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Chapter Summaries
In the tunnel on the island of Samos numbers are inscribed on the walls. The
numbers were likely written to keep tabs on the distances dug.
In Greece mathematics was the province of a leisured class.
2.1.2 Thales
The earliest Greek mathematician mentioned in book I of Euclids Elements is
Thales of Miletus.
Stories of Thales include the prediction of a solar eclipse, measuring the distance
to a ship at sea and determining the height of a pyramid using the length of its shadow.
2.1.3 Pythagoras and His School
Stories about Pythagoras of Samos state that he spent time in Egypt and
Babylonia.
He settled in Crotona, Italy, where he gathered a group called the Pythagoreans
and formed a school.
One important mathematical doctrine was that Number is the substance of all
things. In other words, that numbers (positive integers) form the basic organizing
principle of the universe.
Problems of interest included the construction of Pythagorean triples (three
numbers a, b and c satisfying a+b=c).
In Greek mathematics, a number was a multitude composed of units.
Therefore, 1 was not seen as a number.
It turned out that numbers were not the substance of all things, as the side and
diagonal of a square are incommensurable (have no common measure). This was
discovered around 430 BCE.
2.1.4 Squaring the Circle and Doubling the Cube
These two geometric problem exemplified the idea of proof. However, both
problems are impossible.
Hippocrates of Chios (not the famous physician) was among the first to attack
these problems.
2.2. The Time of Plato
Plato (429-347 BCE) founded an academy in Athens around 385 BCE.
Scholars conducted seminars in mathematics and philosophy and conducted
research.
A story states that over the entrance Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here
was inscribed.
The mathematical syllabus for students is described in Platos most famous work,
The Republic.
The mathematical part of this education consisted of arithmetic, plane geometry,
solid geometry, astronomy and harmonics.
2.3 Aristotle
Aristotle (384-322 BCE) studied at Platos academy from the time he was 18 until Platos death.
Afterwards he was invited to the court of Philip II of Macedon to undertake the
education of his son Alexander.
Later he returned to Athens to found his own school, the Lyceum.
2.3.1 Logic
Aristotle believed that logical arguments should be built out of syllogisms. A
syllogism consists of certain statements that are taken as true and certain other
statements that are then necessarily true.
Syllogisms allowed for old knowledge to imply new knowledge. However, one
has to start with truths that are accepted without argument.
Postulates: Basic truths that are peculiar to each particular science
Axioms: Basic truths that are peculiar to all sciences.
Aristotle only admitted for the most basic ideas a postulate as definition.
Outside of Aristotle, Greek mathematicians never used syllogisms.
The basic form of arguments used in mathematical proof was based on
propositions. A proposition is a statement that can be either true or false.
2.3.2 Number versus Magnitude
Aristotle introduced the distinction between numbers and magnitude. Aristotle
rejected the Pythagorean doctrine that all was number.
The primary distinction between numbers and magnitudes is that a magnitude
cannot be composed of indivisible elements.
Aristotle clarified this idea by the following definitions:
Things are in succession if there is nothing of their own kind intermediate
between them.
Things are continuous when they touch and when the touching limits of each
become the same.
2.3.3. Zenos Paradoxes
One of the reasons Aristotle had such an extended discussion of the notions of
infinity, indivisibles, continuity and discreteness was the he wanted to refute the
paradoxes of Zeno.
The paradoxes of Zeno were an attempt to show that the then current notions of
motion were not clear.
The four paradoxes exhaust the four possibilities of divisibility/indivisibility of
space and time.
Chapter 3: Euclid
Euclid
The Elements
Most important mathematical text of Greek times and probably all times
Extremely dull:
o no examples, no motivation, no remarks, no calculations
o only definitions, axioms, theorems and proofs
Excited and motivated many famous mathematicians
o provided them with a model of how pure mathematics should be written
Euclids is the only version of Elements to survive, since it was complete (it
contained Aristotles work) and well-organized
Copies were made regularly from the time of Euclid; various editors added
comments or put in new lemmas.
