19 TH

CENTURY
■19th century saw an unprecedented
increase in the breadth and complexity
of mathematical concepts.
■France and Germany were caught up in
the age of revolution which swept
Europe in the late 18th century, but the
two countries treated mathematics quite
differently.
 NAPOLEON
■Emphasized the practical usefulness of
mathematics and his reforms and military
ambitions gave French mathematics a big
boost, as exemplified by the “THE
THREE L’s”, LAGRANGE,
LAPLACE and LEGENDRE.
 JOSEPH FOURIER
■ He study of finite sums in which the terms are
trigonometric functions were another important advance in
mathematical analysis.
■ Periodic functions that can be expressed as the sum of
finite series of sines and cosines are known today as
FOURIER SERIES.
■ He also contributed towards defining exact what is meant
by a function, although the definition that is found in texts
today- defining it in terms of a correspondence between
elements of the domain and the range.
THE FOURER SERIES
 JEAN-ROBERT ARGAND
■Published his paper on how complex
numbers (of the form a+bi, where i is √-1)
could be represented on geometric
diagrams and manipulated using
trigonometry and vectors, known as
Argand Diagrams.
 EVARISTE GALOIS
■ He proved in the late 1820’s that there is no
general algebraic methods for solving polynomial
equations of any degree greater than four.
■ Galois’ work also laid the groundwork for further
development such as the beginnings of the field of
abstract algebra, including areas like algebraic
geometry, group theory, rings, fields, modules,
vectors spaces and non-commutative algebra.
 CARL FRIEDRICH GAUSS
■ Sometimes called the “Prince of Mathematics”.
■ He touched on many different parts of the mathematical
world, including geometry, number theory, calculus, algebra
and probability.
■ He is widely regarded as one of the three greatest
mathematicians of all times, along with Archimedes and
Newton.
■ He also claimed to have investigated a kind of non-Euclidean
geometry using curved space but, unwillingly to court
controversy, he decided not to pursue or publish any of these
avant-garde ideas.
EUCLIDEAN, hyperbolic and
elliptic geometry
 BERNHARD RIEMANN
■ He worked on a different kind of non-Euclidean geometry
called elliptic geometry, as well as on a generalized theory
of all the different types of geometry.
■ His exploration of the zeta function in multidimensional
complex numbers revealed an unexpected link with the
distribution of prime numbers, and his famous Riemann
Hypothesis, still unproven after 150 years, remains one of
the world’s great unsolved mathematical mysteries and the
testing ground for new generations of mathematicians.
 CHARLES BABBAGE
■ He designed a machine that could automatically
perform computations based on a program of
instructions stored on cards or tape.
■ His large “Difference Engine” of 1823 was able to
calculate logarithms and trigonometric functions,
and was the true forerunner of the modern
electronic computer.
 GEORGE PEACOCK
■ He is usually credited with the invention of symbolic
algebra, and the extension of the scope of algebra
beyond the ordinary systems of numbers. This
recognition of the possible existence of non-
arithmetical algebras was an important stepping
stone toward future developments in abstract
algebra.
 GEORGE BOOLE
■ He devised an algebra (now called Boolean
algebra or Boolean logic), in which the only
operators were AND, OR and NOT, and which
could be applied to the solutions of logical
problems and mathematical functions.
■ He also described a kind of binary system which
used just two objects, “on” and “off” (or “true” and
“false”, 0 and 1, etc.), in which, famously, 1+1=1.
 WILLIAM HAMILTON
■ He extended the concept of number and algebra, whose
1843 theory of quaternions (a 4-dimensional number
system, where a quantity representing a 3-dimensional
rotation can be described by just an angle and a vector).
■ Later, Hermann Grassmann generalized quaternions,
provided the first example of a non-commulative algebra
(i.e. one in which a x b does not always equal b x a), and
showed that several different consistent algebras may be
derived by choosing different sets of axioms.
HAMILTON QUATERNION
 ARTHUR CAYLEY
■ He extended Hamilton’s quaternions and developed
the octonions.
■ He was one of the most prolific mathematicians in
history.
■ A pioneer of modern group theory, matrix algebra,
the theory of higher singularities, and higher
dimensional geometry (anticipating the later ideas of
Klein), as well as the theory of invariants.
■Throughout the 19th century,
mathematics in general became ever
more complex and abstract. But it also
saw a re-visiting of some older
methods and an emphasis on
mathematical rigour.
