Wilhelm Ahrens (3 March 1872 – 23 May 1927) was a German

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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and writer on recreational mathematics.

Biography

Ahrens was born in Lübz at the Elde in

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label=Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwer ...

and studied from 1890 to 1897 at the

University of Rostock The University of Rostock (german: link=no, Universität Rostock) is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in contine ...

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public university, public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established ...

, and the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württe ...

. In 1895 at the University of Rostock he received his Promotion (Ph.D.), ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

'', under the supervision of Otto Staude with dissertation entitled ''Über eine Gattung n-fach periodischer Functionen von n reellen Veränderlichen''. From 1895 to 1896 he taught at the German school in Antwerp and then studied another semester under Sophus Lie in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. In 1897 Ahrens was a teacher in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label= Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Mag ...

at the Baugewerkeschule, from 1901 at the engineering school. Inspired by Sophus Lie, he wrote "On transformation groups, all of whose subgroups are invariant" (''Hamburger Math Society'' Vol 4, 1902). He worked a lot on the history of mathematics and mathematical games (recreational mathematics), about which he wrote a great work and also contributed to the ''Encyclopedia of mathematical sciences'' His predecessors were the great Jacques Ozanam in France, where the number theorist Édouard Lucas (1842–1891) in the 19th century wrote similar books, and

Walter William 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 ...

(1850–1925) in England (''Mathematical recreations and essays'' 1892), Sam Loyd (1841–1901) in the U.S. and Henry Dudeney (1857–1930) in England. In this sense

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of L ...

(1914-2010) and Ian Stewart, the editor of the math column in ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'', might be regarded as his successors. He also wrote a book of quotations and anecdotes about mathematicians. He was the author of numerous journal articles.

''Scherz und Ernst in der Mathematik''

According to R. C. Archibald:

Bibliography

* ''Mathematische Unterhaltungen und Spiele'' athematical Recreations and Games 1901 * ''Mathematische Spiele'' athematical Games 1902 * ''Scherz und Ernst in der Mathematik; geflügelte und ungeflügelte Worte'' un and seriousness in mathematics: well-known and less well-known words 1904.
2002 Auflage
* ''Gelehrten-Anekdoten'' cholarly anecdotes 1911 * ''Mathematiker-Anekdoten'' necdotes of Mathematicians 1916
Zweite, stark veränderte Auflage (2nd revised edition) 1920
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References

External links

*
Wilhelm Ernst Martin Georg Ahrens at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
1872 births 1927 deaths People from Lübz People from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 19th-century German mathematicians Recreational mathematicians Mathematics popularizers 20th-century German mathematicians {{Authority control