Theon of Alexandria was responsible for one important new edition, most of the
extant manuscripts of Euclids Elements are copies of this edition.
Work of 13 books
First six books: treatment of two-dimensional geometric
magnitudes (Book V: treatment of proportion theory for magnitudes)
o Books VII-IX: theory of numbers (keeping with Aristotles instructions to separate
the study of magnitude and number) (Book VII: treatment of proportion theory for
numbers)
o Book X: link between concepts of magnitudes and numbers
o Book XI: three-dimensional geometric objects
o Book XII: method of exhaustion
o Book XIII: constructed the five regular polyhedra
Much of the ancient mathematics is included, but the methodology is entirely
different
Aristotle suggested a scientific work needs to begin with definitions and axioms,
so many books started with that
Proved one result after the other, based on the previous results and/or axioms
Proofs were written out in natural language
Euclid assumed that if he proved a result for a particular conguration
representing the hypotheses of the theorem and illustrated in a diagram, he had proved
the result generally
Euclid never discussed his philosophy of proof, he just proved things
Archimedess work:
Used the limit methods of Eudoxus and succeeded in applying them to
determine areas and volumes of new figures.
Treatises (originally letters sent to people he knew) who presented mathematical
models of certain aspects and applied his physical principles to the invention of various
mechanical devices.
First mathematician to derive quantitative results from the creation of
mathematical models of physical problems on earth.
First to prove the law of lever and its application to finding centers of gravity.He
never gave a definition of the term center of gravity even though he used it often. He
developed the mathematical principles of the lever stating seven postulates he would
assume. The first postulate is an example of the Principle of Insufficient Reason.
First to prove the basic principle of hydrostatics and some of its applications.
There are no surviving manuscripts of his work dating from anywhere near the
time of composition. There was an editon of some of his works prepared by Eutocius in
the sixth century somewhere near Byzantium. There is a Latin translation by Moerbeke
of the second oldest extant Archimedes manuscript..
Story told by Vitruvius about Archimedes:
Hiero, the King of Syracuse contracted a contractor to make a crown of gold as
dedication to the immortal Gods. The contractor replaced certain amount of gold for an
equal amount of silver.
Archimedes, in charge for finding a way to expose the theft, took a bath. He
noticed that the however much he immersed his body in the tub, that much water spilled
over the sides. He rushed home naked shouting: Eureka! ( I found it).
(To find the crowns volume he had to immerse the crown in a vessel full of water and measure the
spillage. Because if the gold was substituted for the same amount of silver, the crown would occupy a
larger space, since he knew that gold is more dense than silver.)
o
o
stars
o
Greeks were convinced of the earth sphericity by for example the shadow of the
earth on the moon during a lunar eclipse
Greeks were convinced that that the earth was stationary in the middle of the
celestial sphere
o The earth was considered immovable, so the celestrial sphere must have been
moving with the fixed-on stars attached to it
o The wanderers sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were
loosely attached to the sphere, they also had their own motions
o Greeks tried to make sense of this, but were limited in their solutions by a
philosophical consideration
Eudoxes
Famous for his work on ratios and the method of exhaustion
Largely responsible for turning astronomy into a mathematical science
Probably the inventor of the two-sphere model and the modifications necessary
to account for the motions of the sun, moon and planets
Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100-178 CE)
Nothing known about his personal life
Made numerous observations of the heavens from locations near Alexandria
Wrote several important books
Most famous for a work in 13 books that contained a complete mathematical
description of the Greek model of the universe with parameters for the various motions
of the sun, moon, and planets
o Replaced all earlier works on this subject
o Most inuential astronomical work from the time it was written until the 16th
century
o All subsequent astronomical works were based on Ptolemys masterpiece
o Became known as megisti syntaxis, Islamics called it al-magisti, since then it has
been known as Almagest
Diophantus
He lived in Alexandria
He wrote Arithmetica this was divided in 13 books (mid 3th century)
He introduced symbolics and dealt with powers higher than the tirth
Pappus
Oracle bones were curious pieces of bones inscribed with very ancient writing. These bones
are the source of our knowledge of early Chinese number systems.
