DOCSLIB.ORG

Of the American Mathematical Society Notices of the American Mathematical Society

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Of the American Mathematical Society Notices of the American Mathematical Society ISSN 0002-9920 201 Charles Street, Providence, RI 02904-2294 USA Notices of the American Mathematical Society Notices of the American Mathematical Society A MERICAN M ATHEMATICAL S OCIETY CURRENT EVENTS BULLETIN Saturday, January 8, 2011, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM Joint Mathematics Meetings, New Orleans, LA of the American Mathematical Society Organized by David Eisenbud, University of California, Berkeley January 2011 Volume 58, Number 1 1:00 PM Vortices and Statesboro Meeting Luca Trevisan, Khot's unique games con- x1 x3 Two-Dimensional page 102 x1-x3=1 (mod 3) jecture: its consequences and the evidence x1-x2=2 (mod 3) Fluid Motion x2-x3=1 (mod 3) x4-x2=0 (mod 3) for and against page 10 Iowa City Meeting x3-x4=1 (mod 3) A conjecture that makes fundamental new connections page 105 x2 x4 between some classical mathematics and the difficulty From Cartan to Tanaka: of computing Image courtesy of Luca Trevisan. Getting Real in the Complex World 2:00 PM page 20 Thomas Scanlon, Counting special points: logic, Diophantine geometry and transcen- Mathematics Classes dence theory for Future Elementary Another beautiful use of logic to prove a deep theorem Teachers: Data about rational numbers from Mathematics Figure by C. Goodman-Strauss from John H. Conway, Departments Heidi Burgiel, and C. Goodman Strauss. The Symmetries of Things. AK Peters, Ltd., 2008. page 29 3:00 PM Real Face of Ulrike Tillmann, Spaces of graphs János Bolyai and surfaces page 41 Topological tools lead to new ways of distinguishing families of graphs and surfaces Volume 58, Number 1, Pages 1–224, January 2011 Image courtesy of Ulrike Tillmann. 4:00 PM David Nadler, The geometric nature of the fundamental lemma The geometry behind the number theory behind one of this year's Fields Medals. Image courtesy of David Jordan. About the Cover: 2D Vortex Formation (see page 35) current-events-bull-noti-ad.indd 1 11/22/10 3:13 PM Trim: 8.25" x 10.75" 224 pages on 40 lb Velocity • Spine: 1/4" • Print Cover on 9pt Carolina jjan10-cov.inddan10-cov.indd 1 111/23/101/23/10 99:09:09 AAMM Notices of the American Mathematical Society January 2011 Communications 4411 36 WHAT IS... Persistent Homology? Shmuel Weinberger 53 Doceamus: What Do the NAEP Math Tests Really Measure? David Klein 62 Best Current Practices for Journals 56 10 IMU Committee on Electronic Information and Communication Features 66 Palis Awarded Balzan Prize From a mistaken portrait of János Bolyai to complex geometry to vortices and fluid flow to mathematics education, we see this month the panorama of mathematical life. Our lives consist of Commentary research, teaching, service, and a great variety of scholarship. 7 Opinion: Commentary on Learning is what we do, and the Notices supports that effort. Education Legislation: A —Steven G. Krantz Mathematical Perspective Editor Matthew M. Pascal and Mary Gray 10 Vortices and Two-Dimensional Fluid 8 Letters to the Editor Motion 56 Perfect Rigor: A Genius C. Eugene Wayne and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the 20 From Cartan to Tanaka: Getting Real in Century— A Book Review the Complex World Reviewed by Donal O’Shea Vladimir Ezhov, Ben McLaughlin, and Gerd Schmalz 59 Numbers Rule: The Vexing Mathematics of Democracy, 29 Mathematics Classes for Future from Plato to the Present— Elementary Teachers: Data from A Book Review Mathematics Departments Reviewed by Jonathan K. Hodge Raven McCrory and Marisa Cannata 41 Real Face of János Bolyai Tamás Dénes Real Face of János Bolyai Tamás Dénes On the 150th anniversary of the death of János Bolyai1 n Vol. 56, No. 11, of Notices, I saw a fascinat- The article entitled “The real face of János ing article with the title: Changing Faces—The Bolyai” originates from my conversations with Mistaken Portrait of Legendre. The author, Pe- Professor Elemér Kiss. Unfortunately his serious ter Duren, writes with understandable bewil- illness, followed by his death in 2006, thwarted derment: “It seems incredible that such egre- our writing of a shared article. This piece of work Igious error could have gone undetected for so many is intended to fill this gap. years.” This