Maurice Kraitchik

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Maurice Borissowitsch Kraitchik ( Russian Морис Борисович Крайчик ; * April 21, 1882 in Minsk ; † August 19, 1957 in Brussels ) was a Belgian mathematician born in Russia, who is known for his contributions to entertainment mathematics and who dealt with number theory.

Kraitchik was born in Russia and attended high school there until his graduation in 1903, but was unable to study there due to study restrictions for Jews. He wanted to study mathematics in France but got stuck on the way in Liège , where he learned that he could study mathematics if he passed the entrance exams. Despite his lack of knowledge of French, he was admitted. He completed his studies in 1910 at the University of Liège as an electrical engineer. Until the end of his life he preferred the professional title of engineer, although he worked as an actuary. Failed to return to Russia during World War I, he worked for the Belgian financial firm Sofina (Société Financière de Transports et d'Entreprises Industrielles), with which he stayed until his retirement in 1948. In addition, he received his doctorate in mathematics (number theory) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1923 . After his doctorate, he also gave lectures on number theory at the University of Brussels as an agregé. He was later director of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Belgique.

Kraitchik wrote several books on conversational mathematics and number theory. 1931 to 1939 he was editor of the journal for entertainment mathematics "Sphinx" ( Revue mensuelle des questions récréatives ). In 1935 he organized the first international congress on entertainment mathematics in Brussels, followed by a second in Paris in 1937. During the Second World War (1941 to 1946) he went to the United States, where he lectured on entertainment mathematics as an associate professor at the New School for Social Research in New York . Then he returned to Belgium.

In 1926, Kraitchik improved the factoring method of Pierre de Fermat , which was later extended to the square sieve by Carl Pomerance . Kraitchik is also known for a weekday formula and for the exchange paradox .

Fonts

  • Théorie des Nombres , Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1926, 1947 (2 volumes).
  • Recherches sur la théorie des nombres I, II , Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1924, 1929
  • Alignment Charts - construction and use , Van Nostrand, New York 1944
  • La mathématique des jeux ou Récréations mathématiques , Paris: Vuibert, Brussels Imprimerie Stevens Frères, 1930, 2nd edition Brussels 1953
  • Mathematical recreations , George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London 1944, 2nd edition 1953 and Dover, New York 1953, 2006.
  • Introduction a la théorie des nombres , Gauthier-Villars, 1952
  • Financial graphic tables , D. Nutt, London / GE Stechert, New York 1939

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Salomon Wininger: Large Jewish National Biography
  2. ^ Hugh C. Williams : Édouard Lucas and primality testing , Chapter 8 (Kraitchik and Lehmer), Wiley 1998
  3. ^ The lectures appeared in the Librarie de Sphinx in Brussels
  4. ↑ On the story: Carl Pomerance: A Tale of Two Sieves , Notices of the AMS, Vol. 43, 1996, pp. 1473–1485 ( online )
  5. ↑ Algorithme de Maurice Kraitchik (1882–1957) , accessed April 30, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Kraitchik, Maurice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Borissowitsch Kraitchik, Maurice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Minsk
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 1957
Place of death Brussels