Questions tagged [mathematicians]
For questions about those who do mathematics.
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Heyting and Lugano
I read in Wikipedia that Arend Heyting, logician, died in Lugano while all the biographies focus on his career in Amsterdam and nearby.
Do we know if he lived in Lugano or not, and why died there?
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106 views
Who were the mathematicians who hated teaching in class or disliked teaching?
Who were the mathematicians who hated teaching in class or disliked teaching?
From this Article:
Gauss hated teaching, and believed some students robbed him of his time.
From this Article:
Perelman ...
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0answers
51 views
How did Gauss able to come up with complex formulas at very early age? [duplicate]
This question marked as a duplicate for no clear reason. It's not a duplicate. I was not asking whether Gauss came up with this specific formula. I was asking how he able to invent such a formulas at ...
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3answers
179 views
Why we got so many geniuses after 19th century? [closed]
Albert Einstein was a genius, Kurt Gödel was a genius, John Von Neumann was a genius (I hope that people over here will share the meaning of "genius" which I understand, for me I always find ...
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1answer
90 views
Who was Fleury? And what was his first name?
One of the algorithms for finding Eulerian paths and circuits in graphs that have them is due to Fleury. Lucas mentioned this in his 1892 recreational mathematics collection, referring to "M. ...
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1answer
95 views
Why theology plays a great role in becoming great mathematicians? [closed]
Why theology play a great role in becoming great mathematicians?
I have some confusion about theology with mathematics.
I read the biography of Euler and Bernhard Riemann.
Both were studying ...
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4answers
628 views
Who were some mathematicians who have a musical background?
Who were some mathematicians who have a musical background ?
I know one mathematician , I see his video on you tube .He is a tabla player + field medal winner.
His name is Manjul_Bhargava
My ...
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1answer
74 views
How did Gaussian and Eisenstein integers get their names?
I can separate this into two questions at some point if necessary, but it's possible that sources for the answer to one will provide the answer to the other at the same time.
I learned about ...
3
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1answer
91 views
Did Fourier use heated metal rings as experimental evidence to justify his mathematical discoveries?
In his answer to a previous question Alexandre Eremenko pointed out that Joseph Fourier in his book Analytic Theory of Heat gave all kinds of arguments in favor of the following mathematical ...
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1answer
45 views
An English translation of Simon Stevin's De Thiende
I enjoy reading manuscripts written by mathematicians of old, and I would love to read the famous De Thiende by Simon Steven. I've done some research online here and there, but I have not found any ...
5
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0answers
125 views
Photo of Wilhelm Ackermann
I am writing a text on the Theory of Computation. I am looking for a photo of the mathematician Wilhelm Ackermann. He is well-known in the field, was a student of one of the most famous ...
6
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1answer
253 views
Who is the Göbel who is the eponym of Göbel's Sequence?
Richard K. Guy refers to him as "F. Göbel" in his Unsolved Problems of Number Theory but that's as close as I can get.
For reference:
https://mathworld.wolfram.com/GoebelsSequence.html
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1answer
113 views
Mathematicians who often didn't use notebooks/devices to work?
Newton was known to keep manuscripts of his thoughts and workings on math/physics (and even more related to religion) which are kept in Cambridge I believe.
My question is, are there examples of the ...
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69 views
Are there any accounts of Charles Peirce's character,cognition and physical appearance?
I am interested in any historical account of the following attributes of Peirce:character,cognition and appearance.
5
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1answer
78 views
Was Charles Sanders Peirce aware of Charles Babbage's difference engine?
Is there any indication that Charles Peirce was aware of Babbage and his work on mechanical computing?
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0answers
21 views
Founders of undetermined forms [duplicate]
Who are the people actually 1st to mention about undetermined forms like 0^∞ or 0/0 or ∞/∞ etc .
In which books these forms are mentioned and if the people were not known specifically , mention the ...
3
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1answer
84 views
Was Lebesgue differentiation theorem the motivation for Vitali's, Riesz's and Hardy-Littlewood's results used to prove it?
I have been reading about the Lebesgue differentiation theorem from Terence Tao's book and came across a bunch of things. In his book, Tao uses the Vitali Covering lemma (finite), Hardy-Littlewood ...
