Charles Méray
Hugues Charles Robert Méray (born November 12, 1835 in Chalon-sur-Saône , † February 2, 1911 in Dijon ) was a French mathematician.
Méray studied from 1854 to 1857 at the École normal supérieure in Paris and was then a high school teacher in St. Quentin . From 1859 he stopped teaching and lived for seven years in his home town of Chalon-sur-Saône. From 1866 he taught at the University of Dijon , where he became a professor of mathematics and stayed for the rest of his career.
Méray dealt with the basics of mathematics and analysis at a time when this was hardly followed in France and therefore received little attention. In 1869 he gave the first strict treatment of the arithmetic of irrational numbers, even before Richard Dedekind ( continuity and irrational numbers 1872) and Georg Cantor (1871). His work, in which he ties in with Joseph-Louis Lagrange and in which he introduces fundamental effects before Cantor , was recognized only later. His first work was followed by others on the strict justification of analysis (similar to Karl Weierstraß in Germany at about the same time ), in particular his book Nouveau précis d'analysis infinitésimale from 1872.
From 1900 until his death Méray campaigned for the introduction of Esperanto into the scientific world and in 1901 presented his concerns to the French Academy of Sciences. He won numerous supporters from the academic environment, including a. the rector of the University of Dijon, Émile Boirac. Together with him he was appointed to the newly founded Lingva Komitato , the forerunner of the Esperanto Academy , in 1905 . Since December 11, 1899, he was a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris.
literature
- Pierre Dugac Charles Méray (1835-1911) et la notion de limite , Rev. Histoire Sci. Appl., Vol. 2, 1970, pp. 333-350.
- Abraham Robinson , Article Charles Méray in Dictionary of Scientific Biography
Web links
- John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson : Charles Méray. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Méray Remarques sur la nature des quantités définies par la condition de servir de limites à des variables données , Revue des Sociétés savantes, Sciences mathém. phys. et naturelles, 2nd series, volume 4, 1869
- ↑ See Klaus Mainzer Real Numbers , Chapter 2 in Heinz-Dieter Ebbinghaus u. a. Numbers , Springer Verlag
- ^ Enciklopedio de Esperanto, Budapest 1933.
- ↑ Esperantista Dokumentaro, Volume 1, Paris 1906, p. 22.
- ^ List of members since 1666: Letter M. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 22, 2020 (French).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Méray, Charles |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Méray, Hugues Charles Robert (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French mathematician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 12, 1835 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chalon-sur-Saône |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 2, 1911 |
| Place of death | Dijon |