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Incomplete Proof
This page lists notable examples of incomplete published mathematical proofs. Most of these were accepted as correct for several years but later discovered to contain gaps. There are both examples where a complete proof was later found and where the alleged result turned out to be false. Results later proved rigorously * Euclid's ''Elements''. Euclid's proofs are essentially correct, but strictly speaking sometimes contain gaps because he tacitly uses some unstated assumptions, such as the existence of intersection points. In 1899 David Hilbert gave a complete set of ( second order) axioms for Euclidean geometry, called Hilbert's axioms, and between 1926 and 1959 Tarski gave some complete sets of first order axioms, called Tarski's axioms. * Isoperimetric inequality. For three dimensions it states that the shape enclosing the maximum volume for its surface area is the sphere. It was formulated by Archimedes but not proved rigorously until the 19th century, by Hermann Schwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems
Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two theorems of mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of for ... that are concerned with the limits of in formal axiomatic theories. These results, published by Kurt Gödel in 1931, are important both in mathematical logic and in the philosophy of mathematics. The theorems are widely, but not universally, interpreted as showing that Hilbert's program to find a complete and consistent set of axioms for all mathematics is impossible. The first incompleteness theorem states that no consistency, consistent system of axioms whose theorems can be listed by an effective procedure (i.e., an algorithm) is capable of proving all truths about the arithmetic of natural numbers. For any such consistent formal system, there will always b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Le Rond D'Alembert
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''Encyclopédie''. D'Alembert's formula for obtaining solutions to the wave equation is named after him. The wave equation is sometimes referred to as d'Alembert's equation, and the fundamental theorem of algebra is named after d'Alembert in French. Early years Born in Paris, d'Alembert was the natural son of the writer Claudine Guérin de Tencin and the chevalier Louis-Camus Destouches, an artillery officer. Destouches was abroad at the time of d'Alembert's birth. Days after birth his mother left him on the steps of the church. According to custom, he was named after the patron saint of the church. D'Alembert was placed in an orphanage for foundling children, but his father found him and placed him with the wife of a glazier, Madame Rousseau, with who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Kempe
Sir Alfred Bray Kempe FRS (6 July 1849 – 21 April 1922) was a mathematician best known for his work on linkages and the four colour theorem. Biography Kempe was the son of the Rector of St James's Church, Piccadilly, the Rev. John Edward Kempe. He was educated at St Paul's School, London and then studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where Arthur Cayley was one of his teachers. He graduated BA (22nd wrangler) in 1872. Despite his interest in mathematics he became a barrister, specialising in the ecclesiastical law. He was knighted in 1913, the same year he became the Chancellor for the Diocese of London. He was also Chancellor of the dioceses of Newcastle, Southwell, St Albans, Peterborough, Chichester, and Chelmsford. He received the honorary degree DCL from the University of Durham and he was elected a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1909. In 1876 he published his article ''On a General Method of describing Plane Curves of the nth degree by Linkwork,'' which presented a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinrich Martin Weber
Heinrich Martin Weber (5 March 1842, Heidelberg, Germany – 17 May 1913, Straßburg, Alsace-Lorraine, German Empire, now Strasbourg, France) was a German mathematician. Weber's main work was in algebra, number theory, and analysis. He is best known for his text ''Lehrbuch der Algebra'' published in 1895 and much of it is his original research in algebra and number theory. His work ''Theorie der algebraischen Functionen einer Veränderlichen'' (with Dedekind) established an algebraic foundation for Riemann surfaces, allowing a purely algebraic formulation of the Riemann–Roch theorem. Weber's research papers were numerous, most of them appearing in ''Crelle's Journal'' or ''Mathematische Annalen''. He was the editor of Riemann's collected works. Weber was born in Heidelberg, Baden, and entered the University of Heidelberg in 1860. In 1866 he became a privatdozent, and in 1869 he was appointed as extraordinary professor at that school. Weber also taught in Zurich at the Fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leopold Kronecker
Leopold Kronecker (; 7 December 1823 – 29 December 1891) was a German mathematician who worked on number theory, algebra and logic. He criticized Georg Cantor's work on set theory, and was quoted by as having said, "'" ("God made the integers, all else is the work of man").The English translation is from Gray. In a footnote, Gray attributes the German quote to "Weber 1891/92, 19, quoting from a lecture of Kronecker's of 1886". Weber, Heinrich L. 1891–1892Kronecker 2:5-23. (The quote is on p. 19.) Kronecker was a student and lifelong friend of . Biography Leopold Kronecker was born ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kronecker–Weber Theorem
In algebraic number theory, it can be shown that every cyclotomic field is an abelian extension of the rational number field Q, having Galois group of the form (\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z)^\times. The Kronecker–Weber theorem provides a partial converse: every finite abelian extension of Q is contained within some cyclotomic field. In other words, every algebraic integer whose Galois group is abelian can be expressed as a sum of roots of unity with rational coefficients. For example, :\sqrt = e^ - e^ - e^ + e^, \sqrt = e^ - e^, and \sqrt = e^ - e^. The theorem is named after Leopold Kronecker and Heinrich Martin Weber. Field-theoretic formulation The Kronecker–Weber theorem can be stated in terms of fields and field extensions. Precisely, the Kronecker–Weber theorem states: every finite abelian extension of the rational numbers Q is a subfield of a cyclotomic field. That is, whenever an algebraic number field has a Galois group over Q that is an abelian group, the field is a subfie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet
Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (; 13 February 1805 – 5 May 1859) was a German mathematician who made deep contributions to number theory (including creating the field of analytic number theory), and to the theory of Fourier series and other topics in mathematical analysis; he is credited with being one of the first mathematicians to give the modern formal definition of a function. Although his surname is Lejeune Dirichlet, he is commonly referred to by his mononym Dirichlet, in particular for results named after him. Biography Early life (1805–1822) Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet was born on 13 February 1805 in Düren, a town on the left bank of the Rhine which at the time was part of the First French Empire, reverting to Prussia after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. His father Johann Arnold Lejeune Dirichlet was the postmaster, merchant, and city councilor. His paternal grandfather had come to Düren from Richelette (or more likely Richelle), a small community north ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirichlet's Theorem On Arithmetic Progressions
In number theory, Dirichlet's theorem, also called the Dirichlet prime number theorem, states that for any two positive coprime integers ''a'' and ''d'', there are infinitely many primes of the form ''a'' + ''nd'', where ''n'' is also a positive integer. In other words, there are infinitely many primes that are congruent to ''a'' modulo ''d''. The numbers of the form ''a'' + ''nd'' form an arithmetic progression :a,\ a+d,\ a+2d,\ a+3d,\ \dots,\ and Dirichlet's theorem states that this sequence contains infinitely many prime numbers. The theorem, named after Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, extends Euclid's theorem that there are infinitely many prime numbers. Stronger forms of Dirichlet's theorem state that for any such arithmetic progression, the sum of the reciprocals of the prime numbers in the progression diverges and that different such arithmetic progressions with the same modulus have approximately the same proportions of primes. Equivalently, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Robert Argand
Jean-Robert Argand (, , ; July 18, 1768 – August 13, 1822) was an amateur mathematician. In 1806, while managing a bookstore in Paris, he published the idea of geometrical interpretation of complex numbers known as the Argand diagram and is known for the first rigorous mathematical proof, proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. Life Jean-Robert Argand was born in Geneva, then Republic of Geneva, to Jacques Argand and Eve Carnac. His background and education are mostly unknown. Since his knowledge of mathematics was self-taught and he did not belong to any mathematical organizations, he likely pursued mathematics as a hobby rather than a profession. Argand moved to Paris in 1806 with his family and, when managing a bookshop there, privately published his ''Essai sur une manière de représenter les quantités imaginaires dans les constructions géométriques'' (Essay on a method of representing complex number, imaginary quantities). In 1813, it was republished in the Frenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; german: Gauß ; la, Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes referred to as the ''Princeps mathematicorum'' () and "the greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had an exceptional influence in many fields of mathematics and science, and he is ranked among history's most influential mathematicians. Also available at Retrieved 23 February 2014. Comprehensive biographical article. Biography Early years Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was born on 30 April 1777 in Brunswick (Braunschweig), in the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (now part of Lower Saxony, Germany), to poor, working-class parents. His mother was illiterate and never recorded the date of his birth, remembering only that he had been born on a Wednesday, eight days before the Feast of the Ascension (which occurs 39 days after Easter). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Wood (mathematician)
James Wood (14 December 1760 – 23 April 1839) was a mathematician, and Master of St John's College, Cambridge. In his later years he was Dean of Ely. Life Wood was born in Holcombe, Bury where his father ran an evening school and taught his son the elements of arithmetic and algebra. From Bury Grammar School he proceeded to St John's College, Cambridge in 1778, graduating as senior wrangler in 1782. On graduating he became a fellow of the college and in his long tenure there produced several successful academic textbooks for students of mathematics. Between 1795 and 1799 his ''The principles of mathematics and natural philosophy'', was printed, in four volumes, by J. Burges. Vol.I: 'The elements of algebra', by Wood; Vol.II: 'The principles of fluxions' by Samuel Vince; Vol.III Part I: 'The principles of mechanics" by Wood; and Vol.III Part II: "The principles of hydrostatics" by Samuel Vince; Vol.IV "The principles of astronomy" by Samuel Vince. Three other volumes -"A trea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (; ; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French scholar and polymath whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five-volume ''Mécanique céleste'' (''Celestial Mechanics'') (1799–1825). This work translated the geometric study of classical mechanics to one based on calculus, opening up a broader range of problems. In statistics, the Bayesian interpretation of probability was developed mainly by Laplace. Laplace formulated Laplace's equation, and pioneered the Laplace transform which appears in many branches of mathematical physics, a field that he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, widely used in mathematics, is also named after him. He restated and developed the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the Solar System and was one of the first scientists to sugges ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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