of that year, at the invitation of Adolf
Hurwitz, he took his first teaching position at the Eidgenössische Technische
Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, where he was to stay until 1940 and to which he returned
for frequent visits later.

He became a Swiss citizen, and in 1918 married Stella Vera Weber, a daughter
of a professor of physics at the University of Neuchâtel. Because Mrs. Pólya grew up
in French speaking Switzerland, French was the language spoken in the home,
though Pólya was, of course, Hungarian, and they lived in German-speaking
Switzerland. He has written mathematical papers in Hungarian, French, German,
Italian, English, and Danish.

At the ETH he became Professor in 1928. His colleagues at the ETH included
Adolf Hurwitz, and later Hermann Weyl, Michel Plancherel, and Heinz Hopf. Students
in his classes included Felix Bloch and Hans Staub, who later became Professors of
Physics at Stanford, and the mathematician and physicist John von Neumann.

At the suggestion of G. H. Hardy, Pólya was awarded the first international

Rockefeller Fellowship in 1924. This was used to spend the year at Oxford and
Cambridge with Hardy and J. E. Littlewood. Thus began his long friendship and
collaboration with these mathematicians; one outcome of which was the famous
book Hardy, Littlewood and Pólya, Inequalities. While Pólya was at Cambridge, Hardy
was in the midst of is campaign to reform the Mathematics Tripos and asked Pólya to
take this examination unofficially. Hardy expected Pólya's poor showing would
demonstrate that most questions were irrelevant to “modern continental
mathematics.” Unfortunately for Hardy's plan, Pólya’s was the best performance on
the examination, and he would have been named the Senior Wrangler if he had been
a student.

Earlier Pólya had developed a close collaboration with Gabor Szegö. Together
they wrote their classic work, Aufgaben und Lehrsätze aus der Analysis, published in
two volumes by Springer-Verlag in 1925. After 60 years, this work is still cited
regularly and is one of the most important sources of problems in analysis. The
organization was original; the problems were put together, not according to the
topic, but according to the method of solution. This work has been translated into
English and is still in print. The collaboration with Szegö continued with joint papers
and another book, Isoperimetric Inequalities in Mathematical Physics, in 1951.

In 1933 Pólya was again selected for a Rockefeller grant, this time to visit
Princeton. He spent the summer quarter of that year at Stanford. In 1940 the Pólyas
left Switzerland. After two years at Brown and Smith, Pólya received an appointment
at Stanford, where Gabor Szegö was Department Head. He remained at Stanford for
the remainder of his academic career.
 Pólya was one of the most popular teachers at Stanford. In 1948 his class on
Functions of a Complex Variable was attended by Lincoln Moses and Halsey Royden,
then students, and by Hugh Skilling and Fred Terman, then Head of Electrical
Engineering and Dean of Engineering, respectively. Pólya became emeritus in 1953,
but Fred Terman, who became Provost shortly thereafter, used the excellence of
Pólya's teaching as an argument to break the strict rule of the time that emeritus
faculty no longer taught. Thus Pólya became the first Professor Emeritus at Stanford
recalled to active duty. He taught nearly full-time for a decade, and part-time for
many years thereafter. The last course he taught was Combinatorial Analysis for the
Computer Science Department in 1977 when Pólya was ninety.

Pólya’s doctoral dissertation was on probability. Since there was no one at

Budapest in this subject, he wrote without an adviser. He continued his study of
probability, and early papers explored aspects of geometrical probabilities. He may
have been the first person to use in print the term “Central Limit Theorem” to
describe the normal limit law in probability. Pólya also worked on characteristic
functions in probability theory, for which there is a “Pólya criterion.” One example of
his work is the Pólya urn scheme, which is often used as a model to describe
contagion. An offshoot of this model is the “Pólya distribution.” He was the first
person to investigate “random walk,” a phrase he originated. In 1921 he showed that
a random walk in a plane almost surely returns to its starting point, but in three
dimensions it almost never returns.

Pólya’s most profound and difficult work is in the theory of functions of a

complex variable. He was one of the pioneers, along with Picard, Hadamard, and
Julia, of the modern theory of entire functions. It is an indication of the level of
Pólya’s contribution that the language of the subject contains such phrases as “Pólya
peaks,” “the Pólya representation,” “the Pólya gap theorem,” “the Pólya-Carlsen
theorem,” “Pólya’s 2z theorem,” etc. Some of Pólya’s most interesting work in this
area concerns the zeros of entire functions. Work in this area is often close to the
subject of the famous “Riemann hypothesis,” an unproved conjecture made by
Riemann in 1859 which would have important consequences in the theory of
numbers. One paper of Pólya in 1926 came close to proving the Riemann hypothesis.
Although it failed to do so, it led to further developments, including some in
statistical mechanics.