3
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1answer
108 views
How to pronounce Jacobson [closed]
Nathan Jacobson was one of the leading algebraists in the last century. Several mathematical objects are named after him such as the Jacobson radical. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Jacobson ...
15
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1answer
3k views
Which mathematician traveled to and moved in with each collaborator?
I remember a video, perhaps a Numberphile episode where a mathematician was described who would simply move in to the home of a collaborator with which they were engaged to so that they could work ...
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76 views
What are the Peirce's axioms of arithmetic and how do they relate to the Peano axioms?
I will be glad if someone who has seen Peirce's paper could summarily describe here Peirce's axioms and describe their relation to Peano's.
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1answer
172 views
“Family tree” of mathematicians and their PhD advisors and students
Whilst looking at the Wikipedia pages for some well known mathematicians I was surprised at how many of them were advised by other recognisable mathematicians. In some cases I could back track 5 or ...
2
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1answer
83 views
Complete list of publications of Rebecca Barlow
Rebecca Barlow is the discoverer of an interesting surface in algebraic geometry. Is anybody aware of a full list of her contributions? Has she continued working in mathematics in the 21st century?
5
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1answer
173 views
Some references for Vladimir Arnold's thesis “Mathematics is a part of physics”?
The mathematician Vladimir Arnold claimed that mathematics is a part of physics.
I am aware of Arnold's On Teaching Mathematics where he stated this view, but is there any piece of writing where ...
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1answer
168 views
Are there any mathematicians who expressed non-obvious sets of rules on how to do research?
I recently saw a paper where there are presented some rules on how to learn mathematics (and do research) which were firstly articulated by Lagrange.
Are there any similar rules that were expressed ...
5
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1answer
81 views
What were Riemann's “semi-physical” methods?
In John Von Neumann's The Mathematician one can read that
[$\dots$] even after the reign of rigour was essentially re-established with Cauchy, a very peculiar relapse into semi-physical methods took ...
3
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1answer
119 views
Mr. Newton at the Royal Mint
I would like to ask how Isaac Newton specifically applied mathematics to reducing forgeries and improving coinage while he was Master of the Royal Mint.
Thank you.
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2answers
94 views
Was Giuseppe Peano one of the greatest mathematicians of his era? [closed]
Besides the Peano axioms which perhaps brought him fame but which are considered a refinement of similar previous axioms Peano seems to have done relatively little original work.
Does the rest of his ...
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255 views
Who was that forgetful mathematician?
Who was the (Japanese?) mathematician who said in a lecture that a certain conjecture still remained to be proved, and one of the students present told him that he (the mathematician) had already ...
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2answers
1k views
Where did Leibniz explore the product rule of differential calculus?
In what book/letter did Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz explore the product rule as part of differential calculus?
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1answer
134 views
How did the Vietnamese manage set up the Vietnamese Mathematical Society during the Vietnam War?
The Vietnamese Mathematical Society was set up in 1965 by Le Van Thiem and Hoang Tuy. Both had studied in Europe, the former in Paris and Germany and the latter in Moscow. By 1965, the Vietnam War, ...
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0answers
29 views
Timeline for the earliest work on Frobenius problems
If $a, b$ are positive and coprime integers, then the set of linear combinations of $a$ and $b$ with nonnegative coefficients is all integers past $(a - 1)(b - 1)$; i.e. $\{ \lambda_1 a + \lambda_2 b :...
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0answers
55 views
Which mathematical objects retained the names given by their discoverer(s)?
Many mathematical objects and even theories are named after people, and most of the people with mathematical things named after them did not name said things after themselves. There is the famous ...
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1answer
131 views
Who formalized integer numbers?
I'm currently working on a thesis about Zermelo's axioms. In my first chapter I'm giving an introduction to the numerical treatment that Cantor gave to infinity.
When I was writing something about ...
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63 views
Which books did famous physicists and mathematicians use to study in university? [closed]
I would like to know if there is any data on this topics out of curiosity. I know that telling everyone which textbooks they used isn't a common habit, but I am certain there are textbooks that some ...
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2answers
194 views
Who was “Urbino d'Aviso” that described how to fold paper into a pentagon?
