21. A Fate Of The Great Mathematical Discoveries Galois sent his works to the Paris Academy of Sciences. However even the greatestfrench mathematicians Cauchy and Fourier cannot understand Galois works. http://www.goldenmuseum.com/1103MathDiscover_engl.html

A fate of the great mathematical discoveries Nikolay Lobatchevski (1792 - 1856) Mikhail Ostrogradski (1801 - 1862) And during all his life Lobatchevski was subjected to ridicule on the part of the official Russian academic science of that period. Lobatchevski's recognition came from the West science due the genius mathematician Gauss who became the only mathematician who could access properly Lobatchevski's works in geometry. According to Gauss' proposal Lobatchevski was chosen by the Corresponding Member of the Gettingen scientific society. It was other example from the history of the French 19th century mathematics. The name of the French mathematician Evarist Galois is well-known in mathematics. His mathematical works gave the origin of modern algebra. However at his life Evarist Galois was well-known as revolutionary. For public speeches against royal regime he was twice in prison. In 1832 in the age of 21 he was killed on the duel organized by his enemies. His basic mathematical works named later by his name Evarist Galois obtained in the age of 16-18 when he studied in the Lyceum. Galois sent his works to the Paris Academy of Sciences. However even the greatest French mathematicians Cauchy and Fourier cannot understand Galois works. According to legend, academician Cauchy threw out all mathematical Galois' works to the garbage. Cauchy (1789 - 1857) Galois (1811-1832) Galois' works were read and published for 14 years later of his died. In 1870, that is for 38 years later of his died the famous French mathematician Jordan wrote the book on mathematical Galois' investigations and due this book Galois' theory became common property of the world.

22. Role Of The Number Systems In Mathematics Progress The famous french mathematicians Laplas (1819 C.) expressed his enthusiasm aboutthe positional principle and decimal number system in the following words http://www.goldenmuseum.com/1104HistoryNS_engl.html

Role of the number systems in mathematics progress Bergman's discovery has a certain relation to such the oldest mathematics branch as number systems . To access properly the importance of his discovery we should tell briefly about the number systems history and evaluate their role in mathematics progress. This history dates back to the ancient period of mathematics development. The discovery of the positional principle of a number representation is considered as the highest achievement of the ancient elementary arithmetic This discovery was made in the Babylonian mathematics. It is well known that the sexagesimal number system of the ancient Babylonians emerged about 2000 BC was the first of the familiar number systems based on the positional principle. We use the decimal number system in our daily life. It is well known that the "father" of the decimal number system is the Hindu number system emerged about the 8th century. The famous French mathematicians Laplas (18-19 C.) expressed his enthusiasm about the positional principle and decimal number system in the following words: "The idea to represent all numbers by the 9 numerals giving them, in addition to the form value, still the position value is looked as much simple that just from behind this simplicity there is difficult to understand how much it is astonishing. How it was difficult to come to this method we can see on the example of the greatest genius' of Greek's learning Archimede and Appolonius for whose this idea was hidden".

23. Ulearn Today - Magazine Surprisingly, it wasn't until the 17th century that an accurate mathematics of probabilitywas developed by french mathematicians Pierre de Fermat and Blaise http://www.ulearntoday.com/magazine/physics_article1.jsp?FILE=probability

24. Education | René Thom is the collective pseudonym for the authorship of 36 volumes of comprehensive texts,started in 1939 by an elite group of french mathematicians, designed to http://education.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4545977,00.html

Obituary René Thom Wide-ranging French mathematician whose creation of catastrophe theory paved the way for the more influential chaos theory Pearce Wright Thursday November 14, 2002 The Guardian The relatively new science of chaos theory has had a huge impact on research in fields as diverse as meteorology, ecology, economics, physiology, genetics, astronomy and the stock market. It is used to model highly complex systems, from population growth and epidemics to erratic heart palpitations. Before turning to catastrophe theory, Thom had already earned international distinction for his work on topology, the branch of mathematics which involves studies of the shapes and symmetries of abstract geometric objects, and whose influence now extends to many other areas. In 1958 his work won him the Fields Medal, the equivalent in mathematics of a Nobel prize. This was awarded for an influential theory called cobordism, described as lying on the margins between algebra and geometry. Bourbaki is the collective pseudonym for the authorship of 36 volumes of comprehensive texts, started in 1939 by an elite group of French mathematicians, designed to present mathematics in a contemporary and original way, and to illustrate its axiomatic structure. In 1946, Thom moved to Strasbourg to continue working under Cartan, and with other leading mathematicians of the Bourbaki school. He got his doctorate in 1951 under Cartan's supervision, for a thesis entitled Fibre Spaces In Spheres And Steenrod Squares, in which the foundations of the theory of cobordism appeared.

