A Strange Wilderness

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A Strange Wilderness Page 26

by Amir D. Aczel


  Courtesy of Wikipedia: 241: Henri Poincaré by H Manuel.jpg/Source: Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology/User: Sv1xv

  INDEX

  Note: Page numbers in italics include illustrations, photographs, and captions.

  Achilles paradox, 19

  Ahmes Papyrus, xix

  Alberti, Leon Battista, 69

  alchemy, 87, 104, 105, 118

  Alexandria library, 28–29

  Al Gabr Wa’ l Muqabala (al-Khwarizmi), 46, 47

  algebra and geometry, 50, 109, 113, 253

  Algebra (Khayyam), 50

  Algebra (al-Khwarizmi), 73

  algorithms, 34, 46

  Alhazen, 51, 69

  Almagest (Ptolemy), 32, 36

  Analysis of the Infinitely Small to Understand Curved Lines (l’Hôpital), 140

  Analysis Situs (Poincaré), 239

  analytical mechanics, 146

  Analytical Mechanics (Lagrange), 166, 168, 170

  Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, 19–21, 20

  Apollonius of Perga, 31–32, 36

  Apprenticeship of a Mathematician (André Weil), 238

  Aralar mountain range, ii–iv

  Archimedes, 23, 25–26, 27, 33

  Aristotle, 5, 46, 51, 74, 117

  Arithmetica (Diophantus), 35–36, 48, 112

  Arithmetical Investigation (Gauss), 152, 184

  armillary sphere, 54–55

  Arnauld, Antoine, 119, 122

  Aryabhata, 42–43

  Aryabhatiya (Aryabhata), 42

  Astronomical Canon (Hypatia), 36

  astronomy, mathematical, 173

  attraction, law of, 131

  automorphic functions, 240

  Babylonia, xvii, 8

  Baez, John C., 195

  Ba illet, Adrien, 104, 107, 108

  Banti, Cristiano, 94

  Barbari, Jacopo de’, 72

  Barber of Seville paradox, 212

  Bartels, Johann Martin, 149

  al-Battani (Albategnius), 48

  Beeckman, Isaac, 103, 108

  Belaval, Yvon, 116

  bell curve, 151

  Bell, Eric T., 151

  Bernoulli, Daniel, 140, 141, 143

  Bernoulli Inequality, 139

  Bernoulli, Jacob, 138–39

  Bernoulli, John, 139–40, 142–43

  Bernoulli, Nicolas (father), 138

  Bernoulli, Nicolas (son), 140, 141, 143

  binomial theorem, 130, 149

  al-Biruni, Abu Rayhan, 48, 49

  Boineburg, Johann Christian von, 118, 120, 122

  Bolyai, Wolfgang, 152

  Bolzano, Bernhard (Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem), 206, 208

  Book of Calculation (Fibonacci), 67

  Book of Optics (Alhazen), 51, 69

  Boole, George (Boolean algebra), 192

  Bourbaki, Nicolas (Bourbaki group), 236–39, 242, 244–45, 251, 252

  Boyer, Carl, 12, 65

  Boyle, Robert, 122, 138

  Brahe, Tycho, 88, 89, 90, 91

  Brahmagupta, 44–46

  Brahmasphuta Siddhanta (Brahmagupta), 44

  Broglie, Louis de, 163

  Brunelleschi, Filippo, 69

  Brunswick, Duke of (Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand), 150, 156

