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Biography Paper – Georg Cantor
Mike Garkie Math 4010 – History of Math UCD Denver 4/1/08 Biography Paper – Georg Cantor Few mathematicians are house-hold names; perhaps only Newton and Euclid would qualify. But there is a second tier of mathematicians, those whose names might not be familiar, but whose discoveries are part of everyday math. Examples here are Napier with logarithms, Cauchy with limits and Georg Cantor (1845 – 1918) with sets. In fact, those who superficially familier with Georg Cantor probably have two impressions of the man: First, as a consequence of thinking about sets, Cantor developed a theory of the actual infinite. And second, that Cantor was a troubled genius, crippled by Freudian conflict and mental illness. The first impression is fundamentally true. Cantor almost single-handedly overturned the Aristotle’s concept of the potential infinite by developing the concept of transfinite numbers. And, even though Bolzano and Frege made significant contributions, “Set theory … is the creation of one person, Georg Cantor.” [4] The second impression is mostly false. Cantor certainly did suffer from mental illness later in his life, but the other emotional baggage assigned to him is mostly due his early biographers, particularly the infamous E.T. Bell in Men Of Mathematics [7]. In the racially charged atmosphere of 1930’s Europe, the sensational story mathematician who turned the idea of infinity on its head and went crazy in the process, probably make for good reading. The drama of the controversy over Cantor’s ideas only added spice. 1 Fortunately, modern scholars have corrected the errors and biases in older biographies. -
Squaring the Circle a Case Study in the History of Mathematics the Problem
Squaring the Circle A Case Study in the History of Mathematics The Problem Using only a compass and straightedge, construct for any given circle, a square with the same area as the circle. The general problem of constructing a square with the same area as a given figure is known as the Quadrature of that figure. So, we seek a quadrature of the circle. The Answer It has been known since 1822 that the quadrature of a circle with straightedge and compass is impossible. Notes: First of all we are not saying that a square of equal area does not exist. If the circle has area A, then a square with side √A clearly has the same area. Secondly, we are not saying that a quadrature of a circle is impossible, since it is possible, but not under the restriction of using only a straightedge and compass. Precursors It has been written, in many places, that the quadrature problem appears in one of the earliest extant mathematical sources, the Rhind Papyrus (~ 1650 B.C.). This is not really an accurate statement. If one means by the “quadrature of the circle” simply a quadrature by any means, then one is just asking for the determination of the area of a circle. This problem does appear in the Rhind Papyrus, but I consider it as just a precursor to the construction problem we are examining. The Rhind Papyrus The papyrus was found in Thebes (Luxor) in the ruins of a small building near the Ramesseum.1 It was purchased in 1858 in Egypt by the Scottish Egyptologist A. -
Bernhard Riemann 1826-1866
Modern Birkh~user Classics Many of the original research and survey monographs in pure and applied mathematics published by Birkh~iuser in recent decades have been groundbreaking and have come to be regarded as foun- dational to the subject. Through the MBC Series, a select number of these modern classics, entirely uncorrected, are being re-released in paperback (and as eBooks) to ensure that these treasures remain ac- cessible to new generations of students, scholars, and researchers. BERNHARD RIEMANN (1826-1866) Bernhard R~emanno 1826 1866 Turning Points in the Conception of Mathematics Detlef Laugwitz Translated by Abe Shenitzer With the Editorial Assistance of the Author, Hardy Grant, and Sarah Shenitzer Reprint of the 1999 Edition Birkh~iuser Boston 9Basel 9Berlin Abe Shendtzer (translator) Detlef Laugwitz (Deceased) Department of Mathematics Department of Mathematics and Statistics Technische Hochschule York University Darmstadt D-64289 Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Gernmany Canada Originally published as a monograph ISBN-13:978-0-8176-4776-6 e-ISBN-13:978-0-8176-4777-3 DOI: 10.1007/978-0-8176-4777-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2007940671 Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 01Axx, 00A30, 03A05, 51-03, 14C40 9 Birkh~iuser Boston All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the writ- ten permission of the publisher (Birkh~user Boston, c/o Springer Science+Business Media LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter de- veloped is forbidden. -
Leonhard Euler: His Life, the Man, and His Works∗
