Related papers: On the History of Number Line

The idea of the principle of nested intervals or the concept of convergent sequences which is equivalent to this idea dates back to the ancient world. Archimedes calculated the unknown in excess and deficiency, approximating with two sets…

The mathematical analysis was conceived in XVII century in Newton and Leibniz works. The problem of logical rigor in definitions was considered by Arnauld and Nicole in "Logique ou l'art de penser". They were the first, who distinguished…

Back in 1755, Euler explored an interesting array of numbers that now frequently appears in polynomial identities, combinatorial problems, and finite calculus, among other places. These numbers share a strong connection with well-known…

Geometric sequences are found documented as early as 300BC in the text, Book IX of Elements written by Euclid of Alexandria. In this paper a new principle for identities involving the product of any k-number of terms of a geometric sequence…

This essay traces the history of three interconnected strands. Firstly, changes in the concept of number, secondly, the study of the qualities of number, which evolved into number theory, and thirdly, the nature of mathematics itself, from…

We develop new aspects of the the of numerosity theory; more exactly, we emphasize its relation with the ordinal numbers, cardinal numbers, hyperreal numbers and surreal numbers. In particular, we combine the notion of numerosity with the…

The notion of two-numbers of connected Riemannian manifolds was introduced about 35 years ago in [Un invariant geometrique riemannien, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Math. 295 (1982), 389--391] by B.-Y. Chen and T. Nagano. Later, two-numbers have…

In this paper we present a new mathematical conception based on a new method for ordering the integers. The method relies on the assumption that negative numbers are beyond infinity, which goes back to Wallis and Euler. We also present a…

Chen and Chv\'atal introduced the notion of lines in hypergraphs; they proved that every 3-uniform hypergraph with $n$ vertices either has a line that consists of all $n$ vertices or else has at least $\log_2 n$ distinct lines. We improve…

Gottlob Frege ingeniously presented a purely logical definition of the concept of number. However, one can claim that his definition is, in some way, circular, as it relies on the concept of one-to-one relation. The concept of number only…

Independent to a great extent from the scientific development of the discipline, a trend for statistics has developed in France, from 1827 on. It was probably sparked by Charles Dupin's 'Carte figurative de l'instruction populaire', with…

This article provides a historical overview of Geometry of Numbers. 1. Figures, 2. The circuit problem and its relatives, 3. Minkowski lattice point set, 4. The young Hermann Minkowski, 5. The geometry of numbers develops, 6. Minkowski…

Translated from the Latin original, "De numeris amicabilibus" (1747). E100 in the Enestroem index. Euler starts by saying that with the success of mathematical analysis, number theory has been neglected. He argues that number theory is…

The continuum has been one of the most controversial topics in mathematics since the time of the Greeks. Some mathematicians, such as Euclid and Cantor, held the position that a line is composed of points, while others, like Aristotle, Weyl…

We define a new class of numbers based on the first occurrence of certain patterns of zeros and ones in the expansion of irracional numbers in a given basis and call them Sagan numbers, since they were first mentioned, in a special case, by…

Translation of "Methodus succincta summas serierum infinitarum per formulas differentiales investigandi" (1780). Euler wants to represent some given series of functions S(x)=X(x)+X(x+1)+X(x+2)+etc. in a different way. He writes S as a…

The second Eulerian numbers are defined via the descent enumerator of Stirling permutations, a class of permutations introduced by Gessel and Stanley. We give a simple and conceptual proof of two identities relating the Bernoulli numbers…

Translation from the Latin original, "Inventio summae cuiusque seriei ex dato termino generali" (1735). E47 in the Enestrom index. In this paper Euler derives the Euler-Maclaurin summation formula, by expressing y(x-1) with the Taylor…

We re-evaluate the great Leibniz-Newton calculus debate, exactly three hundred years after it culminated, in 1712. We reflect upon the concept of invention, and to what extent there were indeed two independent inventors of this new…

This is a historical introduction to the theory of Stirling numbers of the second kind S(n,k) from the point of view of analysis. We tell the story of their birth in the book of James Stirling (1730) and show how they mature in the works of…