  Budget of Paradoxes (Morgan), 146

  Buffon, Georges-Louis, 163

  Cantor, Georg

  background of, 203

  death of, 216

  education of, 204

  in Harz Mountains, 200–201, 213

  Leopold Kronecker and, 205, 211, 212, 213, 214

  mental health of, 207, 212, 214–16

  set theory and, 216

  studying continuum hypothesis, 214, 215, 216, 217

  studying infinity, 205, 206, 208–11, 212–13, 214

  studying numbers theory, 204

  teaching at University of Halle, 205, 206, 208, 215, 216

  Cardano, Girolamo, 76–80, 79, 81

  Carnot, Lazare, 165, 178

  Cartan, Henri, 238, 239

  Cartesian system, 109, 113, 124

  Cartier, Pierre, 244, 246, 251, 254

  Catherine II (Catherine the Great) of Russia, 145

  Catherine I of Russia, 140, 143

  Cauchy, Augustin-Louis, 184, 185

  Cayley, Arthur, 192–93

  Celestial Mechanics (Laplace), 172–73, 174

  Cellarius, Andreas, 82–83

  Chabauty, Claude, 238

  chaos theory, 240

  Charraud, Nathalie, 215

  Chevalier, Auguste, 191

  Chevalley, Claude, 238, 239

  Chevreuse, Duke of, 122

  Chinese-number theory, 58

  Christina of Sweden, 110

  Clerselier, Claude, 115–16, 124

  Clifford, William Kingdon (Clifford algebra), 193

  complex-function theory, 240

  complex numbers, 81, 153, 195, 196

  Concerning the Hindu Art of Reckoning

  (al-Khwarizmi), 46

  Condorcet, Marquis de, 145, 147, 163, 173

  cones, 31–32

  Conics (Apollonius), 36

  conic sections, 31–32, 69, 89

  conservation laws, 168–69, 227, 232, 233

  continuous numbers, 206

  continuum hypothesis, 208–11, 214, 215, 216, 217

  Copernican heliocentric system, 82–83, 89, 92

  counting rods, 57

  Craig, John, 88

  cube roots, 42

  cubes, 23, 24

  cubic equations, 68, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 80, 220

  cycloids, 93

  D’Alembert, Jean Le Rond, 171–72

  da Vinci, Leonardo, 64–65, 73, 74

  De Arte Combinatoria (Leibniz), 117

  Dedekind, Richard, 201, 212

  De Divina Proportione (Pacioli), 73

  Delacroix, Eugène, 180–82

  del Ferro, Scipione, 74, 75, 79

  Delsarte, Jean, 238, 239

  De Morgan, Augustus, 192

  derivatives, 123, 124, 140

  Descartes, René, 98–99

  accused of libel, 110

  background of, 100–101

  Cartesian system and, 109, 113

  Christina of Sweden and, 110

  conic sections and, 31–32

  death of, 115–16

  Discourse on the Method by, 109

  finding derivatives, 124

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and, 116, 119, 124

  Isaac Beeckman and, 103, 109

  Johann Faulhaber and, 104

  Marin Mersenne and, 101, 107

  as solider, 102, 103, 105, 108

  uniting geometry with algebra, 109, 113

  using Jupiter symbol, 104–5

  The World by, 107, 108

  Description of the Marvelous Rule of Logarithms (Napier), 88

  descriptive geometry, 176, 177

  Diderot, Denis, 146, 171

  Dieudonné, Jean, 238, 239

  differential calculus, 125, 131

  differential equations, 240

  differential geometry, 154

  dimension irrelevance, 213, 214

  Diophantus (Diophantine equations), 35–36, 48, 112

  Dirichlet, Peter Gustav Lejeune, 157

  Discourse on the Method (Descartes), 109

  dodecahedrons, 23, 24

  doubling-the-cube problem, 21–22, 69, 182, 191

  Dreyfus, Alfred, 243

  Dunsink Observatory (Ireland), 195

  Dürer, Albrecht, 69, 70, 71

  Egypt, xix, 4–7, 9, 10

  Ehresmann, Charles, 238, 251

  Einhorn, Lutherus, 92

  Einstein, Albert, 167, 229–32, 231

  Eléments de la philosophie de Newton

  (Voltaire), 114–15

  Elements (Euclid), 27, 30, 36, 46

  Elements of Mathematics (Bourbaki), 244, 245

  Elisabeth, Princess of Bohemia, 109–10

  ellipses, 31

 
; elliptic geometry, 152, 153

  epicycles, 32

  epicycloids, 71

  Eratosthenes of Cyrene, 32–34, 33

  Erlangen Program, 225

  error, law of, 151

  Euclid

  Elements by, 27, 30, 36, 46

  geometry of, 30–31

  postulates of, 30–31, 51–52, 152

  prime numbers and, 14, 149

  Eudoxus of Knidus, 24–25, 26

  Euler, Leonhard, 80, 136–37, 142–44, 145, 146, 147, 167

  expectations, mathematical, 141

  Faulhaber, Johann, 104

  Ferdinand, Carl Wilhelm. See Brunswick, Duke of (Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand) Fermat, Pierre de, 31–32, 111, 112, 191