25. André Weil--Life And Work In the 1930s Weil was a founder of Bourbaki, a group of french mathematicians whowrote a highly influential multivolume series of treatises that organized http://www.ams.org/new-in-math/cover/weil-obit.html

In the 1930s Weil was a founder of Bourbaki, a group of French mathematicians who wrote a highly influential multi-volume series of treatises that organized and unified mathematical knowledge. The work, Elements de Mathematique, offered, for the first time, a survey of the leading work in practically every field of mathematics. In 1994 Professor Weil received the Kyoto Prize in Basic Science from the Inamori Foundation of Kyoto, Japan, an award that is frequently referred to as Japan's Nobel Prize. The award citation noted that Weil, who was recognized for his lifetime achievement in mathematics, "altered the very course of 20th century thought in mathematics. His so-called Weil Conjectures have provided the guiding principles for algebraic geometry, which, in turn, have given rise to the accurate and efficient transmission of information through coding theory. Today, Dr. Weil's work continues to play extremely important roles in fields ranging from elementary particle physics to encryption and computer security." During the war, Weil left France for Finland to avoid the draft, feeling that "as a soldier I would be entirely useless, but as a mathematician I could be of some use." The Finns turned him over to the French authorities, who imprisoned him for six months. While in prison Weil created his theorem on the Riemann hypothesis, described as "a jewel of modern number theory" and one of his greatest mathematical proofs. He was released in exchange for agreeing to join the French army. After the War Weil came to the United States, where he held academic positions at Haverford College and the University of Chicago, in addition to spending two years in Brazil at the University of Sao Paulo.

26. Interesting People In Mathematics A group of mostly french mathematicians which began meeting in the 1930s,aiming to write a thorough unified account of all mathematics. http://westview.tdsb.on.ca/Mathematics/people.html

This page will be under constant revision so please use the reload button on your browser to refresh the page. Last revised December 10, 2002 Interesting People Interesting Subject equals Interesting People A Source of Ideas for Mathematics Teachers The Historicals Archimedes A collection of Archimedean miscellanea, supplemented by text and graphics. Topics include: Timeline Siege of Syracuse Archimedes' Claw Death of Archimedes Tomb of Archimedes Burning Mirrors The Golden Crown Archimedes' Screw Stomachion The Cattle Problem Archimedean Solids Spheres and Planetaria The Lever Royal Family of Syracuse Coins of Syracuse Books on Archimedes Archimedes Crater Stamps of Archimedes The Bernoulli Family Fermi Questions Resources include samples of Fermi questions, and an introduction that answers: Who is Enrico Fermi? What is a Fermi question? Why are Fermi questions useful in the K-12 classroom? Occam Occam's Razor The Moderns Bourbaki, Nicolas From sci-math-faq/bourbaki: Who is N. Bourbaki? A group of mostly French mathematicians which began meeting in the 1930s, aiming to write a thorough unified account of all mathematics. They had tremendous influence on the way math is done since. For a very accessible sampler see Dieudonne Mathematics: The Music Of Reason (Orig. Pour L'honneur De L'esprit Humain). The founding is described in Andre Weil's autobiography, titled something like

27. 2002 - REVUES Translate this page Published from 1836 by the leading french mathematicians, the Journal des MathématiquesPures et Appliquées is the second oldest international mathematical http://www.cmla.ens-cachan.fr/Cmla/Bibliotheque/revues.html

Les revues disponibles 2002 CENTRE DE DOCUMENTATION DU CMLA REVUES 2002 Quelques-unes des Revues disponibles n° 124. Si vous désirez l'emprunter, merci de me le signaler. Les Comptes rendus Mathématique sot ouverts à tous les scientifiques, quels que soient leur titre et leur nationalité. Une note aux Comptes rendus est la première relation brève d'une découverte importante ou d'un résultat significatif. Elle bénéficie d'une publication rapide après son acceptation définitive et permet ainsi de prendre date. Published from 1836 by the leading French mathematicians, the Journal des Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées is the second oldest international mathematical journal in the world. It was founded by Joseph Liouville and published continuously by leading French Mathematicians - among the latest : Jean Leray, J.-L. Lions, and presently P. Malliavin. With its large international circulation - over 50 countries - the journal stands as one of the world's top publications in mathematics. In particular the JMPA covers mainly mathematical analysis and its relation

28. Biographical Encyclopedia Of Astronomers Entry from the Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers.Category Society Philosophy Philosophers Whewell, William...... By the first quarter of the nineteenth century, french mathematicians, led by PierreSimonde Laplace and Joseph Lagrange, had established a supremacy over http://philosophy.wisc.edu/forster/Whewell.htm

Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (forthcoming) Thomas Hockey (ed.) William Whewell (1794-1866) Michael S. Reidy Department of History and Philosophy Montana State University Malcolm R. Forster Department of Philosophy University of Wisconsin - Madison Whewell, William (b Lancaster, England, 24 May 1794; d Cambridge, England, 6 March 1866) Born the eldest son of a carpenter, William Whewell rose to become Master of Trinity College, Cambridge and a central figure in Victorian science. After attending the grammar school at Heversham in Westmorland, Whewell entered Trinity College, Cambridge and graduated Second Wrangler. He became a Fellow of the College in 1817, took his M.A. degree in 1819, and his D.D. degree in 1844. By the first quarter of the nineteenth century, French mathematicians, led by Pierre-Simon de Laplace and Joseph Lagrange, had established a supremacy over British mathematicians in applying analytical methods to Newtonian physics. Fourier on heat, Ampere on electromagnetism, and Fresnel on light represent only a few of the triumphs of French mathematical physics. In 1819, the year Whewell helped form the Cambridge Philosophical Society, he also published his first textbook, An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics . It was the first English text on applied mathematics that consistently used continental symbolism and became the standard text used by undergraduates at Cambridge. Along with his second textbook

29. APOLLONIUS Pergaeus, Opera, Per Doctissimum Philosophum Ioannem Baptistam Memum. It is hard to underestimate the effect of Apollonius on the brilliant french mathematiciansof the seventeenth century, Descartes, Mersenne, Fermat, and even http://www.polybiblio.com/watbooks/2362.html

W. P. Watson Antiquarian Books APOLLONIUS Pergaeus [colophon:] Venice, Bernardo Bindoni, 1537 Folio (303 x 208 mm), ff 88 [2, including terminal blank leaf], title in red and black above a woodcut portrait of the author holding a sphere and surrounded by an elaborate historiated border depicting 11 pairs of ancient worthies, a garden below, numerous woodcut diagrams in text; lower blank margin of title repaired, a fine, crisp, unpressed copy, with the strong impress in blind of the bearer type prominent in the lower blank margins, in original, possibly publisher's, vellum boards, sheep spine ruled in gilt, some worming to spine, in a morocco-backed box. £34,000 First edition of Apollonius's Conics (books I-IV; books V-VII weren't printed until 1661), one of the three greatest works, along with those of Euclid and Archimedes, of classic mathematics. 'Apollonius (c. 245-190 BC) was the last of the great Greek mathematicians, whose treatise on conic sections represents the final flowering of Greek mathematics' (Hutchinson's Dictionary of Scientific Biography p 16). This edition is the first printing of any work by Apollonius, preceding by 29 years the Commandino edition of 1566, also of the first four books. These were the only books to survive in the original Greek; books V-VII survived in Arabic versions only (book VIII is lost), and were translated and published in 1661 at the instigation of Borelli.

30. Embassy Of France In The US - Science And Technology Among the great french mathematicians who have earned this honor are Maxim Kontsevich(1998), PierreLouis Lions and Jean Christophe Yoccoz (1994), Alain http://www.info-france-usa.org/franceus/science.asp

What's New Contact Us Subscribe About Us ... History: From Lafayette to D-Day The United States, the world’s leading scientific power, is France’s number-one scientific and technical partner. Cooperation between the two nations takes many forms: collaboration between laboratories; institutional networks comprised of entities and universities in both countries; exchange programs that welcome French students and researchers to U.S. campuses as well as key American scientific figures at our most prestigious institutions; the establishment of French biotech and computer startups in the United States; and U.S. investment in French high technologies. We are America’s fourth-largest scientific collaborator after Canada, Japan and Germany. More than 5,000 joint publications come out each year in our two countries. French physics enjoys a particularly stellar reputation, along with mathematics, chemistry, fundamental and clinical biology, and economics. Many of our Nobel prize laureates have had ties with U.S. laboratories at some point in their careers. While the influence of the Curies, Perrin and Broglie is still felt, French physics is anchored in the science of today, with such significant achievements as Alfred Kastler’s discovery and development of optical methods for studying hertzian resonances in atoms (1966), Louis Néel’s work with antiferromagnetism (1970), Pierre-Gilles de Gennes’s work in condensed matter physics (1991), Georges Charpac’s innovative particle chambers at the CERN (1992) and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji’s development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light (1997).

31. Infinite Controversies started between mathematicians, particularly, the french mathematiciansHadamard, Borel and Lebesque, while Zermelo was going on with his http://members.tripod.co.uk/ajebara

Welcome to my new Web page! I built it using Tripod's One-minute Page builder. Why I like the One-minute Page builder: Infinite products of integers and the axiom of choice A restricted axiom of choice Brief history of the negation of the axiom of choice The story begins with Cantor who was working on the functions theory and noticing there could not exist any bijection between N and R. A tremendous work made him able to give shape to the set theory, being encouraged by Dedekind and criticised by Kronecker . On about 1900, it happened to him to hit on two problems. The first is a paradox which make it impossible for the set of all sets to exist. The second , called continuum problem, is about the proof that there does not exist a cardinal number between that of N and of R. Indeed, Cantor was reasoning by taking for obvious what will later be called the Axiom of choice as he was taking for granted a total order relation between cardinal numbers .This last issue made him exhausted. Zermelo was trying to make the theory of Cantor formalized...

32. Emilie development of Newtonian science in the middle eighteenth century in Europe, as thisbook made Newton's work available to the french mathematicians and scholars http://www.roma.unisa.edu.au/07305/emilie.htm

Emilie du Chatelet Background For more than a thousand years after Hypatia's death in 415, nothing significantly new happened in mathematics in the West. However, the situation began to change towards the end of the Middle Ages. During this time Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo made many new discoveries. Then in the seventeenth century Newton wrote about many new ideas in his book, the Principia . Shortly after this in a time known as the Enlightenment, Emilie du Chatelet was born (Perl 1978). Emilie was born in France in 1706, to a wealthy family. She began very early in life to show enough promise in the area of academics to convince her father that she was a genius who needed attention. Her love was mathematics. Emilie worked seriously in mathematics until the day she died (ed. Gillispie 1977). Contributions According to Tee (1987), Emilie began in 1739 to write a textbook for her son on Leibniz's physics. In 1740 she published this work which she called Institutions de physique . This book remains one of the clearest accounts of Leibnizian physics. She is however best known for her work

33. IMU Bulletin No 41, April 1998 Guillopé and JP Kahane, two french mathematicians, members of the French Commissionfor Sciences of UNESCO, asked me to join them for their first visit to S. http://elib.zib.de/IMU/bulletin/41/wmy2000_report.html

IMU International Mathematical Union Bulletin no 41, April 1998 Report on preparations for the World Mathematical Year WMY 2000 Mireille Chaleyat-Maurel, Paris (France) History On May 6th 1992 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the then chairman of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), Professor Jacques-Louis Lions declared the year 2000 to be "The World Mathematical Year" (cf "Declaration of Rio de Janeiro on Mathematics", first number of the Newsletter 2000). This special event has the sponsorship of UNESCO, and the International Mathematical Union, with the support of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), The Third World Academy of Sciences, The French and Brazilian Academies of Sciences, and several Governments. It aims at three main issues: The great challenges of the 21st century Mathematics, keys for development The image of Mathematics First of all, it was decided to publish a newsletter (Newsletter 2000), which would gather and widely redistribute information on initiatives taken by the international mathematical community for the preparation of WMY 2000. It then became necessary to tighten links with UNESCO and to register projects for the world mathematical year as they take shape all over the world. My report consists of four parts: Publication and distribution of "Newsletter 2000" Relations with UNESCO Projects registered to date Subsidiary activities 1. "Newsletter 2000"

34. History 1600 A.D. Mersenne was a Franciscan friar who made it his business to become acquaintedand correspond with other french mathematicians and foreign contemporaries. http://faculty.oxy.edu/jquinn/home/Math490/Timeline/1600AD.html

Galileo Galilei by Henry D. Sheen or The Mersenne Prime by Clarence L. Terry 1564-1642 A.D. Galileo Galilei [The universe] can not be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the characters which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word -Galileo Galilei, Opere Il Saggiatore p. 171. Galileo Galilei , physician, mathematician and teacher revolutionized the Tychonic system that stated that everything in the universe revolved around the sun. He became one of the first pioneers in astronomy that based his arguments on observation and mathematical analysis of planetary orbits. He taught medical students astronomy in order to make use of astrology in their diagnosis. Throughout his career as a mathematician and a workman, Galileo devised telescopes that enabled him to view Venus, Neptune and the moons of Jupiter. Galileo's unconventional forms of astronomy and natural philosophy, however, threatened Catholic scripture. As a result, Galileo was charged with heresy and placed under house arrest in 1632. Despite the efforts of the Catholic Church to silence Galileo, several of his books were smuggled out of Italy and published for the international market. Author : Henry D. Sheen