Pólya was much interested in geometry and geometrical methods, especially

those involving symmetry. In 1924 he described the 17 types of symmetry in the
plane. The Dutch artist M. C. Escher studied this paper, and soon after, some of the
additional symmetries found by Pólya began to appear in Escher's etchings and
prints. Pólya and Escher corresponded with each other prior to the Second World
War.

Pólya’s interest in symmetry emerged again in 1935 in a series of papers on

isomers in chemistry, culminating in his monumental paper in 1937 on groups,
graphs and molecular structures. One of the high points in the history of
combinatorics, this paper showed how to count essentially different patterns,
patterns that could not be changed into each other by geometrical transformation
such as rotation in space. Pólya's work was accessible and comprehensive, and the
principal theorem is now called the “Pólya Enumeration Theorem.” Found in any
combinatorics text, it provides a powerful and subtle technique for counting graphs,
geometrical patterns, and, not surprisingly, chemical compounds.

In his later years Pólya became very much concerned with problems of the
teaching of mathematics. Even before coming to America he had started a
manuscript for his book How to Solve It, originally published by the Princeton
University Press in 1945. It proved to be very popular and has now sold more than a
million copies and been translated into fifteen languages. After this came the two-
volume set, Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, (1954) again illustrating some of
the heuristic principles set out earlier in How to Solve It, and in some of his articles.
That was followed by a more elementary set, Mathematical Discovery, in 1962 and
1965. These works established him as the foremost advocate of problem solving and
heuristics in his generation. Though he had distinguished antecedents from Descartes
to Hadamard, who had also written about heuristics and the psychology of problem
solving, Pólya nevertheless is the father of the current trend toward the emphasis on
problem solving in mathematics teaching.

In addition to the books already cited he wrote a text, Complex Variables, with
Gordon Latta in 1974, and several books and monographs: The Stanford Mathematics
Problem Book (with Jeremy Kilpatrick), 1974; Mathematical Methods in Science
(edited by Leon Bowden), 1963, 1977; and Notes on Introductory Combinatorics
(lectures by Pólya and R. Tarjan, notes by D. Woods), 1984. His bibliography also
contains 250 published articles.

George Pólya has been the recipient of many honors and awards. In addition
to various honorary degrees, he was a corresponding member of the Académie des
Sciences, Paris, and a member of the Hungarian Academy, the U.S. National Academy
of Sciences, and the Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences, Bruxelles.
In 1963 he was given the Award for Distinguished Service in Mathematics by the
Mathematical Association of America, and in 1968 the Blue Ribbon by the
Educational Film Library Association for his film “Let us Teach Guessing.” The Society
for Industrial and Applied Mathematics established the Pólya Prize in Combinatorial
Theory and Its Applications, and the Mathematical Association of America gives the
Pólya Prize for Expository Writing in the College Mathematical Journal.

George Pólya, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, died on September 7, 1985,

in Palo Alto after several months of illness. George Pólya held a special place in
mathematics, not only for his original and lasting contributions to pure and applied
mathematics, but also as a great teacher of mathematics and for his contributions to
the teaching of Math through his seminal work in heuristics and the methods of
problem solving.

His friends will always remember George Pólya's enthusiasm, his warmth and
humor, and his ready wit. George and Stella Pólya welcomed visitors to their home in
College Terrace with pleasure, and George loved to recount anecdotes from his many
contacts with the great mathematicians of the world. In Professor Pólya's death,
Stanford loses one of its most distinguished scholars and teachers. Those of us who
were privileged to know and learn from George Pólya have lost a great teacher,
colleague and friend.

Source: Gerald Alexanderson (Univ. of Sta Clara) Harold Bacon, Solomon Feferman,
John G. Herriot, Halsey Royden (Chairman) Available online @
http://histsoc.stanford.edu/pdfmem/PolyaG.pdf
 STUDY GUIDE
Directions: Answer the following questions comprehensively. You may submit a
handwritten or computerized work. Upload a PDF of your work in MS Teams.

Due on September 2

1. Discuss George Polya’s home and family background. How did this influence his
educational decisions?

2. What significant lessons have you learned from Polya’s home and educational
experiences?

3. Summarize his professional experiences.

4. Create a timetable that summarizes the highlights in Polya’s life, including the
important people whom he met and/or worked with.

