Week 7-10

Unit 3. The Development of Mathematics: A Historical Overview: Modern Period

The Modern Period in mathematical development spans about the 17th century to the current day. This
epoch saw a tremendous shift in the way mathematics was addressed, with substantial advances in a
variety of fields.

Important developments and mathematicians during this time

17th Century Calculus:

In the late 17th century, Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)
independently devised calculus. This mathematical subject deals with rates of change and
accumulation, and it has had a significant impact on physics, engineering, and many other fields.

Theoretical Numbers:

Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) made significant contributions to number theory, particularly in fields such
as modular arithmetic and prime number theory.

Equations and Algebra:

Évariste Galois (1811-1832) and Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813) made substantial advances in
algebra, particularly in equation theory. Galois' work established the groundwork for group theory,
which is important to modern algebra.

Geometry:
Geometry was greatly influenced by Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) and Bernhard Riemann (1826-
1866). Riemann's work in non-Euclidean geometry challenged conventional ideas about space.

Statistics and Probability:

Andrey Kolmogorov (1903-1987) and Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827) made significant contributions
to the development of probability theory and statistics, which are crucial in many scientific areas.

Group Theory and Abstract Algebra:

Abstract algebra and group theory were developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth century by
mathematicians such as Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829), Evariste Galois, and Élie Cartan (1869-1951).

Set Theory and Mathematical Foundations:

Georg Cantor (1845-1918) invented set theory and proposed the concept of varying sizes of infinite,
which led to profound discoveries into the mathematical foundations.

Logic in Mathematics:

George Boole (1815-1864) and Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) laid the groundwork for mathematical logic,
which was later used in computer science and the development of digital computers.

Topology:

Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) made important contributions to topology, the study of the features of
space that are retained through continuous deformations.

Analyze the abstract:

The foundations of analysis, which deal with limits, continuity, and calculus, were rigorously developed
by Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789-1857) and Karl Weierstrass (1815-1897).

Mathematical Computation:
The twentieth century saw the rise of computational mathematics, with pioneers such as Alan Turing
(1912-1954) laying the groundwork for computer science and algorithms.

Fields of Today:

Modern mathematics encompasses several specialized topics, including algebraic geometry, differential
geometry, functional analysis, algebraic topology, and others.

The Digital Age of Mathematics:

The introduction of computers and computational approaches changed mathematics, allowing scholars
to investigate complicated issues and execute previously unthinkable experiments.

Mathematicians have consistently pushed the bounds of human knowledge in a wide range of topics
during the Modern Period. With ongoing study in areas such as encryption, machine learning, and
quantum computing, mathematics is at the forefront of scientific and technical breakthroughs in the
twenty-first century.

The Development of Non-Euclidean Geometry

Karl Friedrich Gauss was the greatest mathematical thinker since Newton. During his lifetime, he made
significant contributions to numerous fields of mathematics, including number theory, algebra, and
analysis, as well as geometry. He had already devised a construction for a 17-sided regular polygon
using only standard Euclidean instruments, the straightedge and compass, when he was a young man.
His most major contributions to geometry came from his analysis of surfaces, which was crucial in
comprehending non-Euclidean geometries.

As a surveyor and astronomer, Gauss applied his knowledge to triangulate and measure distances on
the Earth's surface and in celestial observations. He integrated findings from both domains in 1825 and
1827, categorizing knowledge about surfaces as intrinsic (based on measurements along the surface)
and extrinsic (based on how the surface is positioned in space).

To illustrate these concepts, Gauss used the analogy of two-dimensional flatworms living on a surface.
Their perception of geometry would differ depending on whether the surface was flat or curved.
Intrinsic geometry is determined by measurements on the surface, while extrinsic geometry considers
the surface's positioning in space.

Gauss's groundbreaking theorems connected a surface's intrinsic and extrinsic geometry. He

demonstrated that extrinsic curvature could be calculated from intrinsic geometry. While the flatworm
and humans could measure distances and angles similarly, their interpretations of geometry might vary
based on the surface they inhabit.

Starting with three places in the flatworm's universe, we can take a shortcut through space and connect
them with straight line segments, and the angles of the triangle we acquire sum to 180 degrees. The
flatworm, on the other hand, may argue that the sum of the angles is not constant and varies with the
size of the triangle.
In the scenario of a flatworm confined to the surface of a sphere, drawing a triangle from the north pole
to the equator, one-quarter around the equator, and back to the north pole results in a spherical
triangle with angles summing to more than 180 degrees, with each angle being 90 degrees. For those of
us who can move in three-dimensional space, the same points form an equilateral triangle with 60-
degree angles.

The study of the sphere, historically a subtopic in solid geometry, involved great circle arcs known as the
shortest paths on the globe's surface. Ptolemy recognized that spherical triangles formed by three great
circle arcs had angle sums exceeding 180 degrees, and the angle sum increased with the triangle's area.
While this system satisfied the third and fourth axioms of Euclidean geometry and even the second if
interpreted correctly, it did not fulfill the first axiom.

