Nikolai Lobachevsky

Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky (Russian Николай Иванович Лобачевский, scientific transliteration Nikolai Ivanovich Lobačevskij; * 20 Novemberjul / December 1 1792greg in Nizhny Novgorod, .. .. † 12.jul / February 24 1856greg in Kazan ) was a Russian mathematician. He published the first work in which a non-Euclidean geometry is defined.

Life

Lobachevsky began in 1807 to study chemistry and pharmacology at the University of Kazan, in 1808 but moved to mathematics, astronomy and physics and studied with the German mathematician Johann Christian Martin Bartels ( 1769-1833 ), the teacher and later became a friend of Carl Friedrich Gauss. In 1811 he finished his studies.

He was in 1816 appointed professor at the Kazan University, was from 1823 to 1824 dean of the Physico- Mathematical Faculty, then from 1825 to 1835 director of the University Library and from 1827 until his retirement in 1846 rector. In 1837 he was elevated to the hereditary nobility.

Lobachevsky worked until 1855 as assistant curator of the Kazan school district, eventually became blind and died a year after his transfer to the final retirement.

Work

Lobachevsky already dealt in 1814 with the parallel axiom of geometry, as independently of him the Austro- Hungarian mathematician János Bolyai starting around 1820. Before him tried many mathematicians to derive Euclid's fifth axiom of the other axioms. Lobachevsky, however, developed a geometry in which the parallel axiom does not hold, resulting in the non-Euclidean hyperbolic geometry, which is now called also Lobatschewskische geometry. His idea was first reported on 23 February 1826 and published in the Bulletin of the Kazan University ( Вестник Казанского университета, 1829-1830 ).

More important mathematical achievements Lobatschewskis mentioned his textbook on higher algebra (1834 ), in which an independent Germinal Pierre Dandelin 1823 Karl Heinrich Gräffe 1837 developed method for the approximate determination of the zeros of polynomials of degree n (now as Dandelin - Gräffe process known), and a 1862 by Betti again discovered methods for solving homogeneous linear Diophantine equations has been described. Also represented Lobachevsky a very modern concept of function and passed a function as a mapping between two sets of real numbers on how Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet independent short of it later.

As much as his non-scientific work, his teaching skills and his organizational commitment high valuations and numerous honors brought him so little recognition was his scientific work during his lifetime. His thoughts were mathematical rather than quirks of an otherwise deserved man. Only Carl Friedrich Gauss paid him recognition and obtained in 1842 his appointment as a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences.

Trivia

Singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer wrote the song " Lobachevsky " on the name Lobatschewskys in which it comes to science plagiarism, but there is probably no relation to the historic person. Tom Lehrer himself says that he had used this name from onomatopoeic reasons.