In 1984, a tomb of an official was opened and among the books was discovered a mathematics
text. This work, called the Suan Shu Shu (Book of Numbers and Computation), is the earliest
extant text of Chinese mathematics.
China was ruled by different dynasties. Despite numerous wars and dynastic conflicts, a true
Chinese culture was developing throughout most of east Asia, with a common language and
common values.
The Chinese government encouraged the study of mathematics, but hardly no new methods
were introduced. There was no particular incentive for mathematical creativity. Although there
were some creative mathematicians.
Qin Jiushao (1202-1261) wrote his Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections. Qin lived a
fascinating life with corruption and love affairs.
Li Ye (1192-1279) wrote Sea Mirror of Circle Measurements. Li Ye dealt with the properties of
circles inscribed in right triangles, but he was chiefly concerned with the setting up and solution
of algebraic equations for dealing with these properties.
Yang Hui wrote A Detailed Analysis of the Arithmetical Rules in the Nine Sections. In contrast
to Lis work, Yang Hui gave detailed account of his methods.
Zhu Shijie wrote Precious Mirror of the Four Elements, where he was able to work with up to
four unknowns.
There is not much known about mathematical transmission to and from China before the
sixteenth century. In all cases of similarities, there are sufficient differences in detail to rule out
direct copying from one civilization to the other
Symbols for the first nine numbers of our system have their origins in the Brahmi system of
writing in India (mid-third century BCE). Probably in the eight century these digits were picked
up by the Moslems. A century later they appeared in Spain and still later in Italy and the rest of
Europe.
Notion of place value: In India, although there were number symbols for the first nine digits,
there were also symbols to represent 10 through 90. Larger numbers were represented by
combining the symbol for 100 or 1000 with a symbol for one of the first 9 numbers. Around the
year 600, the Indians vidently dropped the symbols for numbers higher than 9 and began to use
their symbols for 1 through 9 in our familiar place value arrangement. The earliest (662)
reference to this use comes from Severus Sebokht, a Syrian priest, with the remark that the
Hindus have a valuable Method of calculation done by means of nine signs.
A symbol for zero: Severus did not mention a sign for zero. However, in the Bakhshali
manuscript the numbers are written using the place value system and with a dot to represent
zero. In other Indian works from the same period, numbers were written as words (moon for 1,
eye for 2 etc.) to accommodate the poetic nature of the documents.
The question why the Indians at the beginning of the seventh century dropped their earlier
system and introduced the place value system including a symbol for zero remains. It has been
suggested that the true origins of the system in India come from the Chinese counting board.
New intellectual developments sprung forth in the 6th to the 8th centuries due to missionaries.
Charlemagne, a future Holy Roman Emperor, wanted mathematics to be part of the curriculum
in Church schools, mainly because the problem of the calendar.
Alcuin of York (735-804) helped Charlemagne to establish more schools.
10th century
In the 10th century, a revival of interest in mathematics began with the work of Gerbert d Aurillac
(945-1003), who became Pope in 999.
Gerbert reorganized the cathedral school and successfully reintroduced the study of
mathematics. He dealt with basic arithmetic, geometry, mensuration and astronomy.
12th century
The mathematical heritage was only brought into Europa through the work of translators.
Europian scholars (most of them in Toledo) began the translate the (mostly) Arabic translations
into Latin.
Because of the flourishing Jewish community, more and more translations went as follows: first
by Spanish Jew from Arabic into Spanish, and then by Christian scholar from Spanish into Latin.