SIAM REVIEW c 2008 Walter Gautschi Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 3–33 Leonhard Euler: His Life, the Man, and His Works∗ Walter Gautschi† Abstract. On the occasion of the 300th anniversary (on April 15, 2007) of Euler’s birth, an attempt is made to bring Euler’s genius to the attention of a broad segment of the educated public. The three stations of his life—Basel, St. Petersburg, andBerlin—are sketchedandthe principal works identified in more or less chronological order. To convey a flavor of his work andits impact on modernscience, a few of Euler’s memorable contributions are selected anddiscussedinmore detail. Remarks on Euler’s personality, intellect, andcraftsmanship roundout the presentation. Key words. LeonhardEuler, sketch of Euler’s life, works, andpersonality AMS subject classification. 01A50 DOI. 10.1137/070702710 Seh ich die Werke der Meister an, So sehe ich, was sie getan; Betracht ich meine Siebensachen, Seh ich, was ich h¨att sollen machen. –Goethe, Weimar 1814/1815 1. Introduction. It is a virtually impossible task to do justice, in a short span of time and space, to the great genius of Leonhard Euler. All we can do, in this lecture, is to bring across some glimpses of Euler’s incredibly voluminous and diverse work, which today fills 74 massive volumes of the Opera omnia (with two more to come). Nine additional volumes of correspondence are planned and have already appeared in part, and about seven volumes of notebooks and diaries still await editing! We begin in section 2 with a brief outline of Euler’s life, going through the three stations of his life: Basel, St. -
Georg Cantor English Version
GEORG CANTOR (March 3, 1845 – January 6, 1918) by HEINZ KLAUS STRICK, Germany There is hardly another mathematician whose reputation among his contemporary colleagues reflected such a wide disparity of opinion: for some, GEORG FERDINAND LUDWIG PHILIPP CANTOR was a corruptor of youth (KRONECKER), while for others, he was an exceptionally gifted mathematical researcher (DAVID HILBERT 1925: Let no one be allowed to drive us from the paradise that CANTOR created for us.) GEORG CANTOR’s father was a successful merchant and stockbroker in St. Petersburg, where he lived with his family, which included six children, in the large German colony until he was forced by ill health to move to the milder climate of Germany. In Russia, GEORG was instructed by private tutors. He then attended secondary schools in Wiesbaden and Darmstadt. After he had completed his schooling with excellent grades, particularly in mathematics, his father acceded to his son’s request to pursue mathematical studies in Zurich. GEORG CANTOR could equally well have chosen a career as a violinist, in which case he would have continued the tradition of his two grandmothers, both of whom were active as respected professional musicians in St. Petersburg. When in 1863 his father died, CANTOR transferred to Berlin, where he attended lectures by KARL WEIERSTRASS, ERNST EDUARD KUMMER, and LEOPOLD KRONECKER. On completing his doctorate in 1867 with a dissertation on a topic in number theory, CANTOR did not obtain a permanent academic position. He taught for a while at a girls’ school and at an institution for training teachers, all the while working on his habilitation thesis, which led to a teaching position at the university in Halle. -
On History of Epsilontics
ANTIQUITATES MATHEMATICAE Vol. 10(1) 2016, p. xx–zz doi: 10.14708/am.v10i0.805 Galina Ivanovna Sinkevich∗ (St. Petersburg) On History of Epsilontics Abstract. This is a review of genesis of − δ language in works of mathematicians of the 19th century. It shows that although the sym- bols and δ were initially introduced in 1823 by Cauchy, no functional relationship for δ as a function of was ever ever specied by Cauchy. It was only in 1861 that the epsilon-delta method manifested itself to the full in Weierstrass denition of a limit. The article gives various interpretations of these issues later provided by mathematicians. This article presents the text [Sinkevich, 2012d] of the same author which is slightly redone and translated into English. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classication: 01A50; 01A55; 01A60. Key words and phrases: History of mathematics, analysis, continu- ity, Lagrange, Ampére, Cauchy, Bolzano, Heine, Cantor, Weierstrass, Lebesgue, Dini.. It is mere feedback-style ahistory to read Cauchy (and contemporaries such as Bernard Bolzano) as if they had read Weierstrass already. On the contrary, their own pre-Weierstrassian muddles need historical reconstruction. [Grattan-Guinness 2004, p. 176]. Since the early antiquity the concept of continuity was described throgh the notions of time, motion, divisibility, contact1 . The ideas about functional accuracy came with the extension of mathematical interpretation to natural-science observations. Physical and geometrical notions of continuity became insucient, ultimately ∗ Galina Ivanovna Sinkeviq 1The 'continuous' is a subdivision of the contiguous: things are called continuous when the touching limits of each become one and the same and are, as the word implies, contained in each other: continuity is impossible if these extremities are two. -
Fundamental Theorems in Mathematics
