1832 On the morning of May 30, a young man was unconscious near Lake Glazer in Paris. Passing farmers judged that he was seriously shot after a duel, so they sent the unknown young man to the hospital. He died at ten o'clock the next morning. The youngest and most creative mind in the history of mathematics stopped thinking. People say that his death has delayed the development of mathematics for decades. This young man is Galois, who died before 2 1 year old.
Galois was born in a town not far from Paris. His father is the headmaster of the school and has served as mayor for many years. The influence of family makes Galois always brave and fearless. 1823, 12-year-old galois left his parents to study in Paris. Not content with boring classroom indoctrination, he went to find the most difficult mathematics original research by himself. Some teachers also helped him a lot. Teachers' evaluation of him is "only suitable for working in the frontier field of mathematics".
1828, 17-year-old Galois began to study the theory of equations, and founded the concept and method of "permutation group", which solved the problem of solving equations that had been a headache for hundreds of years. Galois's most important achievement is that he put forward the concept of "group" and changed the whole face of mathematics with group theory. 1829 In May, Galois wrote down his own achievements and submitted them to the French Academy of Sciences, but this masterpiece was accompanied by a series of blows and misfortunes. First, my father committed suicide because he couldn't bear the priest's slander, and then he failed to enter the famous Paris Polytechnic because his defense was simple and abstruse, which made the examiner dissatisfied. As for his paper, he thinks that there are too many new concepts, which are too brief and need to be rewritten; The second draft with detailed derivation was missing because the reviewer died of illness; The third paper 183 1 submitted in June was rejected because the reviewers could not fully understand it.
On the one hand, young Galois pursues the true knowledge of mathematics, on the other hand, he devotes himself to the cause of social justice. 183 1 In the "July Revolution" in France, Galois, as a freshman in a normal university, led the masses to protest against the autocratic rule of the king and was unfortunately arrested. In prison, he contracted cholera. Even under such harsh conditions, Galois continued his mathematical research after he was released from prison and wrote a paper for publication. Shortly after he was released from prison, he died in a duel because he was involved in a boring "love" entanglement.
After Galois died in 16, his 60-page manuscript was published and his name spread all over the scientific community.
The Father of Geometry —— Euclid
The geometry we are studying now was founded by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid (330 BC-275 BC). The Elements of Geometry, written by him in 300 BC, has been regarded as the standard textbook for studying geometry for more than 2,000 years, so Euclid is called the father of geometry.
Born in Athens, Euclid accepted Greek classical mathematics and various scientific cultures, and became a famous scholar at the age of 30. At the invitation of the king of Egypt, he stayed in Alexandria to teach and do research.
Mathematics research in ancient Greece has a very long history, and there have been some works on geometry, but all of them discuss a certain aspect and the content is not systematic enough. Euclid collected predecessors' achievements and adopted an unprecedented and unique writing method. First, he put forward definitions, axioms and postulates, then proved a series of theorems from simple to complex, and discussed plane figures and three-dimensional figures, as well as integers, fractions and proportions. , finally completed the masterpiece "Geometry".
After the publication of the original, its manuscript has been circulated for 1800 years. After 1482 was printed and published, it was reprinted about 1000 times, and it was also translated into major languages in the world. /kloc-was introduced to China in the 3rd century and soon lost. The first six volumes were retranslated in 1607, and the last nine volumes were retranslated in 1857.
Euclid was good at solving complex problems with simple methods. He measured the length of the shadow of the pyramid at the moment when the figure of a person was just equal to the height, and solved the big problem of the height of the pyramid that no one could solve at that time. He said: "At this time, the length of the tower shadow is the height of the pyramid."
Euclid was a gentle and honest educator. Euclid was also a rigorous scholar. He opposes opportunism and the pursuit of fame and fortune in his studies, and the style of opportunism and quick success. Although Euclid simplified his geometry, the king (Ptolemy) still didn't understand and wanted to find a shortcut to learn geometry. Euclid said: "In geometry, everyone can only take one road, and there is no paved road for the king." This sentence has become an eternal learning motto. Once, one of his students asked him, what are the benefits of studying geometry? He said humorously to his servant, "Give him three coins because he wants to get real benefits from his study."
Nord, a female mathematician who grew up in adversity
1933 65438+ 10, Hitler issued the first decree as soon as he came to power, comparing Jews to "demons" and clamoring to crush "the rights of demons". Soon, the University of G? ttingen was ordered to dismiss all people of pure Jewish descent who were engaged in education. Among the expelled scholars, there is a woman named Amy Nord (A.E. Noether1882-1935), aged 5l, who is a professor in this university. The lecture she gave was forced to stop, and even her meager salary was cancelled. This woman who has achieved academic success is calm in the face of difficulties because she has spent her life in adversity.
Nord grew up in the family of a Jewish math professor and liked math since he was a child. 1903, Nord, 2 1 year-old, was admitted to the University of G? ttingen, where he listened to lectures by Klein, Hilbert, Minkowski and others, and formed an indissoluble bond with mathematics. She published several high-quality papers when she was a student, and at the age of 25, she became one of the few female doctors in mathematics in the world.
