Gaston Tarry

Gaston Tarry (born September 27, 1843 in Villefranche de Rouergue , Aveyron , † June 21, 1913 in Le Havre ) was a French amateur mathematician.

Gaston Tarry

Tarry attended the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris and then went to the French financial administration in Algeria . In 1902 he retired.

He was interested in mathematics, especially combinatorics and entertainment mathematics. For example, he improved Trémaux's method of finding out of a maze , solved Leonhard Euler's 36 officers problem by proving that Greco-Latin squares of order 6 do not exist, and he proved that pandiagonal magic squares of order 3n (where n is not divisible by 3) exist by constructing one of order 15. He also achieved other results on magic squares, for example he constructed the first trimagic square.

In triangular geometry, the Tarry point is named after him. He gave a method to determine the number of Euler paths in a graph and found some remarkable combinatorial identities (Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem)

Many of his results were recorded by Édouard Lucas in his books on entertainment mathematics, and Henri Poincaré was so impressed by some of his solutions that he arranged for them to be published by the Academie des Sciences.

Web links

John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson : Gaston Tarry. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .

Individual evidence

↑ You choose six officers, one from each of six ranks, from six regiments each. Is a 6 by 6 arrangement possible in which each rank and regiment appears exactly once in the rows and columns? After Tarry no.
↑ Not only the sum of the columns and rows and main diagonals is the same, but also that of the other diagonals
↑ The sums of the squares of the elements in rows, columns, main diagonals are the same and so are the sums of the cubes. He found one of order 128. He failed at the next level (tetramagic square - an example was only found in 2001 - it has order 256)
^ Mathworld, Tarry point
^ Mathworld Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem

personal data
SURNAME	Tarry, Gaston
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH	September 27, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH	Villefranche de Rouergue , Aveyron department
DATE OF DEATH	June 21, 1913
Place of death	Le Havre

[1] You choose six officers, one from each of six ranks, from six regiments each. Is a 6 by 6 arrangement possible in which each rank and regiment appears exactly once in the rows and columns? After Tarry no.

[2] Not only the sum of the columns and rows and main diagonals is the same, but also that of the other diagonals

[3] The sums of the squares of the elements in rows, columns, main diagonals are the same and so are the sums of the cubes. He found one of order 128. He failed at the next level (tetramagic square - an example was only found in 2001 - it has order 256)

[4] Mathworld, Tarry point

[5] Mathworld Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem