Questions tagged [mathematicians]
For questions about those who do mathematics.
280
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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{...
0
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1answer
81 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 ...
1
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1answer
81 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
949 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 ...
23
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2answers
135 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 (...
6
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0answers
132 views
Did John Von Neumann hate pure mathematics that became too abstract?
John Von Neumann says this 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
39 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–...
0
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2answers
150 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
...
2
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2answers
235 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 ...
13
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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 ...
9
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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. ...
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28 views
Mathematicians working from prison? [duplicate]
I've heard one or two anecdotes about mathematicians that were confined to prison or some kind of detention and still managed to do some serious work. I would like to learn some actual stories about ...
0
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0answers
59 views
Did the mathematician Garrett Birkhoff ever work with or mention Feynman's path integrals?
Did Garrett Birkhoff ever work with Feynman's path integral? Did he ever work in his Many-Histories interpretation? Or at least, did he mention it in any of his articles?
5
votes
1answer
102 views
What actions and communications did Fibonacci undergo to introduce the Hindu-Arabic Number System to Europe?
Fibonacci is credited with the introduction of Arabic arithmetic to Europe. Did he tried hard to share this knowledge with other mathematicians? With whom? How did they react?
5
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0answers
83 views
Is there any historical evidence of this quote E.T. Bell attributed to C.G.J. Jacobi?
I read Men of Mathematics by E.T. Bell long ago, and this quote he attributed to Jacobi stuck with me:
Certainly I have sometimes endangered my health from overwork, but what of it? Only cabbages ...
0
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0answers
88 views
Did Lagrange make any noteworthy contribution to the philosophy of mathematics?
I saw a post here about Gauss' contribution to the philosophy of mathematics and I was wondering if Lagrange also made any known contribution to philosophy (of math).
0
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104 views
Who is this Mathematician from 17th century or earlier?. Possibly the 18th century, but before calculus had spread?
I'm looking for a mathematician from this time period, 17th century or earlier, its probably at a period where trigonometry was the most advanced math that existed.
I'm not sure of the exact quote ...
4
votes
2answers
178 views
For many years, were Emmy Noether and Helene Braun the only female mathematicians to obtain habilitation at Göttingen University?
Emmy Noether was the first woman in Germany to obtain habilitation in 1919. But I remember to have heard in the debate concerning the situation of women in academic mathematics that took place on the ...
3
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0answers
58 views
How much ground was prepared for Riemann so that he could conjecture Riemann hypothesis?
Although I do not doubt in Riemann˙s originality, I would like to know how much complex analysis was developed up to the day when Riemann conjectured what is today called Riemann hypothesis and how ...
0
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2answers
211 views
Does the word “God” appear regularly in the works of Joseph Lagrange?
In the Religious opinions section of the Wikipedia article on Laplace, there is an excerpt from Antommarchi's "The Last Moments of Napoleon", in which it is written that
the name of God appeared ...
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0answers
39 views
Where did the Delannoy numbers make their first appearance?
I am writing a short exposition on the central Delannoy numbers and would like to find the year which Henri Delannoy first introduced them in a formal setting.
I believe Delannoy's initial ...
5
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0answers
85 views
What was Littlewood's quip about Hardy and plagiarism?
I'm searching for a quote by Littlewood about Hardy not giving proper credit. The story (as I remember it) is that Littlewood claimed uncredited authorship of something Hardy wrote, Hardy claimed it ...
7
votes
2answers
262 views
What did G.H. Hardy teach Ramanujan?
Ramanujan didn't know modern mathematics. he lacked idea regarding analysis.
I found in Wikipedia-
Hardy tried his best to fill the gaps in Ramanujan's education and to
mentor him in the need for ...
0
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1answer
60 views
What was Lagrange's contribution to the Knights Tour Problem?
Did Lagrange make any noteworthy contribution to the Knights Tour Problem?
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41 views
Did Lagrange finish his law degree during the 1750s?
According to this, Lagrange enrolled in the University of Turin to study Law in the 1750s but eventually shifted to Maths. Did he finish his Law degree?
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88 views
In which year did Lagrange start studying mathematics - 1752 or 1753?
Some articles indicate that he started studying maths "after reading an article by Edmund Halley" in 1753, but in this paper it is claimed that he started studying mathematics in 1752. So, in which ...
2
votes
1answer
43 views
Where did Krull dimension and zero-dimensional ideals come from?
I am trying to comprehend an article about primary decomposition of ideals. Zero - dimensional ideals are quite emphasized there. I wonder where zero - dimensional ideals come from, what is the ...
0
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1answer
111 views
Was Lagrange aware of Hamiltonian mechanics?
In the book "The Road to Reality", Penrose claims that Joseph Lagrange was aware of Hamiltonian mechanics. Is there any evidence that this statement is true?
3
votes
1answer
56 views
Who is Wanner from Rosenrock-Wanner (ROW) methods?
I've spent some time with a search engine trying to find out about Wanner, a person whose surname is mentioned in the name of Rosenbrock-Wanner (ROW) methods primarily used for iteratively solving ...
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1answer
121 views
Pairs of Mathematicians
In Hilbert by Reid, it is noted that Hilbert and Minkowski were great friends and often worked together on problems, seminars, and lectures. This is a similar relationship to the partnership between ...
5
votes
1answer
106 views
When did Dehn start to work on Hilbert's third problem?
According to this wiki article, Dehn solved Hilbert's third problem within a year.
Did Dehn start to work on the third problem after Hilbert's talk? Since Dehn is Hilbert's student, they were likely ...
0
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0answers
95 views
Why didn't Euclid use equations or numerals in his proofs?
I think the Elements would have been a lot more concise if he did.
10
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1answer
226 views
Alexander Grothendieck's “stolen” correspondence in 1985?
On the website that now displays the part of Grothendieck's archives that had been held at the University of Montpellier, it is mentioned that:
Dans une lettre adressée à Monsieur Lefranc datée du 13 ...
5
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2answers
263 views
Substantiating claimed Fourier quote about “an arbitrarily capricious graph”
The following quote (in English) is fairly widely attributed to Fourier, but I can't substantiate it.
An arbitrary function, continuous or with discontinuities, defined in a finite interval by an ...
3
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1answer
84 views
Where to get more biographical information about Fritz Peter?
Fritz Peter (1899–1949) is known mainly as one of the authors of the Peter-Weyl theorem. This theorem appears in a paper (Die Vollständigkeit der primitiven Darstellungen einer geschlossenen ...
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1answer
183 views
Where did Mac Lane say he saw Hitler and wished that he had a gun so he could have shot him?
In Saunders Mac Lane's autobiography he described how he visited, I think Königsberg, then the centre of mathematics in Germany. He also reported he that he saw Hitler somewhere and that he wished ...
6
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1answer
149 views
Did Cauchy ever deal with double or triple integrals?
Did Cauchy ever deal with double or triple integrals? Did he give rigorous proofs of multivariable integral calculus like what came to be called Stokes's theorem, the divergence theorem, etc.?
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1answer
48 views
Who first distinguished number theory and numerology? [duplicate]
Who first distinguished number theory and numerology?
2
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1answer
159 views
First time the unique factorization theorem was called FTA
First of all, a comment, before this gets marked as a duplicate:
I have searched this website for the question I’m asking and I’m aware that this exact question has been asked before. However, Eric ...
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109 views
Why isn't François Proth's name used for Gilbreath's conjecture as he discovered & published a proof 80 years earlier?
According to Wikipedia's Gilbreath's conjecture page,
The statement is named after mathematician Norman L. Gilbreath who, in 1958, presented it to the mathematical community after observing the ...
3
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1answer
220 views
How did Hagoromo Fulltouch chalk gain so much popularity among mathematicians in the West?
I recently read Hagoromo, the 'Rolls Royce of chalk,' continues writing its legacy in South Korea article recently, and was fascinated by the huge amount of attention this specific chalk is getting. ...
3
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0answers
53 views
Asymptotically Periodic Potentials
Who came up with the idea of solving elliptic equations with periodic potentials and from there solving elliptic equations with asymptotically periodic potentials? I heard it was Pierre Louis Lions, ...
3
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0answers
100 views
Textbooks used by Oliver Heaviside
Oliver Heaviside achieved a very high level in mathematics and physics by self-study, starting from a modest school-level math, and working alone in his room, without a tutor. Is it known what ...
4
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0answers
140 views
Is there a biography of Robert Risch?
The Risch algorithm for computing symbolic integrals was developed by Robert Risch in the 1968-70 time frame.
Based on the German Wikipedia article, I know that Risch was awarded a Ph.D. by U.C. ...
0
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0answers
99 views
Is there any general difference between British, French and German mathematicians?
I am recently learning about teaching the history of mathematics. Gradually, impressions about mathematicians in different countries develops in my mind. I just want to ask, whether it is helpful to ...
5
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1answer
212 views
What problem led to the discovery of Calculus?
As far as I remember, Calculus was invented/discovered/founded by Newton.
What was he trying to achieve that made him find the limit of differences approaching zero?
How far did he get into Calculus? ...
2
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3answers
249 views
Great scientists with chaotic private lives
In the arena of art, it is not uncommon to find great writers, composers or painters who suffer from chaotic personal lives (e.g., lifelong alcoholism, addiction to prostitutes, stormy marriages and ...
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0answers
154 views
What was Havil's source for the statement that G.H. Hardy would offer his Savillian chair to whoever could prove $\gamma$ irrational?
In Havil's 2003 book Gamma he states that Hardy offered up his chair in Oxford to whoever could prove that the Euler-Mascheroni constant $\gamma$ is irrational.
I'm almost positive I had heard a ...
3
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4answers
185 views
Are there any sources of mathematicians talking about their research methods?
I recall reading this article that was written to explain how Descartes read philosophy effectively. I am wondering if such analogous tips have been made by past mathematicians?
3
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1answer
101 views
Who coined the term random variable?
Who is the first person defined the concept of a random variable?
