M. Hamilton
Honors Math II
2nd period
Honors Paper on Alex Grothendiek
As stated in the book, “A Strange Wilderness” Alex Grothendieck was born on March 28, 1928 in Berlin, Germany. He was one of the famous mathematicians born in the 20th century. Alex began to love mathematics in 1942, when he attended a secondary school in Chambon, France. When World War II ended, he went to University of Montpellier, wanting to continue his fascination with math and become a mathematics teacher. He received a scholarship after three years in 1948 and moved to Paris, to the University of Nancy and worked on functional analysis. In 1957, he began to work on algebraic geometry and simple algebra. (The Famous People)
The Institute of Advanced Scientific studies in France hired Alex to organize seminars and teach young adults. In 1960, he visited The University of Kansas to start working on geometry and topology. After working at the University of Kansas, he transferred to IHES, and this was known as his Golden Age because during that time, Alex Grothendieck had made it the epicenter of algebraic geometry. Many concepts were named after him, such as Grothendieck topology and the Grothendieck universe. His career was spent twelve years at IHES and during the time, he married a woman named Mireille Dufour and had three children. He wouldn’t allow his children to attend school and get an education because he had a strong belief that people needed to find their own way was more important that going to school. He traveled a lot of Eastern University to give speeches. (The Famous People website)
In the early years of Alex Grothendieck, he experienced quite a few problems. He was born out of wedlock to a Jewish father and a protestant mother. While ...
... middle of paper ...
...ork: Sterling, 2011. N. pag. Print.
3.) "Alexandre Grothendieck: Astrology and Horoscope." Astrology: Alexandre Grothendieck, Date of Birth: 1928/03/28, Horoscope, Birth Chart, Astrological Portrait, Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. .
4.) "Alexandre Grothendieck (French Mathematician)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. .
5.) "The Amazing, Incredible Life of the Mathematician, Alexander Grothendieck." The Amazing, Incredible Life of the Mathematician, Alexander Grothendieck. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. .
6.) "Alexander Grothendieck." Alexander Grothendieck. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. .
Since girls were not permitted to attend any college preparatory schools, she decided to go to a general finishing school. There she studied and became certified to teach English and French. Soon after she altered her mind and decided that she wanted to pursue an education in mathematics. In 1904 Erlangen University accepted Emmy as one of the first female college students. In 1907 she received a Ph.D. in mathematics from this University. From 1908 to 1915 she worked at the Mathematical Institute of Erlangen without getting compensated or titled. The only reason she was permitted to work there was because she was helping her dad out by lecturing for his class when he was out sick. During these years she worked with Algebraist Ernst Otto Fisher and also started to work on theoretical algebra, which would make her a known mathematician in the future. She started working at the mathematical Institute in Göttingen and started to assist with Einstein’s general relativity theory. In 1918 she ended up proving two theorems which were a fundamental need f...
He finished his doctorate, started concentrating on identity. It is said that he was the first teacher to instruct a school level course on identity hypothesis, a course that today is required by about all undergrad brain science majors.
What many people don’t know is that Napoleon was not only a great military leader, but also a mathematician. He is an academician at the Institut de France, an out-and-out scientist and used to spend four hours a day on math. The famous "Napoleon Triangle" is a legend. At the same time, he is a man of subtle and refined affection. The touching love story between him and his wife Josephine became a favorite tale on everybody’s lips.
I have written on the mathematics of Dante Alighieri's (1265-1321) La Divina Commedia: "Conquest of Genesis: A Study In Universal Creation Mathematics", published by the Edwin Mellen Press, 1998
Christian Doppler was born November 29, 1803 to a stonemason and his wife in the town of Salzburg, Austria. His father, one in a long line of master stonemasons, operated a successful business in town that utilized the local marble quarries. Christian was forced, however, to forgo his family’s business because of his frail health, and he sought other opportunities in the work force. After high school, he attended the Vienna Polytechnic Institute in 1822 on a recommendation by his secondary school professor. There, he began his studies in mathematics and excelled in that field so much so that he graduating from the Institute three years later in 1825. From there, Doppler attended the University of Vienna to study higher mathematics, astronomy, and mechanics. Once he completed his studies in 1829, Christian began working for Professor Adam von Burg who taught mechanics and mathematics at the university. After being Burg’s assistant for only two years, Doppler published his first of eventually fifty-one scientific publications, titled A contribution to the theory of parallels. Doppler would go on to write three more publications before leaving the university to pursue a more perm...
