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Alicia Boole Stott (8 June 1860 – 17 December 1940) was an
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...
. Despite never holding an academic position, she made a number of valuable contributions to the field, receiving an
honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
from the
University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...
. She is best known for introducing the term "
polytope In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with flat sides ('' faces''). Polytopes are the generalization of three-dimensional polyhedra to any number of dimensions. Polytopes may exist in any general number of dimensions as an ...
" for a convex solid in four (or more) dimensions, and having an impressive grasp of
four-dimensional geometry A four-dimensional space (4D) is a mathematical extension of the concept of three-dimensional or 3D space. Three-dimensional space is the simplest possible abstraction of the observation that one only needs three numbers, called ''dimensions'', ...
from a very early age.


Early life

Alicia Boole was born in
Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
, Ireland, the third daughter and one of five siblings of English parents; mathematician and logician
George Boole George Boole (; 2 November 1815 – 8 December 1864) was a largely self-taught English mathematician, philosopher, and logician, most of whose short career was spent as the first professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork in ...
and
Mary Everest Boole Mary Everest Boole (11 March 1832 in Wickwar, Gloucestershire – 17 May 1916 in Middlesex, England) was a self-taught mathematician who is best known as an author of didactic works on mathematics, such as ''Philosophy and Fun of Algebra'', an ...
, a self-taught mathematician and educationalist. Other of her sisters were notable in their own right. Lucy Everest Boole was a chemist and pharmacist and
Ethel Lilian Voynich Ethel Lilian Voynich, ''née'' Boole (11 May 1864 – 27 July 1960) was an Irish-born British novelist and musician, and a supporter of several revolutionary causes. She was born in Cork (city), Cork, but grew up in Lancashire, England. Voynich ...
was a novelist. After her father's sudden death in 1864, the family moved to London, where her mother became the librarian at Queen's College, London. She attended the school attached to Queens' College with one of her sisters, but never attended university. She was known to her friends and family as Alice, though she always published under the name Alicia.


Early career

Alicia was the only Boole sister to inherit the mathematical career of her parents, although her mother Mary Everest Boole had brought up all of her five children from an early age 'to acquaint them with the flow of geometry' by projecting shapes onto paper, hanging pendulums etc. She was first exposed to geometric models by her brother-in-law Charles Howard Hinton when she was 17, and developed the ability to visualise in a fourth dimension. She found that there were exactly six regular polytopes in four dimensions and that they are bounded by 5, 16 or 600
tetrahedra In geometry, a tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the o ...
, 8
cube In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. Viewed from a corner it is a hexagon and its net is usually depicted as a cross. The cube is the only r ...
s, 24
octahedra In geometry, an octahedron (plural: octahedra, octahedrons) is a polyhedron with eight faces. The term is most commonly used to refer to the regular octahedron, a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet a ...
or 120
dodecahedra In geometry, a dodecahedron (Greek , from ''dōdeka'' "twelve" + ''hédra'' "base", "seat" or "face") or duodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces. The most familiar dodecahedron is the regular dodecahedron with regular pentagon ...
. That discovery had been made by
Ludwig Schläfli Ludwig Schläfli (15 January 1814 – 20 March 1895) was a Swiss mathematician, specialising in geometry and complex analysis (at the time called function theory) who was one of the key figures in developing the notion of higher-dimensional space ...
before 1850 but his work was as yet unpublished, and in any case Alicia had no opportunity to study mathematics. She introduced the term ''polytope'' because she did not know Schläfli's term ''polyscheme''. She produced three-dimensional central cross-sections of all the six regular polytopes by purely Euclidean constructions and synthetic methods for the simple reason that she had never learned any
analytic geometry In classical mathematics, analytic geometry, also known as coordinate geometry or Cartesian geometry, is the study of geometry using a coordinate system. This contrasts with synthetic geometry. Analytic geometry is used in physics and engineerin ...
. She made cardboard models of all these sections.


Later career

After taking up secretarial work near
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
in 1889 she met and married Walter Stott, an actuary, in 1890. They had two children together, Mary (1891–1982) and Leonard (1892–1963). Stott learned of Pieter Schoute's work on central sections of the regular polytopes in 1895. Schoute came to England and worked with Alicia Stott, persuading her to publish her results which she did in two papers published in Amsterdam in 1900 and 1910.
W. W. Rouse Ball Walter William Rouse Ball (14 August 1850 – 4 April 1925), known as W. W. Rouse Ball, was a British mathematician, lawyer, and fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1878 to 1905. He was also a keen amateur magician, and the founding ...
(1960) ''Mrs. Stott's Construction'', in Mathematical Recreations and Essays, Macmillan, New York, pp 139–140.
The
University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...
honoured her by inviting her to attend the tercentenary celebrations of the university and awarding her an honorary doctorate in 1914. After Schoute's death in 1913 Alicia took a hiatus from mathematical work. In 1930 she was introduced by her nephew
Geoffrey Ingram Taylor Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor OM FRS FRSE (7 March 1886 – 27 June 1975) was a British physicist and mathematician, and a major figure in fluid dynamics and wave theory. His biographer and one-time student, George Batchelor, described him as ...
to
Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter Harold Scott MacDonald "Donald" Coxeter, (9 February 1907 – 31 March 2003) was a British and later also Canadian geometer. He is regarded as one of the greatest geometers of the 20th century. Biography Coxeter was born in Kensington to ...
and they worked together on various problems. Alicia made two further important discoveries relating to constructions for polyhedra related to the golden section. She presented a joint paper with Coxeter at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. Coxeter later wrote, "The strength and simplicity of her character combined with the diversity of her interests to make her an inspiring friend."


Legacy

Alicia died in
Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
in 1940. In spring 2001, a paper roll of coloured drawings of polyhedra was found at Groningen University. Though unsigned, it was immediately recognised as Alicia's work. It led to research by Irene Polo-Blanco, who dedicated a chapter to Alicia's work in her book ''Theory and History of Mathematical Models'' (2007). The pioneering spirit of grandfather and mother continued in her son Leonard, who assisted in
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
treatment and invented an artificial
pneumothorax A pneumothorax is an abnormal collection of air in the pleural space between the lung and the chest wall. Symptoms typically include sudden onset of sharp, one-sided chest pain and shortness of breath. In a minority of cases, a one-way valve i ...
apparatus.


Publications (external links)


A. Boole Stott: ''Geometrical deduction of semiregular from regular polytopes and space fillings'', Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Verhandelingen Natuurkunde, Eerste Sectie, deel 11, nummer 1 (1910), 1–24. Amsterdam, 1910.All publications by A. Boole Stott (as an author and as a co-author) with the Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen


Citations


References

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Other external links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boole Stott, Alicia 1860 births 1940 deaths 19th-century English mathematicians 20th-century English mathematicians British women mathematicians People from Cork (city) People from London Geometers University of Groningen alumni 20th-century women mathematicians