encouraged me to publish, in the same journal, the story—no less fascinating—of the real Only Two Pictures of János Bolyai Ever face of János Bolyai. Existed, Neither of Which Has Survived It should be explained that in the case of János Bolyai (December 15, 1802–January 29, 1860) János Bolyai two different interpretations of the emerges like a comet from the history of Hungarian word “face” are justified: the “face” in terms of mathematics. the portrait (painting, drawing), and the “face” as “He was an illustrious mathematician with a an abstract concept. The first part of the article great mind; the first amongst the first”—read the introduces the surprising story of his only portrait, record of his death in the book of the Reform which, although universally accepted, turns out not Church of Marosvásárhely in Transylvania. On to be of him at all. The second part explores his November 3, 1823, he had sent a letter to his father intellectual or “mind-face” (it is my own word from Temesvar, including the words that would formation) and outlines a new approach to Bolyai’s later become famous: “I created a new, different creative life and work. world out of nothing.” The town of Marosvásárhely—which lies in the What he meant by this “new world” was the heart of the Central European Transylvania—fulfills idea of hyperbolic geometry, which was outlined an important role in the history of the Bolyai fam- in 1832, as an appendix to the book Tentamen ily: János lived most of his life there, and the local by Farkas Bolyai,2 entitled “The absolute true sci- library holds most of his manuscripts. The reader ence of space” (Scientiam Spatii absolute veram might find it strange that while János Bolyai is well exhibens). This, under the name “Appendix”, has known around the world as an eminent Hungar- become his best known piece of writing. ian, Transylvania (and so Marosvásárhely) can be The theory outlined in this work has been found within the borders of Romania. This can be named “Bolyai-Lobachevsky geometry”, following explained by the unsettled history of Transylvania. a decision made in 1894 at the International Bib- If we look back only to the nineteenth century, the liographic Congress of Mathematical Sciences. In part of Transylvania that was populated mainly January 2009 the “Appendix” by János Bolyai was by Hungarians was autonomous at times, whereas added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. at other times it belonged to Hungary. In 1947, János Bolyai was the son of Farkas Bolyai— following World War II, the Treaty of Paris gave himself a defining figure of nineteenth-century this area to Romania, so that is where it is found Hungarian mathematics, who was in regular corre- on today’s maps. spondence with Gauss. As a result, it is perhaps Tamás Dénes is a mathematician and cryptologist from not surprising that Farkas Bolyai and his wife Hungary. His email address is [email protected]. Zsuzsanna Árkosi Benkö were immortalized by 1Dedicated to the memory of Professor Elemér Kiss (1929–2006). 2Father of János Bolyai. January 2011 Notices of the AMS 41 The Portrait of János Bolyai That Isn’t The question is: how has this—supposedly authentic—portrait spread around the world with the name of János Bolyai? Well, exactly fifty years ago, on the centenary of János Bolyai’s death, Hungarian and Romanian stamps were published with Bolyai’s name on them. Since then there has been an increased presence of this portrait everywhere: in books, on postcards, and most recently on the Internet, too. Today we know for certain that this portrait is not that of János Bolyai. Figure 2. The portrait, not of János Bolyai (on Hungarian and Romanian stamps in 1960), that has been circulated around the world. (Source: Hungarian Academy of Sciences Library) The year 2010 is the 150th jubilee of János Figure 1. Title page of the “Appendix” by János Bolyai’s death, so it’s about time that—after a latent Bolyai. period of fifty years—we resolve this scandalous mystery and bring to the public the results of contemporary artists in both drawings and oil the latest Bolyai research. In order to do this, I paintings. It might therefore be assumed that first need to briefly introduce the reader to two their child, who had already become famous in contemporaries of Bolyai: two Hungarian painters his lifetime, would be immortalized in a