Ball, Rouse. “Sir Isaac Newton.” A Short Account of the History of Mathematics. 4th ed. Print.
Michael Guillen, the author of Five Equations that Changed the World, choose five famous mathematician to describe. Each of these mathematicians came up with a significant formula that deals with Physics. One could argue that others could be added to the list but there is no question that these are certainly all contenders for the top five. The book is divided into five sections, one for each of the mathematicians. Each section then has five parts, the prologue, the Veni, the Vidi, the Vici, and the epilogue. The Veni talks about the scientists as a person and their personal life. The Vidi talks about the history of the subject that the scientist talks about. The Vici talks about how the mathematician came up with their most famous formula.
Jonas Salk was born in New York City. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants who, although they themselves lacked formal education, were determined to see their children succeed, and encouraged them to study hard. Jonas Salk was the first member of his family to go to college. He entered the City College of New York intending to study law, but soon became intrigued by medical science. While attending medical school at New York University, Salk was invited to spend a year researching influenza. The virus that causes flu had only recently been discovered and the young Salk was eager to learn if the virus could be deprived of its ability to infect, while still giving immunity to the illness. Salk succeeded in this attempt, which became the basis of his later work on polio. After completing medical school and his internship, Salk returned to the study of influenza, the flu virus. World War II had begun, and public health experts feared a replay of the flu epidemic that had killed millions in the wake of the First World War. The development of vaccines controlled the spread of flu after the war and the epidemic of 1919 did not recur.
In “Proof” David Auburn tells the story of a young woman growing up in a mathematically gifted family. Catherine’s father Robert, was a world renowned mathematician who made major contributions to three fields: game theory, algebraic geometry, and nonlinear operator theory. When Robert reached his mid twenty’s his health began to decline, leaving Catharine the burden of taking care of him during his time of illness. Catharine, unlike other kids her age she had to look after a graphomaniac and become the head of her household. Catharine
Overall George Boole’s life was filled with many moments of success, but was Boole an advance towards where mathematics is today? As many times that Boole was recognized his work finally paid off. At one point even Albert Einstein used Boole’s methods of mathematics to continue to advance of his own mathematics and sciences.
His father taught his Latin but after a while saw his son’s greater passion towards mathematics. However, Andre resumed his Latin lessons to enable him to study the work of famous mathematicians Leonhard Euler and Bernoulli. While in the study of his father’s library his favorite study books were George Louis Leclerc history book and Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond Encyclopedia, became Ampere’s schoolmasters (Andre). When Ampere finished in his father’s library he had his father take him to the library in Lyon. While there he studied calculus. A couple of weeks later he was able to do difficult treaties on applied mathematics (Levy, Pg. 135). Later in life he said “the new as much about mathematics when he was 18, than he knew in his entire life. His reading...
George Polya was born and educated in Budapest Hungry. He enrolled at the University of Budapest to study law but found it to be boring. He then switched his studies to languages and literature, which he found to be more interesting. And in an attempt to better understand philosophy he studied mathematics. He later obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics from Budapest in 1912. He later went on to teach in Switzerland and Brown, Smith, and Stanford Universities in the United States.
Carl Friedrich Gauss was born April 30, 1777 in Brunswick, Germany to a stern father and a loving mother. At a young age, his mother sensed how intelligent her son was and insisted on sending him to school to develop even though his dad displayed much resistance to the idea. The first test of Gauss’ brilliance was at age ten in his arithmetic class when the teacher asked the students to find the sum of all whole numbers 1 to 100. In his mind, Gauss was able to connect that 1+100=101, 2+99=101, and so on, deducing that all 50 pairs of numbers would equal 101. By this logic all Gauss had to do was multiply 50 by 101 and get his answer of 5,050. Gauss was bound to the mathematics field when at the age of 14, Gauss met the Duke of Brunswick. The duke was so astounded by Gauss’ photographic memory that he financially supported him through his studies at Caroline College and other universities afterwards. A major feat that Gauss had while he was enrolled college helped him decide that he wanted to focus on studying mathematics as opposed to languages. Besides his life of math, Gauss also had six children, three with Johanna Osthoff and three with his first deceased wife’s best fri...
[4] Nolan, Deborah. Women in Mathematics: Scaling the Heights. The Mathematical Association of America, 1997
Burton, D. (2011). The History of Mathematics: An Introduction. (Seventh Ed.) New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.