Hyperbolic geometry arose from the alternative assumption that there may be more than one line
through a given point that did not meet a given line. Bolyai and Lobachevski's theorems appeared weird,
yet they were as consistent as Euclidean plane geometry. The diagrams that accompanied their
demonstrations did not like those in Euclid's text, and mathematicians sought a visual representation
that would help them understand the new geometry. Hermann von Helmholz, a scientist, was one of the
most effective exponents of this geometry in both England and his native Germany. He used the
dimensional comparison to explain a manner of picturing a non-Euclidean two-dimensional geometry,
using the same thought exercise given by Gauss.

Helmholz challenged his readers to imagine a two-dimensional creature forced to glide around the
surface of a piece of marble statuary, measuring curve lengths and angle sizes. A flatworm living on the
surface of a cylindrical column, for example, would decide that the angle sum for any region bounded by
three shortest distance curves is 180 degrees, just as it is on a plane, but if the column were in the shape
of a long trumpet, the intrinsic geometry would be very different. He proposed a pseudosphere, which
was invented by the Italian geometer Eugenio Beltrami. Despite having a sharp edge, this surface
demonstrated most of the important qualities of hyperbolic geometry, a geometry that satisfied the first
four axioms but not the fifth. There were several lines across the point that did not meet the line for any
point and any shortest line, and every triangle on the surface had an angle total that was strictly less
than 180 degrees!

Ellipstic geometry arose from the alternative assumption that every line passing through a given point
would intersect any other line. This scenario reminded me of spherical geometry, in which every two
huge circles must intersect. The issue with spherical geometry is that its straight lines cross each other
twice. The radical approach was to discard half of the sphere's points and only utilize those in the
southern hemisphere, below the equator. If the points of the southern hemisphere were the geometry
and the lines were great circle arcs, then any two points determined a unique line. The first axiom has
been preserved. The third and fourth axioms remained valid, but the fifth did not, because there existed
triangles in the southern hemisphere with angle sums larger than 180 degrees.

The second axiom, however, failed because the enormous semicircles in the southern hemisphere came
to a halt when they reached the equator, and the second axiom demands that any line be indefinitely
extensible. This problem was solved by another novel idea: in addition to the points in the southern
hemisphere, employ half of the equator's points, namely those in the eastern hemisphere. When a point
in the southern hemisphere moves along a great circle arc and reaches the equator, it instantaneously
jumps to the opposite point on the equator and continues to move along the great circle arc! To make
this approach work, we must regard the point on the equator at the prime meridian to be the same as
the point on the international date line at 180 degrees longitude. The incredible thing was that this
concept worked. It was conceivable to design a geometry with great circle arcs as straight lines using
half of the points on the sphere, so that the total of the angles of each triangle was more than 180
degrees.

It's like if every pair of antipodal points on the sphere symbolizes the same point in elliptical geometry,
and we only pay attention to the one in the southern hemisphere. The geometry is similar to that of
lines through the origin in three-space, which we discussed in Chapter 7. We identified each line by the
pair of antipodal sites where it intersected the unit sphere. Thus, the new understanding of
hemispherical geometry is linked to line geometry as well as projective geometry.

This spherical geometry adjustment had some strange implications around the equator. Each point on
the equator was regarded to be the same as its antipode, which was on the opposite side of the sphere.
When individuals tried to visualize this, they discovered that they could easily connect opposite
locations by winding the equator around itself, and they could even wrap together a short strip
produced by including a portion of the surface near the equator. However, in order to do so, a twist was
required, and when humans attempted to extend the building across the entire southern hemisphere,
they failed. The new geometry worked fine; it didn't rely on being able to put it together in three
dimensions. Fortunately, by this time, mathematicians had discovered a location in the fourth dimension
where the new geometry could be constructed.

A. Non-Euclidean Geometries

Non-Euclidean geometries are mathematical systems of geometry that reject or modify one or more of
Euclidean geometry's five axioms (postulates), which is the classical geometry devised by the Greek
mathematician Euclid. These new geometries arose in the nineteenth century and had a significant
impact on our understanding of the nature of space. Non-Euclidean geometries are classified into two
types:

Hyperbolic Geometry:

The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is modified in hyperbolic geometry, often known as
Lobachevskian geometry after its creator Nikolai Lobachevsky (1792-1856). Multiple parallel lines via a
given point that do not overlap a certain line can exist in hyperbolic geometry. In contrast, in Euclidean
geometry, only one parallel line can be drawn through a point that is not on a specified line.
The "saddle-like" curvature of hyperbolic geometry means that the total of the angles of a triangle is
always less than 180 degrees. Surfaces of this curvature are often referred to as "hyperbolic surfaces."

Hyperbolic geometry has applications in a variety of domains, including art (for example, M.C. Escher's
iconic works), physics (general relativity), and even some models of non-Euclidean spaces in video
games and computer graphics.

Elliptic Geometry:

The parallel postulate is modified in a different way by elliptic geometry, often known as Riemannian
geometry after Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866). No parallel lines may be formed through a point in
elliptic geometry that do not touch a specified line. Every line will eventually cross every other line.