Euclids Elements was translated into Latin early in the twelfth century. Before then, Abraham
bar Hiyya (d. 1136) wrote a treatise on Mensuration and Calculation, with a summary of some
important definitions, axioms and theorems from Euclid.
An overview of translations can be found in the book on page 327, sidebar 10.1
Leonardo (also known as Fibonacci) of Pisa (c. 1170-1240)
In his early life he spent much time on Arabic and mathematics under Moslem teachers. Later
he travelled and absorbed the mathematical knowledge of the Islamic world. When he returned
to Pisa he wrote his knowledge down and books which are preserved include: Liber Abbaci
(1202, 1228), the Practica geometriae (1220), and the Liber quadratorum (1225).
Levi ben Gerson (1288-1344)
He was a mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and biblical commentator. His best-known
contribution to astronomy is his invention of the Jacob Staff, which was used for centuries to
measure the angular separation between heavenly bodies.
The works of Levi ben Gerson were read, although there are no references of his work. Marin
Mersenne wrote about combinatorics, a subject which Levi ben Gerson had written about.
Universities
During the late twelfth century Europe saw the beginning of the universities. There is not an
exact date to assign the beginning of these institutions because they were formed as societies,
or guilds.
The earliest of these institutions were in Paris, Oxford and Bologna. In Paris, the university grew
out of the cathedral school of Notre Dame.
--- More on universities can be found in the lecture notes --In the medieval period much of the till then available works were not studied and their new ideas
had to be rediscovered centuries later.
The Hundred Years War caused a marked decline in learning in France and England. Only a
few new ideas were therefore in Italy and Germany generated in the Renaissance.
was believed that the Hindu-Arabic numerals could be altered too easily, and thus was too risky
to depend of for large transactions.
Early in the fifteenth century abacists begun to substitute abbreviations for unknowns
- cosa-thing x
- censo-square x^2
- cubo-cube x^3
- radice-root x^1/2
Some authers used the abbreviations c, ce, cu and R. Combinations of the abbreviations were
used for higher powers.
- ce ce - x^4
- ce cu - x^5
Etc
Near the end of the fifteenth centruy, Luca Pacioli introduced the abbreviations p (with bar over
it) and m(with bar over it)to represent plus and meno.
Modern algebraic symbolism was not fully formed until the mid-seventeenth century.
Michael Stifel (1487-1567): made a wrong prediction of the end of the world and was discharged
from his parish and for a time placed under house arrest. Was given another parish in 1535 and
devoted himself to the study of mathematics. Wrote "Deutsche Arithmetica" (1545) and
"Arithmetica Integra" (1546)
Robert Recorde (1510-1558): studied in Oxford. Wrote textbooks in the form of a dialogue
between master and pupil.
Pedro Nunes (1502-1578): studied in Salamanca. Was of Jewish origin but not persecuted in
the Inquisition. Translated his "Libro de Algebra" into Spanish and had it printed in the
Netherlands in 1567. Also a poet. Was not persecuted because (probably) one of his students
became the Inquisitor General.
Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576): lectured in mathematics in Milan and wrote a textbook on
arithmetic. was finally admitted into Milan's College of Physicians (wasn't before due to his
illegitemate birth). Helped the archbishop by discovering his allergy to feathers. Predicted a long
life for Edward VI but was wrong. Wrote an autobiography "De Propria Vida"
Rafael Bombelli (1526-1572): educated as an engineer. Largest project was reclaimong arable
land from marshes, wrote an algebraic treatise (a written work dealing formally and
systematically with a subject)
Sixteenth century in Italy: revival of Greek mathematics. The translators were not expert
mathematicians so some of their translations were unintelligeble (translated a few centuries
earlier).
Federigo Commandino (1509-1574): single handedly prepared Latin translations of birtually all
of the know works of Archimedes, Apollonius etc.
European mathematicians began to serach for the "methods of analysis" used by the ancient
Greeks.
