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Posts Tagged 'Euler'

Goldbach’s Conjecture: if it’s Unprovable, it must be True

Published March 4, 2021 Irish Times 1 Comment
Tags: Euler, Logic, Number Theory

The starting point for rigorous reasoning in maths is a system of axioms. An axiom is a statement that is assumed, without demonstration, to be true. The Greek mathematician Thales is credited with introducing the axiomatic method, in which each statement is deduced either from axioms or from previously proven statements, using the laws of logic. The axiomatic method has dominated mathematics ever since [TM206 or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com].

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Euler’s Product: the Golden Key

Published January 28, 2021 Occasional Leave a Comment
Tags: Analysis, Euler

The Golden Key

The Basel problem was solved by Leonhard Euler in 1734 [see previous post]. His line of reasoning was ingenious, with some daring leaps of logic. The Basel series is a particular case of the much more general zeta function, which is at the core of the Riemann hypothesis, the most important unsolved problem in mathematics.

Euler treated the Taylor series for ${\sin x}$ as a polynomial of infinite degree. He showed that it could also be expressed as an infinite product, arriving at the result

$\displaystyle \frac{\sin x}{x} = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} (-1)^{n} \frac{x^{2n}}{(2n+1)!} = \prod_{n=1}^{\infty} \left( 1 - \frac{x^{2} }{(n\pi)^2} \right) \nonumber \ \ \ \ \ (1)$

This enabled him to deduce the remarkable result

$\displaystyle \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n^2} = \left( \frac{1}{1^2} + \frac{1}{2^2} + \frac{1}{3^2} + \frac{1}{4^2} + \cdots \right) = \frac{\pi^2}{6}$

which he described as an unexpected and elegant formula.

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Euler: a mathematician without equal and an overall nice guy

Published January 21, 2021 Irish Times 1 Comment
Tags: Euler

Mathematicians are an odd bunch. Isaac Newton was decidedly unpleasant, secretive and resentful while Carl Friedrich Gauss, according to several biographies, was cold and austere, more likely to criticize than to praise. It is frequently claimed that a disproportionate number of mathematicians exhibit signs of autism and have significant difficulties with social interaction and everyday communication [TM203 or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com].

It is true that some of the greatest fit this stereotype, but the incomparable Leonhard Euler is a refreshing counter-example. He was described by his contemporaries as a generous man, kind and loving to his 13 children and maintaining his good-natured disposition even after he became completely blind. He is comforting proof that a neurotic personality is not essential for mathematical prowess.

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The Basel Problem: Euler’s Bravura Performance

Published January 14, 2021 Occasional Leave a Comment
Tags: Analysis, Euler

The Basel problem was first posed by Pietro Mengoli, a mathematics professor at the University of Bologna, in 1650, the same year in which he showed that the alternating harmonic series sums to ${\ln 2}$ . The Basel problem asks for the sum of the reciprocals of the squares of the natural numbers,

$\displaystyle \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n^2} = \frac{1}{1^2} + \frac{1}{2^2} + \frac{1}{3^2} + \frac{1}{4^2} + \cdots = \ ?$

It is not immediately clear that this series converges, but this can be proved without much difficulty, as was first shown by Jakob Bernoulli in 1689. The sum is approximately 1.645 which has no obvious interpretation.

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Euler’s “Degree of Agreeableness” for Musical Chords

Published August 9, 2018 Occasional Leave a Comment
Tags: Euler, Music

Euler-10_Swiss_Franc_banknote The links between music and mathematics stretch back to Pythagoras and many leading mathematicians have studied the theory of music. Music and mathematics were pillars of the Quadrivium, the four-fold way that formed the basis of higher education for thousands of years. Music was a central theme for Johannes Kepler in his Harmonices Mundi – Harmony of the World, and René Descartes’ first work was a compendium of music.

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Euler and the Fountains of Sanssouci

Published September 7, 2017 Irish Times Leave a Comment
Tags: Applied Maths, Euler, Fluid Dynamics

When Frederick the Great was crowned King of Prussia in 1740 he immediately revived the Berlin Academy of Sciences and invited scholars from throughout Europe to Berlin. The most luminous of these was Leonhard Euler, who arrived at the academy in 1741. Euler was an outstanding genius, brilliant in both mathematics and physics. Yet, a myth persists that he failed spectacularly to solve a problem posed by Frederick. Euler is reputed to have bungled his mathematical analysis. In truth, there was much bungling, but the responsibility lay elsewhere. [TM122 or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com].

Sanssouci Palace, the summer home of Frederick the Great in Potsdam.
PHOTO: https://www.flickr.com/photos/b_hurwitz/4064337397/

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Brun’s Constant and the Pentium Bug

Published March 9, 2017 Occasional 1 Comment
Tags: Arithmetic, Euler, Number Theory

Euclid showed by a deliciously simple argument that the number of primes is infinite. In a completely different manner, Euler confirmed the same result. Euler’s conclusion followed from his demonstration that the sum of the reciprocals of the primes diverges:

$\displaystyle \sum_{p\in\mathbb{P}} \frac{1}{p} = \infty$

Obviously, this could not happen if there were only finitely many primes.

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The Bridges of Paris

Published August 4, 2015 Irish Times Leave a Comment
Tags: Algorithms, Euler, Topology

Leonhard Euler considered a problem known as The Seven Bridges of Königsberg. It involves a walk around the city now known as Kaliningrad, in the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania. Since Kaliningrad is out of the way for most of us, let’s have a look closer to home, at the bridges of Paris. [TM073: search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com ]

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Clothoids Drive Us Round the Bend

Published April 17, 2014 Irish Times Leave a Comment
Tags: Euler, Geometry, Mechanics, modelling

The article in this week’s That’s Maths column in the Irish Times ( TM043 ) is about the mathematical curves called clothoids, used in the design of motorways.

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Experiment and Proof

Published December 26, 2013 Occasional Leave a Comment
Tags: Arithmetic, Euler, Number Theory

Many mathematicians spend their time proving results. The (very old) joke is that they are machines for turning coffee into theorems. A theorem is a statement that has been shown, by a sequence of irrefutable steps, to follow logically from a set of fundamental assumptions known as axioms.

These axioms themselves may be self-evident, or may simply be assumed to be true. Given this, the statement contained in a theorem is known with certainty to be true.

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Euler’s Gem

Published November 7, 2013 Irish Times Leave a Comment
Tags: Euler, Geometry, Topology

This week, That’s Maths in The Irish Times ( TM032 ) is about Euler’s Polyhedron Formula and its consequences.

Euler’s Polyhedron Formula

The highlight of the thirteenth and final book of Euclid’s Elements was the proof that there are just five “Platonic solids”. Recall that a regular polygon is a plane figure with all sides and angles equal, for example a square. By joining identical polygons together, we can form solid bodies called regular polyhedra. Continue reading ‘Euler’s Gem’

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