John Edensor Littlewood Research Paper

John Edensor Littlewood
On the ninth day of June, in 1885, in Rochester Kent, England , Edward Thornton Littlewood and his wife, Sylvia Maud Ackland, welcomed their first child, a little boy. Whom they named John Edensor Littlewood. John was the oldest of three children. Their second child, Martin, was successful in his studies of medicine. Tragically, he lost his youngest brother when he was only eight years old, in a drowning accident. John was professionally known as John, or J.E. Littlewood. Those closed to him addressed him simply as “Littlewood.“ Although, In his elderly years, he became known as “Jack.”
From a young age, it was apparent to John that education was important to his parents, and it would be expected of him to do well in his studies.
When John was only seven, his

father was presented with two excellent job offers. The first, was a fellowship at Magdalene College in Cambridge. The second, was the position of headmaster for a brand new school located in Wynberg, South Africa. A new country seemed like a lot of new opportunities for his family, so Edward chose the headmaster job. In 1892 the Littlewood family sailed to South Africa. Mr. Littlewood knew when John was little that he had a special gift with his mathematical abilities. He felt that any opportunity to help him expand his mind was worth taking. John was accepted into the University of Cape Town, which everyone was thrilled about. Upon arriving in South Africa, although the atmosphere and scenery were unlike anything they had experienced in England, They quickly realized that the teaching quality was less than what they were happy with for their children. The poor teaching was so bad that John even failed his early mathematics tests. Which was completely out of character for his mathematical mind. This was a very difficult time period in John’s life. Beginning as an older child into his early teen years, and even adulthood he suffered from depression. This is thought to have contributed from his most difficult days when he first began in the South African school system.
He toughed it out for about seven years, in 1900, John made his return to England. He immediately began attending classes at St Paul’s School, located in London. He studied there for three years. The acceptance into St Paul’s was the beginning of life changing events for the young mathematician. He excelled in his studies, and only two years after his acceptance, he was awarded a full scholarship to Trinity College, located in Cambridge. He began classes there in the fall of 1903.
In 1905 John was elected as the senior wrangler in the mathematical troupe.

This meant that he was devoting all this time to the studies of math, and many difficult problems. This time period is when he felt he successfully created his ‘craft’ in math. His math tutor/ mentor was the author of the famous book Mathematical Recreations and Essays, Walter Rouse Ball.
A turning point in his educational career came in 1906. He began researching under his tutor E.W. Barnes. Barnes was so impressed with how quickly he was solving each problem he was given, he was then presented with the Riemann hypothesis to work on.
The Riemann Hypothesis was first brought about by Bernhard Riemann in 1859. The Riemann Hypothesis is defined as a conjecture that the non- trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function all have the real part of half (½). It is also used for curves over finite fields. (Wolfram Mathworld) Many famous mathematicians have attempted to solve this. Littlewood was never one to regret having tackled the Riemann. He even stated “if one attempted a problem that was too difficult, then one would always end up proving some interesting related results” (Littlewood Biography.

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He went on to become Lecturer at The University of Manchester, and a fellow of Trinity College. He won a Smith’s prize in 1908, and accepted a position at Trinity. When World War I begin, he joined the Royal Garrison Artillery. Serving as Second Lieutenant from 1914- 1918. He was even a mathematician in the artillery, performing hand calculations which were needed for basic ballistic work.
After serving, he went back to his career as a professor. He became head professor of mathematics at Cambridge in 1928. This position was originally founded by his Mentor, Walter Rouse Ball. After accepting this position, he was able to work for freely in any topic of mathematics he wanted.
His hard work was never unappreciated or unnoticed. In 1929 John received the royal medal of society. The Sylvester medal of society in 1943, and the Cobley medal of society in 1958. One of his biggest achievements came in the form of book. He penned and published A Mathematicians Miscellany in 1953. This was an achievement he was always very proud of.

He continued his love for mathematics throughout his entire life. Never officially retiring until he was 90 years old. In August of 1977, Littlewood was home alone when he fell from his bed. It took almost a day for anyone to discover him. He was immediately placed into the care of a nursing facility. On September 6, 1977, John Edensor Littlewood passed away in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. He was 92 years of age.