Franois Vite (1540-1603): received a law degree from the University of Poitiers. Acted as a
Cryptanalyst of intercepted messages between King Henri III's enemies. Was denounced by
some who thought the decipherment could only have been made by sorcery. Wrote "The
Analytic Art" replaced the search for solutions (of algebraic equations) with a detailed study of
the structure of these equations.
Simon Stevin (1548-1620): major mathematical contribution was the creations of a notation for
decimal fractions. Also played a fundamental role in erasing the Aristotelian distinction between
number andmagnitude. Wrote "the Art of Tenths" and "l'Arithmtique" (a work containing
arithmetic and algebra)
Decimal fractions: not used in Europe in the late Middle Ages or in the Renaissance. Steving
was probably influenced by Islamic development when he made his notation for decimal
fractions. Stevin in his book promosed to show that all operations using his new system could
be preformed exactly as if one were using whole numbers.
Notation of decimal fractions: e.g. 8(0)9(1)3(2)7(3)=8.937 (1): prime (2): second (3):third (0):
commencment.
Stevin begun "l'Arithmetique" with two definitions:
1: Arithmetic is the science of numbers
2. Number is that which explains the quantith of each thing
Stevin made the point that number represents quantity, any type of quantity at all. Numbet is no
longer to be only a collections of units, as defined by Euclid. Unity is a number. The Greeks had
rejected this notion. To them unity was only a generator of a number. He did distinguish between
numbers that are commensurable and incommensurable but all these quantities are numbers to
him.
Keplers first law of planetary motion: a planet travels in an ellipse around the sun with the sun
at one focus.
Napier is primarily responsible for the introduction of our modern notation for decimal fractions.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642): considered to be the founder of modern physics. Was responsible in
large measure for reformulating the laws of motion considered first by the Greeks and later by
certain medieval scholars. His most important work dealing with the naturalaccelerated motion
of freefall and the violentmotion of a projectile were published in 1638 in his Discourses and
Mathematical Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciencesf. Was brought before the
Inquisition in Rome for believing the earth moves. He was forced to confess his error. He was
then sentenced to house imprisonment and forbidden to publish any more books. He did,
however , manage to publish Discourse...Two New Sciences. Presented a postulate to the
effect that the velocity acquired by an object sliding down an inclined plane (without friction)
depends only on the height of the plane and not the angle of inclination. Concluded that the path
of swiftest descent is a circular arc. This was erroneous. It was in fact a cycloid. Mathematical
modelling was Galileos most fundamental contribution to the mutual development of
mathematics and physics.
The bitch was proved wrong by several mathematicians (Neile, Wren, Huygens),
most notably by Hendrick van Hauraet, who discovered a general procedure.
He was born in 1634.
He studied mathematics in Leiden.
The death of his father (who had been a cloth-merchant) made
him rich, which allowed him to travel and study without worry, but he died young
(before his 30th birthday).
The Principia, arguably the most important text of the Scientic Revolution, was the work that
dened the study of physics for the next 200 years. But Newtons calculus had relatively little
inuence because only parts appeared in print many years after they were written. In fact, it was
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz work (8 to 10 years after Newton) that constituted the basis of the rst
publication of the ideas of the calculus.
Leibniz (1646-1716)
Was brought to the frontiers of mathematical research by Christiaan Huygens
during his stay in Paris from 1672 until 1676.
After he read material such as van Schootens edition of Descartes Geometry
and the works of Pascal, he was able to begin the investigations that led to his own
invention of the differential and integral calculus (around 1676).
Around 1686 he began to publish his results in short notes in a German scientific
journal that he helped to found.
Like Newton in the 1670s, Leibniz wanted to justify his work by appealing to
Greek standards.
Leibniz technique of manipulating with infinitesimal differentials became a very
useful one, especially for his immediate followers, Johann and Jakob Bernoulli.
Newton and Leibniz (plagiarism):
They discovered essentially the same rules and procedures that we call calculus
today, but their approaches were entirely different: Newton used the ideas of velocity and
distance, while Leibniz used those of differences and sums.