similar and a painting that plays a key role in the story. manner. Mór Adler (1826–1902) was one of the pioneers But based on contemporary sources, only two of Hungarian painting. He stood out as a student of pictures of János Bolyai ever existed, neither of some merit at the Weisenberger School of Graphic which has survived. One of the “Vienna pictures” Art, from which he went to the Vienna Academy. was mentioned by Farkas Bolyai himself in a letter There he was taught by the then well-known histor- written to his son on September 3, 1821. According ical and religious painters, between 1842 and 1845. to other sources, by 1837 this picture could no He then traveled to Munich in 1845 to study the longer be found. works of Zimneirmann and Schnorr von Carolsfeld The other one was made while he was serving as and for further studies in 1846–1847 in Paris. Next a lieutenant. The destruction of this was accounted he settled in Pest in 1848, where he would become for by János Bolyai himself: “I tore up this picture, a respected figure in the art world by the end of which had been taken in a military parade, for I his career.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bolyai, János
    JÁNOS BOLYAI (December 15, 1802 – January 27, 1860) by Heinz Klaus Strick, Germany The portrait of the young man depicted on the Hungarian postage stamp of 1960 is that of JÁNOS BOLYAI, one of Hungary’s most famous mathematicians. The portrait, however, was painted only after his death, so it is anyone’s guess whether it is a good likeness. JÁNOS grew up in Transylvania (at the time, part of the Habsburg Empire, today part of Romania) as the son of the respected mathematician FARKAS BOLYAI. JÁNOS’s father, born in 1775, has attended school only until the age of 12, and was then appointed tutor to the eight-year-old son, SIMON, a scion of the wealthy noble KEMÉNY family. Three years later, he and his young charge together continued their educations at the Calvinist College in Kolozsvár. In 1796, he accompanied SIMON first to Jena, and then to Göttingen, where they attended university together. FARKAS had many interests, but now he finally had enough time to devote himself systematically to the study of mathematics. Through lectures given by ABRAHAM GOTTHELF KÄSTNER, he came to know his contemporary CARL FRIEDRICH GAUSS, and the two became friends. In autumn 1798, SIMON KEMÉNY returned home, leaving his “tutor” penniless in Göttingen; it was only a year later that FARKAS was able to return home, on foot. There he married and took an (ill-paying) position as a lecturer in mathematics, physics, and chemistry at the Calvinist College in Marosvásárhely (today Târgu Mures, Romania). To supplement his income, he wrote plays and built furnaces.
    [Show full text]
  • The Birth of Non-Euclidean Geometry
    The Birth of non-Euclidean Geometry Irina Kogan Department of Math., North Carolina State University, [email protected] https://iakogan.math.ncsu.edu/ Triangle Math Teachers’ Circle, January 23, 2021. https://trianglemtc.wordpress.com/ 1 Euclid of Alexandria Mid-4th century BC - Mid-3th century BC 350 - 250 BC Geometry that we learn at school is called Euclidean geometry. It is based on the Euclidean postulates Why is this man so famous? What is a postulate? 2 How did Euclid look like? Raffaello Sanzio from Wikipedia (Raphael), Jusepe de (source ?) c. 1510, Palazzi Ribera, c. 1630- Pontifici, Vatican 1635, J. Paul Getty Museum 3 Euclid’s Elements circa 300 BC. A fragment of Euclid’s Elements on part of the Oxyrhynchus papyri ∼ 100 AD 4 The earliest preserved complete version: c. 850 AD, First English the Vatican Library version, 1570 4 Elements consist of 13 books containing 465 Propositions about planar and 3D geometry, as well as number theory. This includes: • Most of the theorems for planar geometry we learn at school. • Euclid’s algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor and the least common multiple. • Proof is irrationality of the square roots of non-square integers (e.g. p 2) • Volumes of cones, pyramids, and cylinders in detail by using the method of exhaustion, a precursor to integration. 5 Most of the results are not original! According to W.W. Rouse Ball,“ A Short Account of the History of Mathematics”, 1908 • Pythagoras (c. 570 - 495 BC) was probably the source for most of books I and II; • Hippocrates of Chios (c.
