Bernard Frénicle de Bessy
Bernard Frénicle de Bessy (* approx. 1605 ; † January 17, 1675 in Paris ) was a French mathematician .
As a mathematician, he was an amateur, but corresponded with famous contemporaries such as Pierre de Fermat , René Descartes , Christiaan Huygens and Marin Mersenne . In the founding year 1666 he was accepted into the Académie Royale des Sciences .
He dealt with many areas of mathematics, especially number theory and combinatorics . His research on magic squares is best known . He found all 880 magic squares with edge length 4. The standard Frénicle shape of a magic square is named after him.
He was a proponent of "experimental mathematics" as he explains in his treatise on the problem-solving method through exclusion. His solution to the proof of the unsolvability of in integers (and thus the case of the Great Fermat Conjecture ), published in 1676, came with a high degree of probability from Fermat, with whom he corresponded.
Works (selection)
- Traité des triangles rectangles en nombres , Paris: E. Michallet, 1676 digitized on Gallica .
- Méthode pour trouver la solution of problems par les exclusions . In: P. La Hire (ed.), Divers ouvrages de mathématiques et de physique, par Messieurs de l'Académie royale des sciences , Paris: Imprimerie Royale 1693, pp. 3–44 digitized on Gallica .
- Abrégé des combinaisons . In: P. La Hire (ed.), Divers ouvrages de mathématiques et de physique, par Messieurs de l'Académie royale des sciences , Paris: Imprimerie Royale 1693, pp. 45–64 digitized on Gallica .
- Des quarrez ou tables magiques [Avec Table general des quarrez magiques de quatre , pp. 484 ff.]. In: P. La Hire (ed.), Divers ouvrages de mathématiques et de physique, par Messieurs de l'Académie royale des sciences , Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1693, pp. 423–507 digitized on Gallica .
Reprints
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Recueil de plusieurs traitez de mathématique de l'Academie Royale des Sciences , Paris: Imprimerie Royale 1676 online edition of the Linda Hall Library
In it: Traité… -
Recueil de plusieurs traitez de mathématique de l'Academie Royale des Sciences , Paris: Imprimerie Royale 1677
therein: Méthode… , pp. 1–86; Des quarrez… , 209–354. -
Résolutions des quatre principaux problemèmes d'architecture par M. Blondel et Ouvrages de Mathématique de M. Frénicle. Mortier, Amsterdam 1736 Online edition of the TUB Berlin.
Therein: Méthode… , p. 1ff .; Traité ... , p. 83ff .; Abregé ... , pp. 207ff .; Table genérale des Quarrez Magiques de quatre côtez , p. 303ff.
Web links
- John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson : Bernard Frénicle de Bessy. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
Individual evidence
- ↑ That Bernard Frenicle was a civil servant at the Cour des Monnaies is an old and widespread mistake that stems from a mix-up with his brother Nicolas. See Catherine Goldstein , Un théorème de Fermat et ses lecteurs , St. Denis: Presse Universitaire de Vincennes, 1995, p. 29
- ^ Catherine Goldstein , Un théorème de Fermat et ses lecteurs , St. Denis: Presse Universitaire de Vincennes, 1995.
- ↑ Ernest Coumet, Mersenne, Frenicle et l'élaboration de l'analysis Combinatoire dans la première moitié du XVIIe siècle (2 vols.), Dissertation, University of Paris in 1968.
- ^ Proved by Kathleen Ollerenshaw and Hermann Bondi in "Magic squares of order four", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 306 (1982), 443-532.
- ^ André Weil, Number Theory - an approach through history from Hammurapi to Legendre, Birkhäuser 1984, p. 76
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Frénicle de Bessy, Bernard |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French mathematician |
DATE OF BIRTH | around 1605 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
DATE OF DEATH | January 17, 1675 |
Place of death | Paris |