T.C. Mits

T.C. Mits (acronym for "the celebrated man in the street")cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,850461,00.html |title=Mathematics for Mits - TIME |author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=1944-04-03 |format= |work= |publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= |accessdate=2008-05-07] , is a term coined by Lillian Rosanoff Lieber to refer to an everyman. In Lieber's works, T.C. Mits was a character who made scientific topics more approachable to the public audience.

The phrase has enjoyed sparse use by authors in fields such as molecular biologycite journal |author=Bentley R |title=The development of penicillin: genesis of a famous antibiotic |journal=Perspect. Biol. Med. |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=444–52 |year=2005 |pmid=16089021 |doi= |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/resolve_openurl.cgi?issn=0031-5982&volume=48&issue=3&spage=444&aulast=Bentley |accessdate=2008-05-08] , secondary education cite web |url=http://bul.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/63/423/93 |title=The Importance of Writing Well -- Goldstein 63 (423): 93 -- NASSP Bulletin |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-05-08] , and general semanticscite web |url=http://time-binding.org/conf/2003/papers/kodish.pdf |author=Bruce I. Kodish, Ph.D. |title=Changing Reputations: Demarginalizing General Semantics |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-05-08] .

"The Education of T.C. MITS"

Dr. Lillian Rosanoff Lieber wrote this treatise on mathematical thinking in twenty chapters. The writing took a form that resembled free-verse poetry, though Lieber included an introduction stating that the form was meant only to facilitate rapid reading, rather than emulate free-verse. Lieber's husband, a fellow professor at Long Island University, Hugh Gray Lieber, provided illustrations for the book. [ Lillian Lieber, "The Education of T.C. MITS" (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books Incorporated, 2007). ] The title of the book was meant to emphasize that mathematics can be understood by anyone, which was further shown when a special "Overseas edition for the Armed Forces" was published in 1942, and approved by the Council on Books in Wartime to be sent to American troops fighting in World War II. [ Barry Mazur. Introduction to "The Education of T.C. MITS" by Lillian Lieber (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books Incorporated, 2007). ]

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