Leibniz was accused of plagiarism by English mathematics for the following
reasons:
o he had read some of Newtons material during his stays in London
o he had received two letters from Newton where he discussed some results
Newton was accused of plagiarism by Johann and Jakob Bernoulli because:
o his work was not published until the 18th century
Leibniz was found guilty by a commission of the Royal Society, where Newton
was president, which caused the communication between England and the Continent to
cease. Leibniz method and notation were easier, so progress in analysis was faster on
the Continent. England stayed behind throughout the whole 18th century.
Differences between English and Continental approaches were clear in first calculus texts
o Marquis de lHospital in France
o Charles Hayes and Humphry Ditton in England
lHospital (1661-1704):
Served in his youth as an army officer.
In about 1690, he became interested in the new calculus that was beginning to
appear in journal articles of Leibniz and the Bernoulli brothers.
lHospital asked Johann Bernoulli to lecture him on the subjects.
Bernoulli sent him material (and new discoveries) and promised not to let anyone
else see them.
lHospital published a text with mostly Johanns discoveries in it in 1699
He used the same rules and proves as Leibniz and the Bernoullis, but he dealt
with algebraic curves instead of transcendental curves.
It was, in most realistic situations, much more difficult to quantify risk, that is, to
determine the degree of belief that a reasonable man would have.
Jakob Bernoulli wanted to be able to quantify risk in situations
where it was impossible to enumerate all possibilities. He used some statistics to
do this.
Jakob Bernoulli and the Ars Conjectandi
Jakob Bernoulli gave a scientific proof of the principle that the more observations one made of
a given situation, the better one would be able to predict future occurrences.
This proof was presented in Bernoullis Law of Large Numbers.
This proof was placed in Bernoullis important text on probability, the Ars
Conjectandi (Arts of Conjecturing), published 8 years after his death in 1705.
Abraham De Moivre (1667-1754)
Born into a Protestant family in France.
Studied physics as well as the the standard mathematics curriculum beginning
with Euclid.
Moved to England in 1688, after being in prison for more than two years. There,
he mastered Newtons theory of fluxions and began his own original work.
Was elected to the Royal Society in 1697, but never achieved a university
position.
Made his living by tutoring and by solving problems arising from games of
chance and annuities for gamblers and speculators.
Pierre-Simon de Laplace (1749-1827)
Born in Normandy.
Entered the university of Caen in 1766 to begin preparation for a career in the
Church.
Went to Paris in 1768 to continue his studies.
Got a position in mathematics at the cole Militaire, where he taught elementary
mathematics to aspiring cadets.
Legend has it that he examined, and passed, Napoleon there in
1785.
Won election to the Academy of Sciences in 1773.
His most important accomplishments were in the field of celestial mechanics.
During the period from 1799 to 1825, he produced his five-volume Trait de
mcanique cleste (Treatise on Celestial Mechanics) about Newtons law of gravitation
among other things.
He produced his Thorie analytique des probabilits (Analytic Theory of
Probability) in 1812.
Was rewarded with the title of marquis.
At his death he was eulogized as the Newton of France.
1843: William Rowan Hamilton discovered the quaternions partly in attempt to determine a
physically meaningful algebra in 3D space. Quaternions were 4D however so only part of the
quaternions could be used.
1846: Ernst Kummer tried to generalize the properties of the Gaussian integers and came to
the realizations that some of the most important properties fail to hold. So Kummer created
ideal complex numbers by 1846. (this lead to Richard Dedekind in 1870s to define ideals
which have to property of unique factorization into primes)
1850: James Sylvester introduced the term matrix.
Arthur Carley developed the algebra of matrices
Cauchy began with his study of eigenvalues.