  Ferrari, Lodovico, 80

  Fibonacci (Fibonacci spiral, sequence), 65–69, 66

  Fields Medal, 229, 253

  Fior, Antonio Maria, 75–76

  Flower, The (Fibonacci), 68

  fluid dynamics, 146

  fluxions method, 130

  Fontana, Niccolò. See Tartaglia (Niccolò

  Fontana) Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de, 125

  forms theory, 193

  Fourier, Joseph (Fourier analysis), 174–76

  fractals, 242

  fractions, 15, 18–19, 53, 67, 86

  Fraenkel, Abraham (Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory), 216

  Francesca, Piero della, 71

  Franco, Francisco, 248, 249

  Fréchet, Maurice, 242

  Frederick II of Germany, 67–68, 103

  Frederick the Great of Prussia, 140, 144–45, 169

  French Revolution, 140, 162, 169, 173, 174, 177, 182, 188

  Freundlich, Erwin, 230

  Friedrich, Hans. See Hanover, Duke of (Hans Friedrich) Fuchs, Lazarus, 240

  Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, 153, 154

  Galileo (Galileo Galilei), 92–93, 94, 95, 99, 206

  Galois, Évariste, 22, 182–84, 183, 185–92, 189, 229, 233

  Gauss, Carl, 147–54, 148, 153, 155–57

  general covariance, 232

  gnomon, 45

  golden ratio, 66, 73

  GPS (Global Positioning System), 8, 113

  gravity, 92, 130, 131, 133, 134, 172, 173, 230

  Great Art (Cardano), 78, 79, 80, 81

  Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, 108

  Grossmann, Marcel, 230

  Grothendieck, Alexander

  background of, 246–47

  in concentration camps, 250, 254

  elusiveness of, 234–35, 250, 256, 257

  father of, 246–50

  Harvesting and Sowing by, 246

  mother of, 248–50

  political activism of, 254–55

  schemes and, 253

  topological groups and, 250–51

  topos and, 252

  group theory, 182, 191, 224, 225, 226, 244

  Gsell, Georg, 143–44

  Hadamard, Jacques (Hadamard inequality), 242–43

  Halley, Edmond, 131, 166

  Hamilton, William Rowan, 194–97, 196

  Hanover, Duke of (Hans Friedrich), 123, 126

  Hardy, G. H., 221–24, 222

  Harmonia Cosmographica (Cellarius), 82–83

  harmonic series, 139

  Harvesting and Sowing (Grothendieck), 246

  Heath, Thomas, 8, 12

  heat study, 175, 176

  Henri IV of France, 84, 85, 86

  Hilbert, David, 93, 216, 226, 228, 230–32

  Hippasus of Metapontum, 18–19

  Hooke, Robert, 132, 138

  Horologium Oscillarium (Huygens), 123

  House of Wisdom, 46, 47, 48

  Hugo, Victor, 190

  Humboldt, Alexander von, 156

  Husson, Raoul, 236

  Huygens, Christiaan, 123, 126, 132

  Hypatia, 35, 36–37

  hyperbolas, 31

  hyperbolic geometry, 152, 153

  hypergeometric series, 222

  Iamblichus, 9

  Ibn Qurra, Thabit, 41

  Ibn Sina (Avicenna), 48

  Ibn Yunus, 49, 88

  icosahedrons, 23, 24

  imaginary numbers, 50, 81, 137

  inclined planes, 79

  Indica (al-Biruni), 48

  Infinite Hotel, 93–94, 206

  infinite series, 132, 139, 149, 150, 212

  infinite sets, 93–94

  infinitesimal calculus, 124

  Infinity and the Unconscious: An Essay on Georg Cantor (Charraud), 215

  infinity study, 205, 206, 208–11, 212–13

  Inquisition, 94, 95, 101, 107, 108, 206

  integral calculus, 25, 27, 91, 92, 131, 139

  intercept theorem, 6

  invariants, 228, 229, 232, 233

  irrational numbers, 19, 68, 202, 212

  Jacobi, Carl Gustav, 186

  Jantar Mantar observatory, 43, 44

