through his university studies with any education at all, and with
the help of others he began working as a schoolteacher.
Weierstrass found this job extremely boring, and spent all of his
spare time as a frustrated mathematician, doing calculations in
isolation. In 1854 he published a paper on abelian functions (a
class of functions named after its discoverer, Niels Abel) that was
so brilliant it almost instantly earned him an honorary doctorate
degree and many job offers. He landed at the University of
Berlin, his job of choice, where he lectured in physics, geometry,
mechanics, and calculus. In 1863 he created his theory on REAL
NUMBERS, and became famous for his work in analysis.Widman, Johannes(1462–98) German mathematician who wrote
Mercantile Arithmeticin 1498, which was the first published
introduction of the + and – symbols. Although they meant
something slightly different than today’s definitions, these
symbols were later successfully incorporated into mathematics
by ADAM RIES.
Wiles, Andrew John(1953– ) British mathematician famous for
proving FERMAT’S LAST THEOREM. Wiles read about the
THEOREMin a library at the age of 10, and since he was able to
understand what it was about, he decided he would solve it
himself. Eleven years later, he received his bachelor’s degree,
then went on to earn his Ph.D., but he did not work on Fermat
for his doctorate because, as he recalled, “you could spend
years getting nothing.” In 1986 he decided to dedicate his life
to solving the problem. In 1993 he announced that he had
discovered the PROOF, only to find out shortly afterwards that it
did not work. After working for 14 more months, with no
progress, he was ready to give up on his life’s work. But on
September 19, 1994, he found it. “Suddenly, totally
unexpectedly, I had this incredible revelation.... I just stared
in disbelief for twenty minutes.” He had discovered the
SOLUTIONto Fermat’s Last Theorem, and had solved in his
“adult life what had been my childhood dream.” For his work,
Wiles has received the Royal Medal from the Royal Society of
London in 1996, and the American Mathematical Society’s
Cole Prize in 1997.
Yang Hui(ca. 1238–1298) Chinese government official and
mathematician whose books on mathematics are recognized
Widman – Yang Hui BIOGRAPHIES
Widman – Yang Hui BIOGRAPHIES
Karl Theodor Wilhelm
Weierstrass (Courtesy of AIP
Emilio Segrè Visual Archives)