The concept of impossible constructions in mathematics draws in a unique interest by Mathematicians wanting to find answers that none have found before them. For the Greeks, some impossible constructions weren’t actually proven at the time to be impossible, but merely so far unachieved. For them, there was excitement in the idea that they might be the first one to do so, excitement that lay in discovery. There are a few impossible constructions in Greek mathematics that will be examined in this chapter
mathematics everywhere and is still used in many ways today. Charles Hermite was born on December 24, 1822. He was born in Dieuze, Moselle with a deformity in his right foot, although this never affected his cheerful personality. His father’s name was Ferdinand Hermite; he worked in the mines, and then moved to the draper’s business, like his in-laws, but he always wanted to take up art instead. Charles’ mother’s name was Madeleine Lallemand. Charles was the sixth of seven children. When he was seven years
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin Probably hardly a shape of aviation history is part of as many legends as Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin. He was born on July 8, 1838 in Konstanz at the Bodensee. He was educated at the Ludwigsburg Military Academy and the University of Tübingen. He entered the Prussian army in 1858 and went to the United States in 1863 to work as a military observer for the Union army and observed the Civil War. Zeppelin served in the Franco-German War of 1870-1871; he retired in
. ...icated and it was formed “on a continued fraction for the tanx function.” (Constant, 2014). Later on, in 1794 pi squared was also proved to be irrational by mathematician Legendre. It was not until 1882, that German mathematician Ferdinand von Lindemann proved pi to be transcendental. According to Wolfram MathWorld, a transcendental number is “a number that is not the root of any integer polynomial, meaning that it is not an algebraic number of any degree.” Steve Mayer writes in his article
Werner Heisenberg and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle Werner Heisenberg, born in the dawn of the twentieth century became one of its greatest physicists; he is also among its most controversial. While still in his early twenties, he was among the handful of bright, young men who created quantum mechanics, the basic physics of the atom, and he became a leader of nuclear physics and elementary particle research. He is best known for his uncertainty principle, a component of the so-called