Only a mathematician could ever come up with that!
I've forgotten what the "that" was. But I remember that an engineer said it. Now, my knowledge of mathematics can be summed up, generously, by the divisor of an equation that yields a quotient of infinity. But I understood, I think, that engineer's exclamation: Almost nothing is as abstract--and, therefore, divorced from reality, at least in the minds of many--as mathematics.
If there are things only a mathematician can come up with, then I imagine there are things an engineer would never try or, probably, even think about. To wit:
To be fair, Sergii Gordieiev's project was inspired by a real-life situation: He crushed his front wheel on a curb. That left him, in essence, with half of a wheel. So that got him to wondering how to ride with half of a wheel. The solution came from a mathematical equation so simple even I could understand it: half plus half equals one. Thus, he realized, he could make a bike run on two half-wheels--on the rear, anyway.
Your local bike mechanic probably can perform all sorts of miracles. I know: I've resurrected a bike or two in my time. (If you're inculcated with the language of Catholicism, it never leaves you!) But, my old engineer acquaintance said, there are some things only a mathematician could come up with.