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855): Gauss lived and went to school in Brunswick. (were a
teacher gave the task to 100 pupils to sum the first 100 integers, Gauss immediately wrote
5050). Apart from his book in number theory at the same time he developed a new method for
calculating orbits which lead to several asteroids to be discovered. In 1806 Brunswick was
occupied by the French. The French general had been given orders to look out for his welfare.
(Sophie Germain insured this).
Sophie Germain (1776-1831): She mastered mathematics through calculus on her own and
studied lecture notes (She was not allowed to attend) from several math classes. Had a
corresponded with Gauss under pseudonym M. le Blanc and suggested to the French general
which occupied Brunswick to insure Gauss safety.
Ernst Kummer (1810-1893): Born in Sorau (the Germany now Poland) he first studied theology
but soon switched to mathematics. Along with Karl Weirerstrass he established Germanys first
ongoing seminar in pure mathematics. Which attracted a lot of attention and helped to make
Berlin one of the most important world centres of mathematics in late 19th and early 20th century.
Niels Hendrik Abel (1802-1829): Born near Stavanger in Norway. He became interested in
fifth-degree equations and believed that he was able to solve it using radicals. When he was
asked to provide numerical examples however he realized that his method was incorrect. He
continued on the solvability question until he managed to prove its impossibility.
William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865): Born in Dublin but educated by his uncle in the town of
Trim. By the time he was ten he spoke fluently in: Latin, Greek, modern European languages,
Hebrew, Persian, Arabic and Samskrit. His first original work was in optics. In fact today he is
more famous for his work in dynamics than mathematics.
Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789-1857): He was born in the capital in the year that the French
Revolution began. He received an excellent classical education and studied engineering. He
worked as an engineer until he showed a strong interested in pure mathematics and was
encouraged by Laplace and Lagrange to leave engineering. He became one of the most
respected members of the French mathematical community. And he wrote so many papers that
the journal of the Paris Academy was forced to limit the contributions of any one person.
Cauchy got around that by making his own journal. When the last Bourbon king was overthrown
in 1830 he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new king and went into self-imposed
exile in Italy and Prague. He only returned when taking to oath was no longer necessary.
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (17681830): Orphaned at the age of nine he was placed in the
local military school where he showed talent in mathematics. He was arrested for defending
victims of the Terror in 1794. And after his release he was appointed as an assistant to
Lagrange and Monge.
Karl Weierstrass (1815-1897): Born in Westphalia, Germany. He briefly studied public finance
and administration however he left without getting a degree because of his interest in
mathematics and going to taverns. To earn a living he got a teaching certificate and began to
teach mathematics, physics, German botany, geography, history, gymnastics and calligraphy at
various gymnasia for 14 years. He was awarded a doctorate after writing a series of brilliant
papers in Crelles journal. Because of his declining health he taught while seated with an
advanced student writing on the blackboard. His clear lectures won him a European-wide
reputations
Sofia Kovalevskaya (18501891): Sofias room was papered with lecture notes of calculus. She
grew to like mathematics but could not pursue her studies in Russia since women were not yet
allowed to attend University. Because her family would not allow her to study on her own at a
European university she solved the problem with a marriage of convenience with Vladimir
Kovalevsky, a publisher of scientific and political works. Sofia studied privately with Weierstrass
and, after writing several publishable mathematics papers, the most significant being on the
theory of partial differential equations, received her doctorate in 1874 from the University of
Gottingen, a university that was willing to grant doctorates in absentia. When her husband died
in 1833, Sofia secured a position as a professor at the University of Stockholm, a first for a
woman. She had it difficult as a single mother, as she wrote in a letter Were I a man, Id choose
myself a beautiful little housewife who would free me from all this.
Hermann Grassmann (1809-1877) most of his life in Poland. At the University of Berlin he
mostly studied philology and theology, and after leaving the university he returned to Poland to
pursue work in mathematics and physics
In 1868, Helmholtz came up with a set of hypotheses that provided a basis for a study of
geometry.