 BERNHARD BOLZANO
■ Earliest mathematicians to begin instilling rigour
into mathematical analysis, as well as giving first
purely analytic proof of booth the fundamental
theorem of algebra and the intermediate value
theorem, and early consideration of sets (collections
of objects defined by a common property, such as
“all numbers greater than 7” or “all right
triangles”, etc.
 KARL WEIERSTRASS
■ He discovered the theoretical existence of a continuous
function having no derivative (in other words, a continuous
curve possessing no tangent at any of its points).
■ He saw the need for a rigorous “arithmetization” of calculus,
from which all the basic concepts of analysis could be derived.
■ Along with Riemann and Augustin-Louis Cauchy, Weierstrass
completely reformulated calculus in an even more rigorous
fashion, leading to the development of mathematical analysis,
a branch of pure mathematics largely concerened with notion
of limits.
 In 1845
■ Cauchy proved Cauchy’s theorem, a fundamental
theorem of group theory, which he discovered
while examining permutations group.
■ Carl Jacobi also made contributions to analysis,
determinants and matrices, and especially his theory
of periodic functions and elliptic functions and their
relation to the elliptic theta function.
AUGUST FERDINAND MOBIUS
■ Best known for his 1858 discovery of the Mobius
strip, a non-orientable two-dimensional surface
which has only one side when embedded in three-
dimensional Euclidean space (actually a German,
Johann Benedict Listing, devised the same object
just a couple of months before Mobius, but it has
come to hold Mobius name).
■ He also introduced homogeneous coordinates and
discussed geometric and projective transformations.
NON-ORIANTABLE surfaces with no
identifiable “inner” and “outer” sides
 FELIX KLEIN
■ Pursued more developments in non-Euclidean
geometry, include the Klein bottle, a one sided
closed surface which cannot be embedded in the
three-dimensional Euclidean space, only in four or
more dimensions.
■ Can be visualized as a cylinder looped back through
itself to join with its other end from the “inside”.
 MARIUS SOPHUS LIE
■He largely created the theory of
continuous symmetry, and applied it to
the geometric theory of differential
equations by means of continuous groups
of transformation known as Lie group.
 NICCOLO PAGANINI
■ An unknown 16-years old Italian.
■ He discovered the second smallest pair of
amicable numbers (1, 184 and 1,210), which
had been completely overlooked by some of
the greatest mathematicians in history.
 GEORGE CANTOR
■ He established the first foundations of set theory,
which enabled the rigorous treatment of the notion
of infinity, and which has since become the
common language of nearly all mathematics.
■ He explored new mathematical worlds where there
were many different infinities, some of which were
larger than others.
 RICHARD DEDEKIND
■ He extended Cantor’s work on set theory, he defined
concepts such as similar sets and infinite sets.
■ He showed that any irrational number divides the
rational numbers into two classes or sets, the upper class
being strictly greater than all the members of the other
lower class.
■ Thus, every location on the number line continuum
contains either a rational or an irrational number, with no
empty locations, gaps or discontinuities.
 JOHN VENN (1881)
■He introduced his “Venn Diagrams”
which become useful and ubiquitous
tools in set theory.
John Venn Diagram
HERMANN MINKOWSKI
■ He developed a branch of number theory called the
“Geometry of Numbers” late in the 19th century as a
geometrical method in multidimensional space for solving
number theory problems, involving complex concepts
such as convex sets, lattice points and vector space.
■ In 1907, Minkowski who realized that the Einstein’s 1905
special theory of relativity could be best understood in a
four-dimensional space, often referred to as Minkowski
space-time.
Minowski space-time
 GOTTLOB FREGE’S
■ He was the first to explicitly introduce the notion
of variables in logical statements, as well as the
notions of quantifiers, universals and existential.
■ He extended Boole’s “propositional logic” into a
new “predicate logic” and, in so doing, set the
stage for the radical advances of Guiseppe Peano,
Bertrand Russell and David Hilbert in the early 20th
century.
 HENRI POINCARE
■ A partial solution to the “three body problem”, a
deceptively simple problem which had stubbornly resisted
resolution since the time of Newton,
■ His solution actually proved to be erroneous, its
implications led to the early intimations of what would later
become known as chaos theory.
■ He was also an engineer and a polymath, and perhaps the
last of the great mathematicians to adhere to an older
conceptions of mathematics, which championed a faith
human intuition over rigour and formalism.
Thank
you…