Timeline for Gauss's views on pure mathematics
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
22 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2, 2021 at 17:44 | comment | added | Hollis Williams | @Michael Whoosh, straight over. | |
| Sep 28, 2013 at 18:17 | comment | added | user36539 | we can also feel this doubt regarding pure mathematics in J. Von neumann. see fractus.uson.mx/Papers/CERME4/Papers%20definitius/13/… | |
| Apr 24, 2012 at 10:55 | answer | added | Franz Lemmermeyer | timeline score: 13 | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 14:50 | comment | added | Michael Renardy | Gauss took up a position at the University of Goettingen in 1807, after the Duke's death. It does not seem like he ever had economic difficulties. The basis of the Wikipedia statement might be that the university expected more applied research from Gauss, or perhaps that Gauss believed it to be so. But I am speculating here. While on the Duke's stipend, Gauss had no specified duties. | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 14:34 | comment | added | Igor Rivin | As for the Duke's travails -- did Gauss actually ever have economic difficulties? I hadn't heard of any... | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 13:04 | answer | added | Papiro | timeline score: 4 | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 8:51 | comment | added | Harry Gindi | @Michael, way to miss the joke =\. | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 8:38 | answer | added | Charles Matthews | timeline score: 26 | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 5:17 | comment | added | Marty | Can anyone find and read Gauss's letter to Zimmerman, published around or a bit after 1801 (when the Duke raised his stipend)? It should be in the collected works, but my German is nicht so gut. One website summarizes a sentence of Gauss's along the lines of "I haven't earned the extra stipend because I haven't done something useful". I'd like to see the original sentence from the letter, which might shed light on the questionable source for the Wiki article. | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 2:20 | comment | added | Will Jagy | @Michael, I like my version better. | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 1:45 | comment | added | Michael Renardy | Gauss attended the University of Goettingen, but his doctorate was conferred later by the University of Helmstedt. That is what the reference to a doctorate "in absentia" is about. | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 1:35 | comment | added | Michael Renardy | It seems curious that Wikipedia does not mention that the Duke was killed in battle in 1806 and his successor was forced into exile. Gauss' doubts about the security of the arrangement thus turned out to be well founded, for reasons which had nothing to do with pure versus applied mathematics. | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 1:07 | comment | added | Will Jagy | If you click on "edit" for the section on his middle years, it does mention problems about "unsourced comments." I think it likely that the principal writer for that section was not a mathematician, but not necessarily an astronomer either. Just someone who got their training in the history of science in Absentia, which is near Barcelona. | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 1:05 | answer | added | user1241 | timeline score: 2 | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 0:56 | answer | added | José Hdz. Stgo. | timeline score: 7 | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 0:39 | comment | added | Mariano Suárez-Álvarez | If one could get a doctorate for work in absentia, many more people would be doctors! ;P | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 0:30 | comment | added | Will Jagy | The wikipedia entry has other errors, it says "his 1799 doctorate in absentia" whereas the doctorate was actually in mathematics. | |
| Apr 22, 2012 at 23:13 | answer | added | Igor Rivin | timeline score: 10 | |
| Apr 22, 2012 at 23:09 | comment | added | Igor Rivin | The wikipedia article on "pure mathematics" says something opposite. | |
| Apr 22, 2012 at 23:05 | comment | added | klasdi | Yes, that were my thoughts too. But then if we come up with good evidence this quote should probably be deleted from Wiki. I've seen other people refer to this in conversations on the internet ... | |
| Apr 22, 2012 at 22:56 | comment | added | Yemon Choi | Even speaking of the "pure vs. applied" distinction seems rather ahistorical to me... | |
| Apr 22, 2012 at 22:50 | history | asked | klasdi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |