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History and philosophy of mathematics, biographies of mathematicians, mathematics education, recreational mathematics, communication of mathematics.

9 votes

Construction of nonmeasurable sets

Here is an earlier effort of Sierpiński: Sur une propriété de la décomposition de M. Vitali, Mathematica 3, 30-32 (1930). He took "Vitali's Decomposition", that is, the family of cosets of $\mathbb{Q} …
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6 votes

Who was the first to propose a formal definition of infinity?

In the preface of the second edition of Was sind und was sollen die Zahlen Dedekind mentions another definition of `finite': a set $S$ is called finite if there is a map $\varphi$ from $S$ to itself s …
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9 votes

"Mächtigkeit" versus "Kardinalität"?

Here is Cantor's Beiträge zur Begründung der transfiniten Mengenlehre (Erster Artikel). Read the bottom four lines on the first page: ",Mächtigkeit' oder ,Cardinalzahl' von $M$ nennen wir $\ldots$". T …
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13 votes
Accepted

Are k-spaces named for Kelley?

Engelking cites this paper as the place where $k$-spaces were introduced, though the author, David Gale, says the notion was first defined by Hurewicz. The $k$ probably refers to the German `kompakt'. …
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23 votes

What are examples of mathematical concepts named after the wrong people? (Stigler's law)

The Cantor-Schroeder-Bernstein theorem was proved by Dedekind; this link is to Dedekind's collected works and there is an informative note at the end.
11 votes
4 answers
2k views

Earliest diagonal proof of the uncountability of the reals.

I cited the diagonal proof of the uncountability of the reals as an example of a `common false belief' in mathematics, not because there is anything wrong with the proof but because it is commonly bel …
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