35. 1939A.D. Nicolas bourbaki, a Greek name, was actually a pseudonym, or nom de plum,that a group of french mathematicians used to publish under. http://faculty.oxy.edu/jquinn/home/Math490/Timeline/1939AD.html

Bourbaki (a man of mystery?), Mathematicians of the year or Alan Baker Nicoloas Bourbaki The work of the french mathematician Nicoloas Bourbaki influenced the change in thinking about the structure of mathematics from 1940 on. One of the Bourbaki publications, Part 1 of the Fundamental Structures of Analysis , was directly used to develop later curriculum. It influenced the curriculums in the areas of set theory, algebra, general topology, fuctions of a real variable, topological vector space, and integration. Nicolas bourbaki, a Greek name, was actually a pseudonym, or nom de plum , that a group of French mathematicians used to publish under. The members of the group writing under this name, did not stay consistent, but in general, most of them were from the University at Nancy, and many of them had appointments at American universities. The number of mathematicians publishing under this name usually was around 12 at a time; the most ever in the group at any one time was 20. Four well-known members of the group were C. Chevalley, J. Delsarte, J. Dieudonne, and A. Weil. The only rule of the group was that they most retire from the group at 50 years of age. The work of Bourbaki influenced a change in thinking about math to the degree that a "new math" curriculum was developed to try to address the issues that Bourbaki brought to the surface of mathematical education. His publishings began in 1939. The influential publishings were a general surbey of math. They were trying to develop all of math from a few broad axioms, giving complete proofs for all of mathematics. Set theory was being used to axiomatisize, in a system of first order logic, building on the Axiom of Global Choice. He, or they, developed properties of a lot of "key math structures," like topological spaces and groups. One easy way to understand Bourbaki's work is to see that "the Bourbaki system is a ‘big theory' rather than a mosaic of ‘little theories.'"

36. ThinkQuest Library Of Entries At the age of fourteen, Pascal participated in the weekly gatherings of a group offrench mathematicians form which the French Academy ultimately formed in 1666 http://library.thinkquest.org/22584/temh3046.htm

Welcome to the ThinkQuest Internet Challenge of Entries The web site you have requested, Mathematics History , is one of over 4000 student created entries in our Library. Before using our Library, please be sure that you have read and agreed to our To learn more about ThinkQuest. You can browse other ThinkQuest Library Entries To proceed to Mathematics History click here Back to the Previous Page The Site you have Requested ... Mathematics History click here to view this site A ThinkQuest Internet Challenge 1998 Entry Click image for the Site Languages : Site Desciption An extensive history of mathematics is at your fingertips, from Babylonian cuneiforms to advances in Egyptian geometry, from Mayan numbers to contemporary theories of axiomatical mathematics. You will find it all here. Biographical information about a number of important mathematicians is included at this excellent site. Students Hyun-jin Jae-yun Hwang(Seoul Yo Sang) Korea, South Kyung-sun Jae-yun Hwang(Seoul Yo Sang) Korea, South So-young Jae-yun Hwang(Seoul Yo Sang) Korea, South

37. Math Forum: Famous Problems In The History Of Mathematics Problem of Points An age-old gambling problem led to the development of probabilityby french mathematicians Pascal and Fermat in the seventeenth century. http://mathforum.org/isaac/mathhist.html

A Math Forum Project Introduction Mathematics has been vital to the development of civilization; from ancient to modern times it has been fundamental to advances in science, engineering, and philosophy. As a result, the history of mathematics has become an important study; hundreds of books, papers, and web pages have addressed the subject in a variety of different ways. The purpose of this site is to present a small portion of the history of mathematics through an investigation of some of the great problems that have inspired mathematicians throughout the ages. Included are problems that are suitable for middle school and high school math students, with links to solutions, as well as links to mathematicians' biographies and other math history sites. WARNING: Some of the links on the page in this site lead to other math history sites. In particular, whenever a mathematician's name is highlighted, you can follow it to link to his biography in the MacTutor archives. Table of Contents The Bridges of Konigsberg - This problem inspired the great Swiss mathematician Leonard Euler to create graph theory, which led to the development of topology. The Value of Pi - Throughout the history of civilization various mathematicians have been concerned with discovering the value of and different expressions for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.