- n-dimensional space is a manifold
- Rigid bodies exist
- Rigid bodies can move freely
Taking n=3 in these hypotheses leads to his concept of physical space.
He had some ideas regarding curvature that gives three possibilities for physical space.
Measure of curvature positive
-->
spherical space
Measure of curvature negative
-->
pseudospherical space
Measure of curvature zero
-->
Euclidean space
In the early 1870s, William Clifford also attempted to determine the postulates of physical
space. His speculations on this subject made Riemann's ideas on the theory of manifolds
applicable in physics.
There were also advances in projective geometry, by Jean-Victor Poncelet, Michel Chasles and
Julius Plcker.
Graph theory received new emphasis with the posing of the four-color problem.
Geometry now also dealt with dimension greater than three. A work by Hermann Grassmann in
1844 on this was not appreciated until the end of the century.
Mathematicians felt that it was time to redo the foundations of geometry. David Hilbert (18621943) came up with a new set of axioms for Euclidean space that helped developing the new
geometries.
David Hilbert (18621943) was one of the last of the universal mathematicians, who
contributed greatly to many areas of mathematics. He attended the university in Knigsberg,
Russia. After he was called by Felix Klein to Gottingen, he soon became one of the major
reasons for that universitys surpassing Berlin as the preeminent university for mathematics in
Germany, and probably the world.
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Cantors work on infinite sets continued to cause problems early in the 20th
century. The key to solving these problems was the axiom of choice (used
implicitly for many years until it was explicitly stated in 1904)
In 1931 Kurt Gdel established his Incompleteness Theorems
Growth of (point-set and combinatorial) topology
Point-set: roots in Cantors work on the theory of sets of real numbers
Combinatorial: roots in Riemanns attempts to integrate complex functions in
regions with holes
Subsequent algebraization of topology
Growth of algebraic techniques in all areas of mathematics
Continued in the theory of categories and functors
Statistics exploded in importance
Development of techniques for designing experiments and testing hypotheses
Development of electronic computers in the second half of the 20th century
Women in Mathematics
Up until recently, very few women have participated in the discipline of
mathematics
Without a supportive background, women could not enter the field
Even the women that managed to achieve a reasonable knowledge of
mathematics were often not able to participate in the mathematical community
Over the last several decades, it became possible for women who want to be
mathematicians to achieve that aim, even without a family member as a role model
Women are gradually entering positions of inuence in the mathematical
community
The Prehistory of Computers
Some Islamic scientists in the middle ages used certain instruments to help in
their own calculations, particularly in astronomy
Wilhelm Schikard (1592-1635), around 1623, designed and built a machine that
performed addition and subtraction automatically. He built one for Kepler, but it was
destroyed in a fire before it could be used.
Around 1643, Pascal constructed an adding and substracting machine.
In 1671, Leibniz constructed a machine that also did multiplication and division.
Babbages difference engine and analytical engine
Leibnizs machine nor the improved models were used that much, since
mathematical practitioners continued to do calculations by hand since the machine
wasnt faster.
For complicated computations, tables were used, particularly of logarithms and
trigonometric functions.
Around 1821, Charles Babbage had the idea to use the steam engine to drive
the machine, so the speed and the accuracy of the computation would be increased.
Babbages aim was to attach the machine to a device for printing plates, but he
never succeeded.
Babbage developed another machine, a general-purpose calculating machine,
his Analytical Engine
o Contained many of the features of todays computers
o He never had the financial resources to actually construct it
Ada Byron King Lovelace (1815-1852)
Raised by her mother, who was a mathematics student herself
Tutored by well-known mathematicians
Became interested in Charles Babbages Difference Engine
Major mathematical work is a heavily annotated translation of a paper.
Alan Turing (1912-1954) was interested in determining what a computation is and whether a
given computation can in fact be carried out
To answer this, he developed the (universal) Turing machine, which can
calculate any number or function that can be calculated by any special machine,
provided that it is given the appropriate instructions.