  Johannes of Palermo, 68

  al-Karkhi, 48

  al-Kashi, Jamshid, 52–53

  Keill, John, 126

  Kepler, Johannes, 24, 89–92, 90, 91, 130

  Key to Arithmetic (al-Kashi), 53

  Khayyam, Omar, 46, 50, 51

  al-Khwarizmi, Mohammad ibn, 46–47, 65, 66, 67, 73

  Kitab al-Tafhim (al-Biruni), 49

  Klein, Felix (Klein bottle), 224–27, 225, 232, 240

  Koenig, Jules C., 216

  Kovalevskaya, Sofia, 202

  Kronecker, Leopold, 202, 205, 206, 211, 212, 214

  Kublai Khan, 59, 60

  Kummer, Ernst Eduard, 206

  Lacroix, Sylvestre, 187–88

  Lagrange, Joseph (Lagrangian function), 166–70, 168, 179, 232, 233

  Laplace, Pierre-Simon (Laplacian operator), 171–74, 172, 179

  La Rochelle siege, 108, 109, 120

  Last Supper (da Vinci), 73

  Last Thoughts (Poincaré), 240–41

  Lavoisier, Antoine, 169, 170

  Laws of Thought (Boole), 192

  least-squares method, 150, 164

  Legendre, Adrien-Marie, 164, 179

  Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 123

  background of, 116

  calculus and, 122, 124–26

  Cartesian system and, 124

  Christiaan Huygens and, 123, 126

  Christopher Wren and, 122

  conic sections and, 31–32

  De Arte Combinatoria by, 117

  death of, 127

  De Principio Individui thesis of, 117

  derivatives and, 123

  Duke of Hanover and, 123, 126

  Henry Oldenburg and, 123

  inventions of, 120

  Isaac Newton and, 114–15, 124–26, 133, 134, 135

  Jacob Bernoulli and, 139

  Johann Christian von Boineburg and, 118, 120, 122

  John Bernoulli and, 139, 140

  John Pell and, 122

  monads and, 117

  Nature’s Testimony Against the Atheists by, 119

  New Methods for Finding Maxima and Minima by, 125

  Philosopher’s Creed by, 123

  philosophy of, 118, 119

  in politics, 118

  religious-unification plan of, 120–22, 127

  René Descartes and, 116, 119, 124

  Robert Boyle and, 122

  studying areas, 92, 123

  Theoria Motus Abstracti by, 119

  Theoria Motus Concreti by, 119

  Leonard of Pisa. See Fibonacci (Fibonacci spiral, sequence) Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 243

  Lévy, Paul, 242

  l’Hôpital, Marquis de, 139, 140, 163

  Liberty Leading the People (Delacroix), 180–82

  Lie, Sophus (Lie groups), 168, 194, 197, 229, 233

  linear proportion, 71

  linear transformations, 193

  Liouville, Joseph, 191

  Li Zhi, 59–61

  logarithms, 87, 88

  Lorentz, Hendrik (Lorentz group), 229

  Louis Philippe of Orleans, 182, 186, 187

  Louis XIII
of France, 108, 120

  Louis XIV of France, 120–22, 121, 161, 162

  Louis XVI of France, 169, 170

  magic squares, 56–57, 70

  al-Mamun, 45–46

  Mandelbrojt, Szolem, 242

  Mathematical Analysis of Logic (Boole), 192

  Mathematical Canon (Viète), 84

  Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Newton), 132–33, 134

  Mathematician’s Apology (Hardy), 223

  matrices theory, 192, 193

  Melencolia I (Dürer), 70

  Mercator, Nicholas, 132

  Mersenne, Marin, 101, 107–8

  Method of Mechanical Theorems

  (Archimedes), 33

  metric system, 164–65

  Minkowski, Hermann, 228, 229

  Mittag-Leffler, Gosta, 214

  Möbius strip, 225

  Mochus, 10

  Moerbeke, Willem van, 79

  Mögling, Daniel, 104

  monads, 117

  Monge, Gaspard, 176–79, 178

 

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