Nathan Altshiller Court (1881-1968) was a Polish-American mathematician, a geometer in particular and author of the famous book ''College Geometry - An Introduction to the Modern Geometry of the Triangle and the Circle''.

Biography

Nathan Court was born on 22 January 1881, in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. He attended the ''University of Uege'' and the

University of Ghent Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

where he received his D.Sc. in 1911. Soon after he came to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, he studied and taught at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. In 1912 he married ''Sophie Ravltch'', whom he had known in

. Dr. Court taught at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

and the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

before coming to the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

in 1918. In 1919, he became a U.S. citizen and changed his last name to Court, keeping Altshiller as a middle name. He became a full Professor at the

in 1935 and retired in 1951. He died in Norman 20 July 1968.

Major works

* ''College Geometry - An Introduction to the Modern Geometry of the Triangle and the Circle'', Barnes & Noble, 1952) * ''Modern Pure Solid Geometry, Macmillan'', 1935 * ''Mathematics in Fun and in Earnest, New American Library'', 1958

References

External links

Biography

Digital library Document
1881 births 1968 deaths Geometers 20th-century American mathematicians Emigrants from Congress Poland to the United States {{US-mathematician-stub