I have found this in David Wells' "Curious and Interesting Puzzles" (1992), Penguin books, page 36:
"The next problem occurs first in Urbino d'Aviso's treatise on the sphere (1682):
A ...
16
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1answer
4k views
Was Kolmogorov enraged after learning about the Karatsuba multiplication algorithm?
Some years ago, I read that Kolmogorov was so enraged that Karatsuba disproved one of his conjectures that he terminated the seminar shortly thereafter.
This Wikipedia page claims that Kolmogorov was ...
3
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2answers
190 views
History of Infinity: How does the idea of infinite set become widely accepted?
It seems pretty strange to me that the idea of infinity and infinite sets was initially opposed by many prominent Mathematicians, even driving Cantor into depression. However, in modern days, everyone ...
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123 views
What was Newton's road to his discovery of “Puiseux series” and “Newton polygon”?
In my opinion, one of Isaac Newton's greatest achievements in the "purer" aspects of mathematics was his discovery of Puiseux series; power series with fractional exponents. According to p.6 ...
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1answer
154 views
What did Newton's teacher contribute to the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus?
Isaac Barrow was one of the professors who taught Isaac Newton at Cambridge. According to this page, he is said to have made contributions to the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus that was devised by ...
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How did Kolmogorov came up with his formalization of intuitionistic logic?
According to this article Kolmogorov published a paper in 1925 in which he attempted to formalize Brouwer’s intuitionistic mathematics.
In that paper there are the following logical formulas:
\begin{...
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106 views
In which article/book chapter did Cantor, Hibert, and Poincare formally defined or directly discussed the term “potential infinity”?
Some media sources say that "Cantor claimed that there would only be potential infinity, not actual infinity"
In addition, the following link claims that Hilbert, Poincare, and Cantor were ...
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1answer
116 views
Newton as the first one to establish numerical analysis as a new field of study
I was reading about the history of Newton's Method. Newton used a cubic equation, $x^3 - 2x - 5 = 0$, to show the efficacy of his method around 1670. I was wondering that why Newton would choose this ...
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3answers
972 views
Was there ever a mathematician or physicist who spearheaded a concerted effort to create a flawless musical instrument?
Specifically, is there any research paper or record of where someone renowned in their field performed experiments by using the properties of physics, engineering or mathematics to develop a musical ...
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2answers
268 views
Weil's reaction to Deligne's proof
How did André Weil react when Pierre Deligne finally solved the most important and hardest of the Weil conjectures ?
Is there any written account on this ?
I guess Serre's and Grothendieck's (...
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0answers
184 views
Did John Von Neumann hate pure mathematics that became too abstract?
John von Neumann wrote the following in his essay The Mathematician:
As a mathematical discipline travels far from its empirical source,
or still more, if it is a second and third generation only ...
2
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1answer
42 views
Who was Hans Bauer who worked on the Perron integral?
I'm referring to the Hans Bauer who is the author of this article from 1915 (H. Bauer, "Der Perronsche Integralbegriff und seine Beziehung auf Lebesguesschen" Monatsh. Math. Phys. , 26 (1915) pp. 153–...
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193 views
Do you know about this anecdote or its source where the mother reads out the letter to Gauss and made him Gauss, the mathematician?
I remember my brother telling me an anecdote about Carl F. Gauss three-four years ago, I want to know if anybody here also know about it, or can provide the source of it. The anecdote goes like this
...
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275 views
Who is considered the greatest mathematician between the years 400 AD and 1300 AD? [closed]
Some mathematicians are considered the "greatest of their era". For instance, Archimedes is generally considered the greatest mathematician of Antiquity. Is there any mathematician who stood out ...
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7answers
3k views
Mathematical results that became known long after their authors passed away
Liouville published Galois' work a decade after the death of this singular mathematician. Are there other cases of results being rescued by the mathematical community long after their authors were ...
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2answers
2k views
What was Kolmogorov’s point of view in the philosophy of mathematics?
Today the standard interpretation of intuitionistic logic is the Brouwer-Heyting-Kolmogorov interpretation which was presented independently by Arend Heyting and Andrei Nikolajewitsch Kolmogorow. ...
