Alexander Bogomolny (January 4, 1948 July 7, 2018) was a
Soviet-born
Israeli-American mathematician. He was
Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the
University of Iowa, and formerly research fellow at the
Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics, senior instructor at
Hebrew University and software consultant at
Ben Gurion University
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) ( he, אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has five campuses: the ...
. He wrote extensively about
arithmetic
Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers— addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th ...
,
probability,
algebra,
geometry,
trigonometry and mathematical games.
He was known for his contribution to
heuristics and
mathematics education, creating and maintaining the mathematically themed educational website ''Cut-the-Knot'' for the
Mathematical Association of America
The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...
(MAA) Online. He was a pioneer in mathematical education on the internet, having started ''Cut-the-Knot'' in October 1996.
[Interview with Alexander Bogomolny]
MathTango, March 2, 2014
Education and academic career
Bogomolny attended
Moscow school No. 444, for gifted children, then entered
Moscow State University, where he graduated with a master's degree in
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
in 1971.
[ From 1971 to 1974 he was a junior research fellow at the Moscow Institute of Electronic Machine Building (MIEM). He emigrated to Israel and became a senior programmer at Lake Kinneret Research Laboratory in Tiberias, Israel (19741977) and a software consultant at ]Ben Gurion University
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) ( he, אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has five campuses: the ...
in Negev, Be’er Sheva
Beersheba or Beer Sheva, officially Be'er-Sheva ( he, בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, ''Bəʾēr Ševaʿ'', ; ar, بئر السبع, Biʾr as-Sabʿ, Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven), is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. ...
, Israel (19761977). From 1976 to 1983 he was a senior instructor and researcher at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics at Hebrew University in 1981. His dissertation is titled, ''A New Numerical Solution for the Stamp Problem'' and his thesis advisor was Gregory I. Eskin
Gregory Eskin (russian: Григорий Ильич Эскин, born 5 December 1936) is a Russian-Israeli-American mathematician, specializing in partial differential equations.
Eskin received in 1963 his Ph.D. (Russian candidate's degree) from ...
. From 1981 to 1982 he was also a visiting professor at Ohio State University, where he taught mathematics.[
From 1982 to 1987 he was professor of mathematics at the University of Iowa.][ From August 1987 to August 1991 he was vice president of software development at CompuDoc, Inc.][Linked in: Alexander Bogomolny]
software developer at CTK Software Development
Cut-the-Knot
Cut-the-Knot (CTK) was a free, advertisement-funded educational website which Bogomolny maintained from 1996 to 2018. It was devoted to popular exposition of various topics in mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
. The site was designed for teachers, children and parents, and anyone else curious about mathematics, with an eye to educating, encouraging interest, and provoking curiosity. Its name is a reference to the legend of Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
's solution to the Gordian knot
The Gordian Knot is an Ancient Greek legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great who is said to have cut the knot in 333 BC. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem (untying an impossibly tangled knot) sol ...
.
CTK won more than 20 awards from scientific and educational publications, including a '' Scientific American'' Web Award in 2003, the ''Encyclopædia Britannica
The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various ...
''s Internet Guide Award, and '' Science''s NetWatch award.
The site contained extensive analysis of many of the classic problems in recreational mathematics including the Apollonian gasket, Napoleon's theorem, logarithmic spirals, the "Futurama Theorem" from the episode "The Prisoner of Benda
"The Prisoner of Benda" is the 10th episode of the sixth season of the animated sitcom ''Futurama''. It aired on Comedy Central on August 19, 2010. In the episode, Professor Farnsworth and Amy build a machine that allows them to switch minds ...
", the Pitot theorem, and the monkey and the coconuts
The monkey and the coconuts is a mathematical puzzle in the field of Diophantine analysis that originated in a magazine fictional short story involving five sailors and a monkey on a desert island who divide up a pile of coconuts; the problem is ...
problem. Once CTK published 122 proofs of the Pythagorean theorem
In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras' theorem is a fundamental relation in Euclidean geometry between the three sides of a right triangle. It states that the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite t ...
.
He wrote a manifesto for CTK in which he said that "Judging Mathematics by its pragmatic value is like judging symphony by the weight of its score." He described the site as "a resource that would help learn, if not math itself, then, at least, ways to appreciate its beauty," and he wondered why it is acceptable among otherwise well-educated people "to confess a dislike and misunderstanding of Mathematics as a whole."
Many mathematical ideas were originally illustrated by Java applets, but most of them got later replaced by GeoGebra applications, which were also used for material added later. CTK wiki (powered by PmWiki) extends the main site with additional mathematical content, especially that with more complicated formulae than available on the main site.
Book
* ''Cut the Knot: Probability Riddles.'' Champaign, IL: Wolfram
Wolfram may refer to:
* Wolfram (name)
* Wolfram, an alternative name for the chemical element tungsten
* Wolfram Research, a software company known for the symbolic computation program Mathematica
** Wolfram Language, the programming language use ...
Media, 2020.
Published after Bogomolny's death, with a foreword by his friend Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (; alternatively ''Nessim ''or'' Nissim''; born 12 September 1960) is a Lebanese-American essayist, mathematical statistician, former option trader, risk analyst, and aphorist whose work concerns problems of randomness, ...
, this book of probability riddles is curated to challenge the mind and expand mathematical and logical thinking skills. First housed on cut-the-knot.org, these puzzles and their solutions represent the efforts of great minds around the world. Bogomolny presented these selected riddles by topical progression.
Personal life
Bogomolny had to leave academia because he had an uncorrectable hearing problem and was practically deaf in latter years.[Obituary of Alexander Bogomolny]
By Gary Ernest Davis in Crikey Math, July 13, 2018
Tribute
Bogomolny's older son David chronicled his yearlong recitation of kaddish in honor of his father, originally on The Times of Israel blogs, in a series titled, "The skeptic's kaddish for the atheist", consisting of traditional Jewish sources, religious text analysis, modern interpretations and expressions of kaddish, philosophy, theology, eschatology, creative writing, and the personal reflections; memories; and experiences of a son in mourning.
References
External links
*
Math of all types: The problems of Alexander Bogomolny
Cut-the-Knot official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bogomolny
1948 births
2018 deaths
Mathematics popularizers
Recreational mathematicians
20th-century American mathematicians
Soviet mathematicians
Israeli emigrants to the United States
Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent
Israeli American
Mathematics websites
Science blogs
Moscow State University alumni
University of Iowa faculty
21st-century American mathematicians
Einstein Institute of Mathematics alumni
Scientists from Moscow