Nord has made outstanding contributions to the study of differential inequalities, rings and ideal subgroups. But because of the low status of women at that time, she was not even a lecturer. With the strong support of the great mathematician Hilbert, Nord became the first female lecturer at the University of G? ttingen from Hilbert's "private lecturer". Next, because of her outstanding scientific research achievements and Hilbert's recommendation, she was qualified as an "supernumerary associate professor", although she was better than many people.
Nord loves mathematics education and is good at inspiring students to think. She has never been married, but she has many children. She keeps close contact with students and is amiable. People affectionately call the students around her "Nord's children". China mathematician Ceng Jiong is one of Nord's "children".
Under Hitler's arrogance, Nord was forced to leave the University of G? ttingen and go to work in the United States. In America, she is also respected and loved by students, as well as her "children". 1938+0934 In September, the United States established a postdoctoral scholarship named after Nord. Unfortunately, Nord died of surgery less than two years after working in the United States at the age of 53. Many colleagues in the field of mathematics are deeply saddened. Einstein delivered a eulogy at the The New York Times, saying, "According to the judgment of authoritative mathematicians, Ms. Nord is the most important creative mathematical genius since women received higher education."
Lagrange
Lagrange (Joseph-Louis Lagrange 1735 ~ 18 13)
French mechanic and mathematician. 17361was born in Turin, Italy on October 25th and died in Paris on April 30th, 2003.
Lagrange taught mathematics at Turin Artillery School before he was 20 years old. 1756 was elected as a foreign academician of Berlin Academy of Sciences. 1766 went to Berlin academy of sciences to replace l Euler as the head of the department of physical mathematics until 1787 left Berlin and settled in Paris. 1789 After the French Revolution, he engaged in metric reform, served as a member of the French Longitude Bureau and taught courses. Paris Polytechnic was founded in 1795. Together with its founder G gaspard monge (1746~ 18 18), he served as the main math teacher. He was appointed a senator by Napoleon and made an earl. After his death, he was buried in the Pantheon in Paris.
Lagrange is the founder of analytical mechanics. In his book Analytical Mechanics (1788), he absorbed and developed the research results of Euler and D'Alembert, and applied mathematical analysis to solve the mechanical problems of particles and particle systems (including rigid bodies and fluids).
Lagrange studied the equation of ideal fluid motion after Euler, and put forward the concepts of velocity potential and flow function for the first time, which became the basis of fluid irrotational motion theory. In analytical mechanics, he deduced the equation of fluid motion from the general equation of dynamics, focused on fluid particles, and described the motion process of each fluid particle from beginning to end. This method is now called Lagrangian method to distinguish it from Euler method which focuses on spatial points, but in fact this method has also been applied by Euler. From 1764 to 1778, he won five French Academy Awards for his research on celestial mechanics such as moon translation. Mathematically, Lagrange is one of the founders of variational method; His research on algebraic equations played a leading role in the establishment of Galois Group Theory.
Laplace (Marquis)
(Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician and astronomer, 1749— 1826)
Laplace (1749 ~ 1827) is a famous mathematician, mechanic and astronomer in France. Laplace is the main founder of celestial mechanics, one of the founders of celestial evolution chemistry, the founder of analytical probability theory and the pioneer of applied mathematics. He has published more than 270 papers on astronomy, mathematics and physics, totaling more than 4,006 pages. Among them, the most representative monographs are Celestial Mechanics, Cosmic System Theory and Probability Analysis Theory. 1796 published the Theory of Cosmic Systems. In the appendix of the book, he independently put forward the nebula theory of the origin of the solar system; Later, people called it "Kant-Laplace" nebula theory. 1799, the first two volumes of his masterpiece "celestial mechanics" were published, mainly discussing planetary motion, planetary shape and tides. 1802, the third volume "perturbation theory" was published. 1805, the fourth volume was published, about the motion of Jupiter's four satellites and the special solution of three bodies. The fifth volume was published in 1825, which supplemented the previous volumes. Because of the publication of this masterpiece, Laplace is known as Newton of France. It is said that when Napoleon saw this book, he asked Laplace why he didn't mention God in it. Laplace clearly replied, "Your Majesty, I don't need that hypothesis".
Laplace showed his talent in mathematics when he was a child. When he arrived in Paris in 1767, he was finally praised by J.LeR D'Alembert for his explanation of the mechanics principle, and was introduced to the Paris Military School as a professor of mathematics. 1785 was elected as an academician of the French Academy of Sciences. This year, Laplace, who has been a member of the Military Examination Committee for two years, presided over an examination to select 1 candidates from 16 candidates. This time, the choice was none other than the famous Napoléon Bonaparte. 18 17 was elected as an academician of the French Academy and served as its president. Laplace's research field is very extensive, involving mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and many other topics. In mathematics alone, he has made important contributions to determinant theory, potential theory, probability theory and other fields. Most of Laplace's research achievements are included in his three summative masterpieces, Cosmic System Theory (1796) and Celestial Mechanics (1799- 1825), with a total of five volumes, 16, which are actually Newton, Claire and Euler. Because of Laplace's important achievements in science, he is called "Newton of France".