Charles Hermite | |
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 Charles Hermite | |
| Born | (1822-12-24)24 December 1822 |
| Died | 14 January 1901(1901-01-14) (aged 78) |
| Alma mater | |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral advisor | Eugène Charles Catalan |
| Doctoral students | |
Charles Hermite (French pronunciation:[ʃaʁlɛʁˈmit])FRSFRSE MIAS (24 December 1822 – 14 January 1901) was a Frenchmathematician who did research concerningnumber theory,quadratic forms,invariant theory,orthogonal polynomials,elliptic functions, andalgebra.
Hermite polynomials,Hermite interpolation,Hermite normal form,Hermitian operators, andcubic Hermite splines are named in his honor. One of his students wasHenri Poincaré.
He was the first to prove thate, the base ofnatural logarithms, is atranscendental number. His methods were used later byFerdinand von Lindemann to prove thatπ is transcendental.
Hermite was born inDieuze,Moselle, on 24 December 1822,[1] with a deformity in his right foot that would impair hisgait throughout his life. He was the sixth of seven children of Ferdinand Hermite and his wife, Madeleinenée Lallemand. Ferdinand worked in the drapery business of Madeleine's family while also pursuing a career as an artist. The drapery business relocated toNancy in 1828, and so did the family.[2]
Hermite obtained hissecondary education atCollège de Nancy and then, in Paris, atCollège Henri IV and at theLycée Louis-le-Grand.[1] He read some ofJoseph-Louis Lagrange's writings on the solution of numerical equations andCarl Friedrich Gauss's publications onnumber theory.
Hermite wanted to take his higher education atÉcole Polytechnique, amilitary academy renowned for excellence in mathematics, science, and engineering. Tutored by mathematicianEugène Charles Catalan, Hermite devoted a year to preparing for the notoriously difficultentrance examination.[2] In 1842 he was admitted to the school.[1] However, after one year the school would not allow Hermite to continue his studies there because of his deformed foot. He struggled to regain his admission to the school, but the administration imposed strict conditions. Hermite did not accept this, and he quit the École Polytechnique without graduating.[2]
In 1842,Nouvelles Annales de Mathématiques published Hermite's first original contribution to mathematics, a simple proof ofNiels Abel's proposition concerning the impossibility of an algebraic solution toequations of the fifthdegree.[1]
A correspondence withCarl Jacobi, begun in 1843 and continued the next year, resulted in the insertion, in the complete edition of Jacobi's works, of two articles by Hermite, one concerning the extension toAbelian functions of one of the theorems of Abel onelliptic functions, and the other concerning the transformation of elliptic functions.[1]
After spending five years working privately towards his degree, in which he befriended eminent mathematiciansJoseph Bertrand, Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, andJoseph Liouville, he took and passed the examinations for thebaccalauréat, which he was awarded in 1847. He married Joseph Bertrand's sister, Louise Bertrand, in 1848.[2]
In 1848, Hermite returned to the École Polytechnique asrépétiteur and examinateur d'admission. In July 1848, he was elected to theFrench Academy of Sciences. In 1856 he contracted smallpox. Through the influence ofAugustin-Louis Cauchy and of a nun who nursed him, he resumed the practice of hisCatholic faith.[1] From 1862 to 1873 he was lecturer at theÉcole Normale Supérieure. In 1869, he succeededJean-Marie Duhamel as professor of mathematics, both at the École Polytechnique, where he remained until 1876, and at theUniversity of Paris, where he remained until his death. Upon his 70th birthday, he was promoted to grand officer in the FrenchLegion of Honour.[1]
He was elected to honorary membership of theManchester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1892.[3] on the same date asCharles Friedel, also of the Sorbonne.
Hermite died inParis on 14 January 1901,[1] aged 78.
An inspiring teacher, Hermite strove to cultivate admiration for simple beauty and discourage rigorous minutiae. His correspondence withThomas Stieltjes testifies to the great aid he gave those beginning scientific life. His published courses of lectures have exercised a great influence. His important original contributions topure mathematics, published in the major mathematical journals of the world, dealt chiefly withAbelian andelliptic functions and thetheory of numbers.
In 1858, Hermite showed that equations of the fifth degree could be solved by elliptic functions. In 1873, he proved thate, the base of thenatural system of logarithms, istranscendental.[2] Techniques similar to those used in Hermite's proof ofe's transcendence were used byFerdinand von Lindemann in 1882 to show thatπ is transcendental.[1]
The following is a list of his works:[1]
There exists, if I am not mistaken, an entire world which is the totality of mathematical truths, to which we have access only with our mind, just as a world of physical reality exists, the one like the other independent of ourselves, both of divine creation.
— Charles Hermite; cit. by Gaston Darboux,Eloges académiques et discours, Hermann, Paris 1912, p. 142.
I shall risk nothing on an attempt to prove thetranscendence ofπ. If others undertake this enterprise, no one will be happier than I in their success. But believe me, it will not fail to cost them some effort.
— Charles Hermite; letter toC.W. Borchardt, "Men of Mathematics",E. T. Bell, New York 1937, p. 464.
While speaking, M. Bertrand is always in motion; now he seems in combat with some outside enemy, now he outlines with a gesture of the hand the figures he studies. Plainly he sees and he is eager to paint, this is why he calls gesture to his aid. With M. Hermite, it is just the opposite, his eyes seem to shun contact with the world; it is not without, it is within he seeks the vision of truth.
— Henri Poincaré, INTUITION and LOGIC in Mathematics, Source: The Mathematics Teacher, MARCH 1969, Vol. 62, No. 3 (MARCH 1969), pp. 205-212
Reading one of [Poincare's] great discoveries, I should fancy (evidently a delusion) that, however magnificent, one ought to have found it long before, while such memoirs of Hermite as the one referred to in the text arouse in me the idea: “What magnificent results! How could he dream of such a thing?”
— Jacques Hadamard, The Mathematician's Mind: The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field, p. 110
I turn with terror and horror from this lamentable scourge of continuous functions with no derivatives.
— Charles Hermite; letter toThomas Joannes Stieltjes aboutWeierstrass functions, Correspondance d'Hermite et de Stieltjes vol.2, p.317-319
In addition to the mathematics properties named in his honor, theHermite crater near theMoon's north pole is named after Hermite.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Charles Hermite".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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