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A friend back in college enjoyed solving math problems. He once told me about a
lengthy assignment his class was given. He solved all the problems and was
certain that all the solutions were correct. He got the highest mark in class,
but not the full mark. He quickly went through the pages and spotted the
professor's remark on the side of one page. It said (translated): "It's not what
you think". And there was a line under a phrase that my friend wrote, that said
something like: "If so and so information about x is available, y can be
measured with absolute precision". He did not ask the professor for an
explanation. He understood that, in college, saying 'absolute precision' can get
you less marks.
His fascination with math and logic was great. Even after college, in his spare time, he would read books about math and logic, including books about the philosophy of math. What caught my attention was that he said that, in his twenties, the biggest shock was losing a parent, and the next biggest shock was realizing that mathematics was not absolutely solid.
The shock was probably inevitable since my friend was like many people who would see math as the last solid ground that eventually can explain everything.