    [Show full text]
  • A Story of Two Postulates Irina Kogan
    A story of two postulates Irina Kogan Department of Math., North Carolina State University, [email protected] SWiM, June 22, 2018. 1 Euclid of Alexandria Mid-4th century BC - Mid-3th century BC 350 - 250 BC Geometry that we learn at school is called Euclidean geometry. It is based on the Euclidean parallel postulate Why is this man so famous? What is a postulate? 2 How did Euclid look like? Raffaello Sanzio from Wikipedia (Raphael), Jusepe de (source ?) c. 1510, Palazzi Ribera, c. 1630- Pontifici, Vatican 1635, J. Paul Getty Museum 3 Euclid’s Elements circa 300 BC. A fragment of Euclid’s Elements on part of the Oxyrhynchus papyri ∼ 100 AD 4 The earliest preserved complete version: c. 850 AD, First English the Vatican Library version, 1570 4 Elements consist of 13 books containing 465 Propositions about planar and 3D geometry, as well as number theory. This includes: • Most of the theorems for planar geometry we learn at school. • Euclid’s algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor and the least common multiple. • Proof is irrationality of the square roots of non-square integers (e.g. p 2) • Volumes of cones, pyramids, and cylinders in detail by using the method of exhaustion, a precursor to integration. 5 Most of the results are not original! According to W.W. Rouse Ball,“ A Short Account of the History of Mathematics”, 1908 • Pythagoras (c. 570 - 495 BC) was probably the source for most of books I and II; • Hippocrates of Chios (c. 470 - 410 BC) for book III; • Eudoxus of Cnidus (c.
    [Show full text]
  • Matézis, Mechanika, Metafizika
    Matézis, mechanika, metafizika Matézis, mechanika, metafizika A 18–19. századi matematika, fizika és csillagászat eredményeinek reprezentációja a filozófiában és az irodalomban Szerkesztette Gurka Dezső Gondolat Kiadó Budapest, 2016 A kötet megjelenését a Magyar Tudományos Akadémia támogatta. © Szerzők, 2016 Szerkesztés © Gurka Dezső, 2016 © Gondolat Kiadó, 2016 Minden jog fenntartva. Bármilyen másolás, sokszorosítás, illetve adatfeldolgozó rendszerben való tárolás a kiadó előzetes írásbeli hozzájárulásához van kötve. A kiadó könyvei nagy kedvezménnyel az interneten is megrendelhetők. www.gondolatkiado.hu facebook.com/gondolat A kiadásért felel Bácskai István Szöveggondozó Gál Mihály A borítón Johann Wolfgang Goethe Faust és a Föld szelleme című 1810 körül készült tollrajzának részlete látható. (Forrás: http://bit.ly/2cvpml2) Tördelő Lipót Éva ISBN 978 963 693 718 8 Tartalom Előszó 7 ERŐK ÉS ELLENERŐK A 18–19. SZÁZADI FILOZÓFIÁBAN Schmal Dániel: Leibniz az erők metafizikájáról – ikonográfiai kísérlet 13 Mester Béla: Rozgonyi József Kant-kritikájának matematikafilozófiai aspektusai 24 Egyed Péter: Sipos Pál filozófiája 39 MATEMATIKUSOK A MATÉZIS ÉS A BÖLCSELET HATÁRTERÜLETEIN Békés Vera: Adalékok Dugonics András matematikapedagógiai munkásságának értelmezéséhez 57 Oláh-Gál Róbert: Bolyai Farkas matematikatanárai 69 Szabó Péter Gábor: A mozgás szerepe a geometria felépítésében Bolyai Farkasnál 80 6 TARTALOM 18–19. SZÁZADI FIZIKUSOK ÉS CSILLAGÁSZOK MUNKÁSSÁGÁNAK TUDOMÁNYOS ÉS FILOZÓFIAI RECEPCIÓJA Gurka Dezső: Segner János András munkásságának kanti recepciója 95 Kontler László: „Katolikus tudás” a felvilágosodásban: a csillagász Maximilian Hell stratégiái 116 Székely László: A kozmikus anyag örök körforgásának eszméje Kant kozmológiájában és a 19. századi csillagászatban – kitekintéssel Madách Imre Az ember tragédiája című művére 139 Martinás Katalin – Tremmel Bálint: Az impulzus- megmaradás elvének megjelenése és eltűnése 153 A 18–19.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes on Janos Bolyai's Researches in Number Theory
