Search results for "01A55"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
The forgotten mathematical legacy of Peano
2019
International audience; The formulations that Peano gave to many mathematical notions at the end of the 19th century were so perfect and modern that they have become standard today. A formal language of logic that he created, enabled him to perceive mathematics with great precision and depth. He described mathematics axiomatically basing the reasoning exclusively on logical and set-theoretical primitive terms and properties, which was revolutionary at that time. Yet, numerous Peano’s contributions remain either unremembered or underestimated.
Historical Origins of the nine-point conic -- The Contribution of Eugenio Beltrami
2020
In this paper, we examine the evolution of a specific mathematical problem, i.e. the nine-point conic, a generalisation of the nine-point circle due to Steiner. We will follow this evolution from Steiner to the Neapolitan school (Trudi and Battaglini) and finally to the contribution of Beltrami that closed this journey, at least from a mathematical point of view (scholars of elementary geometry, in fact, will continue to resume the problem from the second half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century). We believe that such evolution may indicate the steady development of the mathematical methods from Euclidean metric to projective, and finally, with Beltrami, with the use of quadrat…
The strange case of Paul Appell's last memoir on Monge's problem: "sur les déblais et remblais"
2016
International audience; We analyze a case of plagiarism that appears in a work published in 1928 by Paul Appell (1855–1930) in the collection Mémorial des sciences mathématiques. Appell's memoir entitled Le problème géométrique des déblais et remblais contains a verbatim copy of several pages from a memoir published in 1886 by Albert de Saint-Germain (1839–1914). By tracing back Appell's last years, we have found historical evidences that might cast a shadow of doubt on Appell's full responsibility by the plagiarism that appeared under his name.
From the theory of “congeneric surd equations” to “Segre's bicomplex numbers”
2015
We will study the historical pathway of the emergence of Tessarines or Bicomplex numbers, from their origin as "imaginary" solutions of irrational equations, to their insertion in the context of study of the algebras of hypercomplex numbers.
Robert de Montessus de Ballore's 1902 theorem on algebraic continued fractions : genesis and circulation
2013
Robert de Montessus de Ballore proved in 1902 his famous theorem on the convergence of Pad\'e approximants of meromorphic functions. In this paper, we will first describe the genesis of the theorem, then investigate its circulation. A number of letters addressed to Robert de Montessus by different mathematicians will be quoted to help determining the scientific context and the steps that led to the result. In particular, excerpts of the correspondence with Henri Pad\'e in the years 1901-1902 played a leading role. The large number of authors who mentioned the theorem soon after its derivation, for instance N\"orlund and Perron among others, indicates a fast circulation due to factors that w…