5. Why is he considered the father of problem solving?

6. Enumerate chronologically his significant books and educational works.

7. What honors and awards did he receive?

8. How is he remembered by his friends?

9. How would you like to be remembered by your friends? Write 5 words or phrases
that you expect they will tell about you. Then ask 5 friends or family members to
describe you and your relationship with them. Write down their descriptions about
you. Are these enough to consider that your life is worth lived? Explain.
 GEORGE POLYA’S PROBLEM SOLVING FRAMEWORK

A task is a problem if a person confronting it has to deal with obstacles that

hinder progress towards a solution. Nonroutine or novel problem refers to a task the
person has not previously seen and which is not closely similar to a previously done
problem.

In “How to Solve It” (1957), George Polya describes four steps for solving
problems and outlines them at the very beginning of the book for easy reference. The
steps outline a series of general questions that the problem solving student can use to
successfully write resolutions. Without the questions, common sense goes through the
same process; the questions simply allow students to see the process on paper. Polya
designed the questions to be general enough that students could apply them to almost
any problem.

The four steps are: understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying
out a plan, and looking back. Polya separates devising a plan, and carrying out the
plan. He argues that it makes a difference. By first devising a plan, students can
eliminate mistakes they might make by rushing into the actual execution of the plan.
When they plan it out first and then perform the plan, it is possible to check their work
as they go along.

Step 1 Understand the Problem

In the first step, you should be able to state the unknown, or the thing you want
to find to answer the question, the data the question gives you to work with, and the
condition, or limiting circumstances you must work around. If you can identify all of
these, and explain the question to other people, then you have a good understanding
of what the problem is asking. Polya suggests that you draw a picture if possible, or
introduce some kind of notation to visualize the question.

☺ Do I understand all the words used in stating the problem?

☺ What is the unknown? What are the data? What is the condition?
 ☺ Is it possible to satisfy the condition? Is the condition sufficient to determine
the unknown? Or is it insufficient, redundant, or contradictory?
☺ Can I restate the problem in my own words?
☺ Can I draw and label a picture that helps me to understand the problem?

Understan
d the
Problem

Look Back
Devise
and
a Plan
Reflect

Carry Out
the Plan

Cyclic Model of Polya’s Problem Solving Process

Step 2 Devise a Plan

To devise a plan, you can start by trying to think of a related problem you have
solved before to help you. If you can think of a problem you have solved before that
had a similar unknown, it could also be helpful. You can also try to restate the problem
in an easier or different way, and try to solve that. By looking at these related problems,
you may be able to use the same method, or other part of the plan used.

☺ Have I seen it before? Or have I seen the same problem in a slightly different
form?
☺ Do I know a related problem? Do I know a formula that could be useful?
☺ Here is a problem related to mine and I solved before. Could I use its result?
Could I use its method?
 ☺ Could I derive something useful from the data? Could I think of other data
appropriate to determine the unknown?
☺ Did I use all the data? Did I use the whole condition? Have I taken into account
all essential notions involved in the problem?
☺ Should I estimate a solution?
☺ Which one strategy would help me to find a response?
☺ Are there any alternatives that might be easier or better?
☺ Are there any difficulties that I might anticipate?

You should formulate eventually a strategy to solve the problem. A strategy is

a way or method or process for solving a problem. It’s not the answer or solution itself
but, rather, how you can find the solution or answer. Some strategies that do not
include algebra are: guess, check and refine; make a drawing, diagram or model; make
an orderly list, chart, table or tally; look for patterns; solve simpler problem; eliminate
possibilities; and work backwards.

Step 3 Carry out the Plan

After you have decided which computations or constructions that you need, and
have made sure that all data and conditions were used, you can try out your plan. To
carry out the plan, you must do all the calculations, and check them as you go along.

☺ Can I see clearly that each step is correct?

☺ Can I prove that it is correct?

Step 4 Look Back and Reflect

When you look back on the problem and the plan you carried out, you can
increase your understanding of the solution. It is always good to recheck the result
and argument used, and to make sure that it is possible to check them.

☺ Can I check the result? Does my answer make sense?

☺ What methods worked? What methods failed?
☺ Can I get the solution in a different way?
☺ If I encounter a similar problem in the future, how can I better solve it? Can I use
the result, or the method, for some other problems?
 STUDY GUIDE
Directions: Answer the following questions comprehensively. You may submit a
handwritten or computerized work. Upload a PDF of your work in MS Teams.

Due on September 2

1. Analyze and discuss George Polya’s problem solving framework.

2. Explain the cyclic model of Polya’s problem solving process.

3. Can the cyclic model in Figure 1 be transformed into a linear model shown below?
Defend your answer.

Understand Devise Implement Look back

the problem a plan the plan and reflect

4. Are the steps in Polya’s framework complete? Are there missing steps? What steps
must be added or deleted? Justify your answer.