    Historia Mathematica 26 (1999), 68–76 Article ID hmat.1998.2212, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on NOTE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE Notes on J´anosBolyai’s Researches in Number Theory provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Elem´erKiss Petru Maior University of Targu-Mures¸,ˆ str. N. Iorga 1, 4300 Targu-Mures¸,ˆ Romania J´anos Bolyai was one of the inventors of non-Euclidean geometry. According to his unpublished manuscripts, he also achieved remarkable results in other fields in mathematics. His work in number theory is of special interest because it contains ideas which have hitherto been attributed to other mathematicians. C 1999 Academic Press Bolyai J´anosa nem-euklid´eszigeometria egyik megalkot´oja.Feldolgozatlan k´eziratainaktan´us´aga szerint a matematika m´as´agaibanis figyelemre m´elt´oeredm´enyeket ´ertel. Sz´amelm´eletimunk´aiaz´ert tarthatnak k¨ul¨on¨os´erdekl¨od´esresz´amot,mivel olyan gondolatokat tartalmaznak, amelyeket eddig m´as matematikusoknak tulajdon´ıtottak. C 1999 Academic Press AMS classification numbers: 01A55; 01A70; 11A41. Key Words:J´anos Bolyai; Fermat’s little theorem; pseudoprime numbers; Jeans’s theorem; Gaussian integers; sums of squares; Fermat numbers. 1. INTRODUCTION J´anos Bolyai (1802–1860) was one of the founders of non-Euclidean geometry. During his life only his most important work, the Appendix [3], was published, although he left several thousand pages of manuscripts, which were stored in boxes in different places. Some of these have been lost, but fortunately most of them have been preserved.
    [Show full text]
  • János Bolyai, the Founder of the Non-Euclidean Geometry
    János Bolyai, the founder of the Non-Euclidean Geometry PÉTER KÖRTESI UNIVERSITY OF MISKOLC His father, Farkas Bolyai was a mathematician Farkas Bolyai had the chance to go as an accompany of the son of Baron Kemény to Jena, where Bolyai for the first time began to study mathematics systematically. After six months in Jena Bolyai and Kemény went to Göttingen. There he was taught by Kästner and became a life long friend of Gauss, a fellow student at Göttingen. This was the time when one could say that Bolyai really became a mathematician. He began to think about Euclid's geometrical axioms and in particular the independence of the Fifth Postulate. He discussed these issues with Gauss and his later writing show how important he considered their friendship to be for his mathematical development. By the autumn of 1798 Bolyai and Kemény had completed their studies, the latter returned to Hungary, but Bolyai was left penniless in Göttingen. He spent a year there relying on charity and borrowed money for food to survive. It was a year of great hardship, yet one where he continued to develop mathematically surrounded by other talented mathematicians. After a year a friend sent him enough money and he returned on foot as well in July 1799. János Bolyai was born in Kolozsvár, 1802 Back on the family estate at Bolya, Farkas undertook research in mathematics. He went to Kolozsvár where he became a tutor. There he met Zsuzsanna Benkő and they married in 1801. In Zsuzsanna's parents home on 15 December 1802 their son János Bolyai was born.