38. Math Forum - Ask Dr. Math There are lots of English, German, Greek, and french mathematicians that I canthink of or find, but no one American really sticks out in anyone's mind! http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/59084.html

Associated Topics Dr. Math Home Search Dr. Math American Mathematicians Date: 4/16/96 at 11:59:16 From: Katy Van Every Subject: American mathematician I am doing a project on a famous American mathematician, but the problem is, I can't think of any! There are lots of English, German, Greek, and French mathematicians that I can think of or find, but no one American really sticks out in anyone's mind! Date: 4/16/96 at 15:44:10 From: Doctor Jodi Subject: Re: American mathematician Hi there! I'd recommend the St. Andrew's Math History page, located at http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/ From this page, you can get to a birthplace map. You can also go directly to a listing of some American mathematicians. That page is http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/SensitiveMap/USA.html Good luck with your report and let us know how it goes! -Doctor Jodi, The Math Forum Associated Topics Elementary Math History/Biography Search the Dr. Math Library: Find items containing (put spaces between keywords): Click only once for faster results: [ Choose "whole words" when searching for a word like age.

39. David Hilbert who, according to Hilbert, knows only one field of mathematics. Next after lookingover the work done by french mathematicians, Hilbert concentrated on http://www.sonoma.edu/Math/faculty/falbo/hilbert.html

David Hilbert (1862-1943) Excerpt from Math Odyssey 2000 David Hilbert was born in Koenigsberg, East Prussia in 1862 and received his doctorate from his home town university in 1885. His knowledge of mathematics was broad and he excelled in most areas. His early work was in a field called the theory of algebraic invariants. In this subject his contributions equaled that of Eduard Study, a mathematician who, according to Hilbert, "knows only one field of mathematics." Next after looking over the work done by French mathematicians, Hilbert concentrated on theories involving algebraic and transfinite numbers. In 1899 he published his little book The Foundations of Geometry , in which he stated a set of axioms that finally removed the flaws from Euclidean geometry. At the same time and independently, the American mathematician Robert L. Moore (who was then 19 years old) also published an equivalent set of axioms for Euclidean geometry. Some of the axioms in both systems were the same, but there was an interesting feature about those axioms that were different. Hilbert's axioms could be proved as theorems from Moore's and conversely, Moore's axioms could be proved as theorems from Hilbert's. After these successes with the axiomatization of geometry, Hilbert was inspired to try to develop a program to axiomatize all of mathematics. With his attempt to achieve this goal, he began what is known as the "formalist school" of mathematics. In the meantime, he was expanding his contributions to mathematics in several directions partial differential equations, calculus of variations and mathematical physics. It was clear to him that he could not do all this alone; so in 1900, when he was 38 years old, Hilbert gave a massive homework assignment to all the mathematicians of the world.

40. Fermat with French mathematician, Father Mersenne (pronounced Merseen') who was tryingto increase discussion and the exchange of ideas among french mathematicians. http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/men/fermat.html

Pierre de Fermat Pierre de Fermat (pronounced Fer-mah') was born in southwestern France in 1601. His father was a wealthy leather merchant who made it possible for Pierre to receive a monastery education and to attend the University of Toulouse. By the time he was 30, Pierre was a civil servant whose job was to act as a link between petitioners from Toulouse to the King of France and an enforcer of royal decrees from the King to the local people. Evidence suggests he was considerate and merciful in his duties. Since he was also required to act as an appeal judge in important local cases, he did everything he could to be impartial. To avoid socializing with those who might one day appear before him in court, he became involved in mathematics and spent as much free time as he could in its study. He was so skilled in the subject that he could be called a professional amateur. He was mostly isolated from other mathematicians, though he wrote regularly to two English mathematicians, Digby and Wallis. He also corresponded with French mathematician, Father Mersenne (pronounced Mer-seen') who was trying to increase discussion and the exchange of ideas among French mathematicians. One was Blaise Pascal who, with Fermat, established a new branch of math - probability theory. Fermat himself was secretive and, since he rarely wrote complete proofs or explanations of how he got his answers, was mischievously frustrating for others to understand. He loved to announce in letters that he had just solved a problem in math but then refused to disclose its solution, leaving it for others to figure out.

Page 2     21-40 of 87    Back | 1  | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | Next 20