SOME FUNDAMENTAL THEOREMS IN MATHEMATICS OLIVER KNILL Abstract. An expository hitchhikers guide to some theorems in mathematics. Criteria for the current list of 243 theorems are whether the result can be formulated elegantly, whether it is beautiful or useful and whether it could serve as a guide [6] without leading to panic. The order is not a ranking but ordered along a time-line when things were writ- ten down. Since [556] stated “a mathematical theorem only becomes beautiful if presented as a crown jewel within a context" we try sometimes to give some context. Of course, any such list of theorems is a matter of personal preferences, taste and limitations. The num- ber of theorems is arbitrary, the initial obvious goal was 42 but that number got eventually surpassed as it is hard to stop, once started. As a compensation, there are 42 “tweetable" theorems with included proofs. More comments on the choice of the theorems is included in an epilogue. For literature on general mathematics, see [193, 189, 29, 235, 254, 619, 412, 138], for history [217, 625, 376, 73, 46, 208, 379, 365, 690, 113, 618, 79, 259, 341], for popular, beautiful or elegant things [12, 529, 201, 182, 17, 672, 673, 44, 204, 190, 245, 446, 616, 303, 201, 2, 127, 146, 128, 502, 261, 172]. For comprehensive overviews in large parts of math- ematics, [74, 165, 166, 51, 593] or predictions on developments [47]. For reflections about mathematics in general [145, 455, 45, 306, 439, 99, 561]. Encyclopedic source examples are [188, 705, 670, 102, 192, 152, 221, 191, 111, 635]. -
Cantor and Continuity
Cantor and Continuity Akihiro Kanamori May 1, 2018 Georg Cantor (1845-1919), with his seminal work on sets and number, brought forth a new field of inquiry, set theory, and ushered in a way of proceeding in mathematics, one at base infinitary, topological, and combinatorial. While this was the thrust, his work at the beginning was embedded in issues and concerns of real analysis and contributed fundamentally to its 19th Century rigorization, a development turning on limits and continuity. And a continuing engagement with limits and continuity would be very much part of Cantor's mathematical journey, even as dramatically new conceptualizations emerged. Evolutionary accounts of Cantor's work mostly underscore his progressive ascent through set- theoretic constructs to transfinite number, this as the storied beginnings of set theory. In this article, we consider Cantor's work with a steady focus on con- tinuity, putting it first into the context of rigorization and then pursuing the increasingly set-theoretic constructs leading to its further elucidations. Beyond providing a narrative through the historical record about Cantor's progress, we will bring out three aspectual motifs bearing on the history and na- ture of mathematics. First, with Cantor the first mathematician to be engaged with limits and continuity through progressive activity over many years, one can see how incipiently metaphysical conceptualizations can become systemati- cally transmuted through mathematical formulations and results so that one can chart progress on the understanding of concepts. Second, with counterweight put on Cantor's early career, one can see the drive of mathematical necessity pressing through Cantor's work toward extensional mathematics, the increasing objectification of concepts compelled, and compelled only by, his mathematical investigation of aspects of continuity and culminating in the transfinite numbers and set theory. -
A CONCISE MINI HISTORY of GEOMETRY 1. Origin And
Kragujevac Journal of Mathematics Volume 38(1) (2014), Pages 5{21. A CONCISE MINI HISTORY OF GEOMETRY LEOPOLD VERSTRAELEN 1. Origin and development in Old Greece Mathematics was the crowning and lasting achievement of the ancient Greek cul- ture. To more or less extent, arithmetical and geometrical problems had been ex- plored already before, in several previous civilisations at various parts of the world, within a kind of practical mathematical scientific context. The knowledge which in particular as such first had been acquired in Mesopotamia and later on in Egypt, and the philosophical reflections on its meaning and its nature by \the Old Greeks", resulted in the sublime creation of mathematics as a characteristically abstract and deductive science. The name for this science, \mathematics", stems from the Greek language, and basically means \knowledge and understanding", and became of use in most other languages as well; realising however that, as a matter of fact, it is really an art to reach new knowledge and better understanding, the Dutch term for mathematics, \wiskunde", in translation: \the art to achieve wisdom", might be even more appropriate. For specimens of the human kind, \nature" essentially stands for their organised thoughts about sensations and perceptions of \their worlds outside and inside" and \doing mathematics" basically stands for their thoughtful living in \the universe" of their idealisations and abstractions of these sensations and perceptions. Or, as Stewart stated in the revised book \What is Mathematics?" of Courant and Robbins: \Mathematics links the abstract world of mental concepts to the real world of physical things without being located completely in either". -
A Survey of the Development of Geometry up to 1870