    [Show full text]
  • Remarkable Hungarian Mathematicians at the Cluj University
    Stud. Univ. Babe¸s-Bolyai Math. 59(2014), No. 4, 419{433 Remarkable Hungarian mathematicians at the Cluj University Ferenc Szenkovits Abstract. We provide a brief overview of the life and activity of the most remark- able Hungarian mathematicians who worked at the University of Cluj, from the beginnings to the present day. Mathematics Subject Classification (2010): 01A55, 01A60, 01A73. Keywords: University of Cluj, Hungarian mathematicians. 1. Introduction The first higher education institution in Cluj (Kolozsv´ar,Claudiopolis), a Jesuit colleage with three faculties: Theology, Philosophy and Law, was set up on May 12, 1581 by Stephen B´athory, the prince of Transylvania and king of Poland. Over the centuries astronomy and mathematics had an important role between the subjects taught at this catholic school. The most remarkable professors of astron- omy and mathematics of this school were Mikl´osJ´anosi(1700{1741) and Maximilian Hell (1720{1792). J´anosiand Hell published the first mathematical textbooks in Cluj: Mikl´osJ´anosi: Trigonometria plana et sphaerica cum selectis ex geometria et astronomia problematibus, sinuum canonibus et propositionibus ex Euclide magis nec- essariis. Claudiopoli, 1737. Maximilian Hell: Compendia varia praxesque omnium operationum arithmeti- carum. Claudiopoli, 1755. Elementa mathematicae naturalis philosophiae ancillantia ad praefixam in scho- lis normam concinnata. Pars I., Elementa arithmeticae numericae et litteralis seu algebrae. Claudiopoli, 1755. Exercitationum mathematicarum Partes Tres. Claudiopoli. 1760. A new era begins in the Cluj university education on October 12, 1872, when the emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria approves a decision of the Hungarian Parliament for setting up the University of Cluj. This Hungarian university was between the This paper was presented at the 8th Conference on History of Mathematics & Teaching of Mathe- matics, Cluj-Napoca, May 21-25, 2014.
    [Show full text]
  • Professor József Sándor at S
    Notes on Number Theory and Discrete Mathematics Print ISSN 1310–5132, Online ISSN 2367–8275 Vol. 22, 2016, No. 4, 1–11 Professor József Sándor at σσσ (59) years Krassimir Atanassov 1 IBPhBME, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria e-mail: [email protected] I have known Prof. József Sándor since the middle of 1980s, from the pages of the Argentinian journal Bulletin of Number Theory and Related Topics, which does not exists any more but in some sense was inherited by this journal. It seems that each of us has carefully followed the publications of the other, seeing that we are both interested in closely related topics in number theory. Over the years, we have developed an active correspondence, but although we live in neighbouring countries, we have never met so far. In 1989, we published our first joint paper, but it took us almost 20 years to publish our next two collaborative papers, in 2008. Since then we have been working on a joint book on arithmetic functions, which, I sincerely believe, will be accomplished in 2017. Back in 1995, when Tony Shannon, Aldo Peretti and me were discussing the colleagues whom we would invite for members of the Editorial Board of the Notes on Number Theory and Discrete Mathematics, Prof. Sándor’s name was among the first ones being mentioned. József Sándor was born on 19 November 1956 in Forteni (Farcád) near Odorheiu-Secuiesc (Székelyudvarhely), Romania. After attending elementary schools in Forteni, Taureni (Bikafalva) and Odorheiu-Secuiesc, he graduated in 1980 at Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj (Kolozsvár), Romania.
