一两天前，看了您的博文，我搜过芒克。似乎看到过有人提到过他晚年的生活：在哪里的旁边，简单地住在哪里。。。似乎提到他的婚姻情况。。。最近太忙，尤其看到科学网狗脑袋打出猪脑袋，写点啥的欲望都没有了。如果那时思维积极一些，会保存下来，计算机关机，浏览的历史荡然无存。这样的状况，最近经常发生，比如在网络上看到一些和科学网博文不一致的地方，以前多数情况会保留，现在是关闭浏览器，想的更多的是：这和我有何干系。不过还是被您的这个连载及芒克引起兴趣，以后有时间再说。

芒克看来如您所述，的确是犹太人后代，这里有文献：http://www.scientistsandfriends.com/aerodynamics.html
Max Munk was born in Hamburg, Germany in Oct. 1890 to a lower-middle-class Jewish family. He was one of Prandtl's most gifted students. In 1919 he received two doctorates from the University of Goettingen. One in engineering and the other in physics. In 1920 he moved to the US and went to work for NAS Langley were he suggested, designed and supervised the NACA variable density wind tunnel. His knowledge of aerodynamics was overwhelming. It was culture shock within the US aero-engineering community. He brought modern aerodynamics to the US. See pg. 292 in "A History of Aerodynamics."

另外，中国的航空航天科学家更值得大书特书，比如负责巨浪1的黄纬禄（1916年12月18日－2011年11月23日 ），安徽省芜湖人，自动控制和导弹技术专家，中国导弹与航天技术的主要开拓者之一，两弹一星功勋奖章获得者。巨浪从1965年－1982年首发失败到几天（5？）天之后的成功，说明中国军工的卓越和艰辛，不亚于西方航天人。这个局外人了解的不多，他们非常不容易，做了17年，在那样艰苦条件下。

有人解释，芒克的不得志来至于“文化shock”。美国的 nasa 官僚问题严重，比如挑战者和哥伦比亚航天飞机先后两次失事，费曼对挑战者诸多建议并未得到nasa的足够重视，就说明其存在严重问题。

芒克对大定理的工作被归类于 cranks 民科，有数学家评论：http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=1376557
The paper by Belaga on the rabinnical value of pi refers repeatedly to a
certain Rabbi Max Munk. Could this possibly be the same as the
fluid dynamicist Max M. Munk who was a student of Prandtl and worked on
boundary layer theory?

I have a personal anecdote about the latter Max Munk. More than 20 years
ago I visited a college friend who was then a physician in Maryland. He
took me to meet one of his patients--John Vincent Atanasoff, the computer
inventor. He had recently received a purported proof of Fermat's last
theorem, sent to him by his friend Max Munk. Not being competent to
evaluate it, he passed it on to me. I quickly decided that while it seemed
to contain interesting ideas, it was almost certainly not correct, and I
wrote to Munk to discuss it. He would not grapple with the issue I tried
to call to his attention, and would only complain about the reception his
proof had been given. He was at this time over 80, I believe.

The key technique in his proof was to add two numbers, both between zero
and one, by adding the p-adic expansion of one number (an infinite series
in positive powers of p) to the p-ary expansion of the other (an infinite
series in negative powers of p). He expressed the result as a "decimal
fraction" (or p-ary fraction) infinite in both directions from the
"decimal" point. But his operations with these objects were entirely
formal, lacking any topology in which to discuss convergence. Prior to
introducing this, his lemmas were all sound. After this point I found it
difficult to pin anything down.

I understand that his work with Prandtl was good, and if his attempt at FLT
was "trisector"-ish, I do not mean to imply that that judgment should be
carried over to his views about rabbinical tradition (if it is the same Max
Munk).
.....................................................................
Jim Murdock "No matter how wrong things seem to be,
Mathematics Dept. they are still all right."
Iowa State University -BW
Ames Iowa 50011

我很欣赏那个"No matter how wrong things seem to be, Mathematics Dept. they are still all right."

这个资料非常好。我没有收集到。有些遗憾。谢谢！

中国的资料不容易找，至少我在国外很难找。还是留给国内的热心人吧。

关于芒克对大定理的工作，我也请教了搞数论的人。

芒克在NACA的失败有美国人的原因，但我觉得主要是他自己方面。