Paul Mansion (3 June 1844 – 16 April 1919) was a Belgian
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 ...
, editor of the journal ''
Mathesis''.
Life and work
Mansion was the ninth of the ten brothers. His father died when he was only a baby and he was brought up by his mother and his older brothers. He studied at
Huy
Huy ( or ; nl, Hoei, ; wa, Hu) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the ''sillon industriel'', the former industrial ...
school and high school. In 1862 he entered in the ''École Normale des Sciences'', attached to 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 ...
, where he graduated in 1865. From this time till 1867 he taught mathematics in the artillery academy in
Ghent
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...
, while he was working in his doctoral thesis. He was awarded PhD in 1867.
In 1867, after the death of his professor Mathias Schaar, he was appointed to the chair of calculus at the university of Ghent. He remained there until he was appointed to the chair of probability in 1892. Also, from 1884, he taught the history of mathematics.
In 1874, with
Eugene Catalan, he founded the journal ''Nouvelle Correspondence Mathématique'', and in 1880, with
Joseph Neuberg, he founded the journal ''
Mathesis''.
The works of Mansion, deal mainly with
non-Euclidean geometry
In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
,
history of mathematics
The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments ...
, and
differential equation
In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...
s. He published 349 works in very different journals.
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mansion, Paul
19th-century Belgian mathematicians
20th-century Belgian mathematicians
1844 births
1919 deaths