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings of the International Conference in Memoriam Gyula Farkas August 23–26, 2005, Cluj-Napoca
    Proceedings of the International Conference In Memoriam Gyula Farkas August 23–26, 2005, Cluj-Napoca Proceedings of the International Conference In Memoriam Gyula Farkas August 23–26, 2005 Cluj-Napoca Edited by Z. Kása, G. Kassay, J. Kolumbán Cluj University Press 2006 This conference was dedicated to the memory of Gyula Farkas (1847–1930), the famous professor in Mathematics and Physics of the University of Kolozsvár/Cluj between 1887–1915. ORGANIZERS Babe³-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Operational Research Society, Budapest Operations Research Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Sapientia University, Cluj-Napoca Gyula Farkas Association for Mathematics and Informatics, Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Technical Sciences Society of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca Transylvanian Museum Association, Cluj-Napoca SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Wolfgang BRECKNER (Cluj, Romania), Tibor CSENDES (Szeged, Hungary), Zoltán GÁBOS (Cluj, Romania), József KOLUMBÁN (Cluj, Romania), Sándor KOMLÓSI (Pécs, Hungary), Katalin MARTINÁS (Budapest, Hungary), Petru T. MOCANU (Cluj, Romania), Zsolt PÁLES (Debrecen, Hungary), Tamás RAPCSÁK (Budapest, Hungary), Paul SZILÁGYI (Cluj, Romania), Béla VIZVÁRI (Budapest, Hungary) LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Gábor KASSAY (Cluj, Romania), Zoltán KÁSA (Cluj, Romania), Gábor KÖLLŐ (Cluj, Romania), Lehel KOVÁCS (Cluj, Romania), Marian MUREŞAN (Cluj, Romania), László NAGY (Cluj, Romania), Ferenc SZENKOVITS (Cluj, Romania) INVITED SPEAKERS Katalin MARTINÁS, Boris S. MORDUKHOVICH, András PRÉKOPA, Constantin ZĂLINESCU, Gert
    [Show full text]
  • MEMORY of the WORLD REGISTER János Bolyai
    MEMORY OF THE WORLD REGISTER János Bolyai: Appendix, scientiam spatii absolute veram exhibens. Maros-Vásárhelyini, 1832 (Hungary) Ref N° 2008-52 János Bolyai: Appendix, scientiam spatii absolute veram exhibens. Maros-Vásárhelyini, 1832. - The absolutely true science of space: the discovery of absolute and (hyperbolic) non-Euclidean geometries The author's copy with his autographic notes PART A - ESSENTIAL INFORMATION 1 SUMMARY The nominated document, Appendix, is the primary document of the epoch-making discovery of János Bolyai, a turning point in geometric research. For over two thousand years many of the best mathematicians tried to prove Euclid’s parallel postulate (or axiom). János Bolyai created entirely new settings for the problem by inventing absolute (or neutral) geometry that is independent of parallelism. He also showed that no proof was possible and, by assuming all the axioms for absolute geometry and replacing the axiom of parallelism by its negation, we obtain another geometry of equal right to the Euclidean. Appendix presents the new geometry in a clear and flawless way. This discovery stimulated not only the creation of new space concepts vital for modern physics but, by the dissemination of the axiomatic method, the evolution of modern mathematical thinking. The nominated copy of Appendix once belonged to the author, János Bolyai, and contains autographic notes, manuscript title pages and figures by him and by his father, Farkas Bolyai. This copy is therefore unique and irreplaceable. 2 DETAILS OF THE NOMINATOR 2.1 Name Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 2.2 Relationship to the documentary heritage nominated owner and custodian 2.3 Contact person Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Georgia Augusta 6 | 2008 7 ZAHLEN, FORMELN, UNGELÖSTE RÄTSEL