A Survey of the Development of Geometry up to 1870∗ Eldar Straume Department of mathematical sciences Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) N-9471 Trondheim, Norway September 4, 2014 Abstract This is an expository treatise on the development of the classical ge- ometries, starting from the origins of Euclidean geometry a few centuries BC up to around 1870. At this time classical differential geometry came to an end, and the Riemannian geometric approach started to be developed. Moreover, the discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, about 40 years earlier, had just been demonstrated to be a ”true” geometry on the same footing as Euclidean geometry. These were radically new ideas, but henceforth the importance of the topic became gradually realized. As a consequence, the conventional attitude to the basic geometric questions, including the possible geometric structure of the physical space, was challenged, and foundational problems became an important issue during the following decades. Such a basic understanding of the status of geometry around 1870 enables one to study the geometric works of Sophus Lie and Felix Klein at the beginning of their career in the appropriate historical perspective. arXiv:1409.1140v1 [math.HO] 3 Sep 2014 Contents 1 Euclideangeometry,thesourceofallgeometries 3 1.1 Earlygeometryandtheroleoftherealnumbers . 4 1.1.1 Geometric algebra, constructivism, and the real numbers 7 1.1.2 Thedownfalloftheancientgeometry . 8 ∗This monograph was written up in 2008-2009, as a preparation to the further study of the early geometrical works of Sophus Lie and Felix Klein at the beginning of their career around 1870. The author apologizes for possible historiographic shortcomings, errors, and perhaps lack of updated information on certain topics from the history of mathematics. -
The Project Gutenberg Ebook #31061: a History of Mathematics
The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Mathematics, by Florian Cajori This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: A History of Mathematics Author: Florian Cajori Release Date: January 24, 2010 [EBook #31061] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS *** Produced by Andrew D. Hwang, Peter Vachuska, Carl Hudkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net transcriber's note Figures may have been moved with respect to the surrounding text. Minor typographical corrections and presentational changes have been made without comment. This PDF file is formatted for screen viewing, but may be easily formatted for printing. Please consult the preamble of the LATEX source file for instructions. A HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS A HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS BY FLORIAN CAJORI, Ph.D. Formerly Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Tulane University of Louisiana; now Professor of Physics in Colorado College \I am sure that no subject loses more than mathematics by any attempt to dissociate it from its history."|J. W. L. Glaisher New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1909 All rights reserved Copyright, 1893, By MACMILLAN AND CO. Set up and electrotyped January, 1894. Reprinted March, 1895; October, 1897; November, 1901; January, 1906; July, 1909. Norwood Pre&: J. S. Cushing & Co.|Berwick & Smith. -
Karl Heun, Based on [Vrent 02] and [Vrent 95]
Universit¨at Karlsruhe Dr. habil Wolfdieter Lang Institut fur¨ Theoretische Physik February 28, 2006 Proposal for an entry on Karl H e u n in ’The MacTutor of Mathematics’ Short Biography of Karl Heun, based on [vRent 02] and [vRent 95] Karl Heun was born on April 3, 1859 in Wiesbaden, Germany, and died on January 10, 1929 in Karlsruhe, Germany. After his school visits in Wiesbaden he began his study in mathematics and philosophy in 1878 in G¨ottingen (with Ernst Schering, Alfred Enneper, Hermann Amandus Schwarz). After two years he moved to Halle to study with Eduard Heine who, in 1861, had published his famous book on spherical harmonics. The first part of this book appeared in second edition in 1878. Heun stayed in Halle only between April and October 1880, probably due to the deteriorating health of Heine who died in 1881. He returned to G¨ottingen and started with his thesis which was inspired by Heine and supervised by the astronomer Ernst Schering. His 1881 Dr. phil. thesis bears the title “Die Kugelfunctionen und Lam´eschen Functionen als Determinanten”. After his doctorate he worked as an instructor at an agricultural winter school in Wehlau (eastern Prussia). This led to his qualification as teacher for secondary schools in Prussia. Heun then moved to England and taught for two and a half years (1883-1885) at the Public School in Uppingham. In 1885/86 he complemented his studies in London. His Munchen¨ habilitation thesis from July 1886 is entitled “Uber¨ lineare Differentialglei- chungen zweiter Ordnung, deren L¨osungen durch den Kettenbruchalgorithmus verknupft¨ sind.” From 1886 to 1889 he lectured at the University of Munchen¨ on topics like: the theory of rational functions and their integrals, the theory of linear differential equati- ons, introduction to the theory of linear substitutions and the general theory of differential equations.