    GEORGIA UGUSTA Wissenschaftsmagazin A der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen ZAHLEN, FORMELN, UNGELÖSTE RÄTSEL Ausgabe 6 · Dezember 2008 Herausgegeben vom Präsidenten der Universität in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Universitätsbund Göttingen GEORG-AUGUST-UNIVERSITÄT GÖTTINGEN Alumni Göttingen Internationale Alumni-Vereinigung Alumni Göttingen Internationale Alumni-Vereinigung Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Postanschrift Alumni Göttingen Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Wilhelmsplatz 1 · 37073 Göttingen Alumni Göttingen ist das internatio- Internet nale Netzwerk von Ehemaligen, www.alumni.uni-goettingen.de Absolventen und Studierenden al- ler Fachrichtungen, Wissenschaft- Alumni-Büro Bernd Hackstette · Geschäftsführer Alumni Göttingen e.V. lern, Mitarbeitern sowie Freunden Tel. 0551 / 39 13276 · Fax 0551 / 39 185380 und Förderern der Universität Göt- [email protected] tingen. Dieses Netzwerk wird ge- Susanne Schmidt · Sekretariat tragen von dem gemeinnützigen Tel. 0551 / 39 5380 · Fax 0551 / 39 185380 Verein Alumni Göttingen e.V., der [email protected] im Jahr 2001 gegründet wurde. Der Verein zählt inzwischen mehr als 3.000 Mitglieder und ermög- licht die kontinuierliche und le- bendige Teilhabe und das aktive Mitwirken an der Entwicklung der Georgia Augusta. EDITORIAL Zahlen, Formeln, ungelöste Rätsel Die Mathematik nimmt im System matik und von Göttingen als der der Wissenschaften eine »schil- Wiege der modernen Naturwis- lernde Stellung« ein, wie der Göt- senschaften. Die beeindruckende tinger Mathematiker Felix Klein es Ahnengalerie wird angeführt von einmal formulierte. Die von Carl Gauß, der über ein halbes Jahr- Friedrich Gauß als »Königin der hundert in Göttingen lebte und Wissenschaften« titulierte Mathe- forschte. Sein Wirken verhalf der matik gehört nicht zu den Natur- Disziplin und ihren Anwendungen wissenschaften, da sie keine empi- an der Göttinger Universität zu ei- rische Wissenschaft ist.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Discovery of Non-Euclidean Geometry
    DEGREE IN MATHEMATICS Treball de Fi de Grau On the Discovery of non-Euclidean Geometry Author: Marc Ruiz Marcos Director: Dr. Carles Dorce Polo Department: Departament of Mathematics and Computer Science Barcelona, January 19, 2020 Contents 1 A controversial postulate 2 2 Gaussian curvature and the Theorema Egregium 7 3 J´anosBolyai and Lobachevsky 16 4 Consolidation of non-Euclidean geometry 27 Bibliography 34 Abstract The main goal of this work is to investigate the historical transition from Eu- clidean to non-Euclidean geometry, to understand what the motivation of such a transition was and to understand to the best of my abilities how it was achieved. This will be done by reviewing the relevant authors' original work and the corre- spondence between some of them. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 01A55, 53A05, 53A35 ii Foreword Geometry, as its name from Ancient Greek indicates (geo- "earth" and -metron "measurement"), was born as a necessary tool to measure portions of land as back as the second millennium bc in Mesopotamia and Egypt. With the arrival of Clas- sical Greece, the properties and rules of thumb that had been being used began to be written more rigorously. The pinnacle of such formalization is undoubtedly Euclid of Alexandria (c. 300 bc), who wrote the world-renowned Elements. This thirteen-book treatise contains axioms, definitions, formal propositions and proofs, the rigor of which would not be surpassed until the nineteenth century. Until then, it was considered that all educated people had read the Elements. However, as we shall see later on, there was a specific point in it that would be questioned for cen- turies.
    [Show full text]