A sphere's surface is frequently used as a model for elliptic geometry. Great circles (circles whose
centers coincide with the sphere's center) are equivalent to straight lines on a sphere, and they always
intersect.

In elliptic geometry, the sum of the angles in a triangle is always more than 180 degrees.

Because they differ from the common Euclidean geometry we encounter in our daily lives, hyperbolic
and elliptic geometries both challenge our intuition about the qualities of space. These non-Euclidean
geometries have applications in mathematics, physics, and computer science, particularly in the study of
curved spaces and the formulation of Einstein's general theory of relativity, which characterizes the
gravitational field as a curvature of spacetime.

Introduction to Non-Euclidean Geometry

So far, we've looked at what's known as Euclidean geometry. There are times when this style of
geometry will not get you very far. Assume we're looking at a globe model of the Earth and want to
know how far it is between New York and London. A ruler will not function since it will not lie flat on the
sphere to measure length. And, if measuring length on Earth is difficult, how would you find area, even
of a somewhat simple shape like Colorado?

Geometry was originally created to measure length, area, and volume. Geometric measurements were
employed in ancient Egypt and Babylonia to measure the level of the Nile, to erect temples, to build the
pyramids, and to tax land. Geometry's fundamental objects include lines, line segments, circles, and
angles. These four things are the subject of the first axioms of geometry, often known as postulates. The
sixth and most interesting postulate in classical Euclidean geometry explains parallel lines.

What are the distinguishing characteristics of lines and line segments? One crucial explanation is that
they calculate the shortest distance between two points. This feature is used by builders to draw out
straight lines on a construction site. They drive two stakes into the ground and tighten a length of twine
between them.

To measure the distance between two places on a sphere, do the same thing: place two stakes on the
sphere and draw a tight length of string between them. This process generates geodesic curves, which
are curves that minimize the distance between their endpoints. Geodesics are segments of curves
known as great circles on a spherical surface such as the Earth. The equator and longitude lines on a
globe are examples of big circles.

The study of geometry on non-flat surfaces is known as non-Euclidean geometry. Because the surface is
curved, there are no straight lines in the traditional sense, but these distance-minimizing curves known
as geodesics will serve as straight lines in these new geometries. The geodesics are then utilized as the
basic object to generate non-euclidean circles, triangles, and other polygons.

A sphere with three geodesics.

Consider the sphere with three geodesics (solid great circles) on the right. The equator is one of them,
and the other two intersect at 90° angles. These large circles are barely visible as they wrap around the
back of the sphere, where they meet again.

The three geodesic intersections visible on the front of the sphere define three geodesic segments that
create a spherical triangle. Spherical triangles can exhibit bizarre behavior. This is a 90°-90°-90°
equilateral triangle, which means that it has three right angles. Only on the sphere can such a triangle
exist! A 90°-90°-90° triangle cannot be drawn on a sheet of flat paper. The sum of the angles of a
Euclidean triangle is always 180, and this image depicts a spherical triangle with angles totaling 270°.

Another notable distinction between Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry is the use of parallel lines.
Two lines are parallel if they never intersect, and most of high school geometry instruction is spent
toying with parallel line qualities. On a sphere, however, any two large circles will meet in two locations.
This means that parallel lines cannot be drawn on a sphere, which eliminates all parallelograms, as well
as squares and rectangles.

We shall rely significantly on our knowledge of Euclidean geometry for concepts, methods, and intuition
in building non-Euclidean geometry. However, significant variations emerge, and it is critical to pay close
attention to the 'rules' for Euclidean geometry that these new geometries may shatter.

Famous Early Geometers

Pythagoras (around 540 BC) demonstrated that the sum of the squares of the sides equals the square of
the hypotenuse of a right triangle.

Plato (about 380 BC) established the foundation for formal geometry. His name is linked to the Platonic
solids. The words "Let no one ignorant of geometry enter my doors" were etched above the entrance to
his Philosophy school (the Academy).

Aristotle (about 340 BC), Alexander the outstanding's tutor, also instructed many of the outstanding
geometers of the day.

Euclid (about 300 BC) was the first to record the postulates of what is now known as Euclidean
geometry. He was a member of the illustrious School of Alexandria.

Pliny referred to Archimedes as "the God of Mathematics" (about 225 BC). He was also a member of the
School of Alexandria. His name is now synonymous with Archimedean solids. During the Siege of
Syracuse, he was killed. He was allegedly so engrossed in his math that he did not observe the city being
taken over by the Romans.

Eratosthenes (276-194 BC) recognized the earth's roundness and was able to calculate a reasonable
approximation of its circumference.

Plutarch: "God eternally geometrizes"

Elementary, middle, and high school geometry is all Euclidean geometry. Many of the results we learn
about, as you can see above, have been known for over 2000 years. For almost 2000 years,
mathematicians have studied the properties of spherical triangles, but no systematic theory for
geometries other than Euclidean geometry was created until the 18th and 19th century. Lambert,
Saccheri, Lobachevsky, Bolyai, Gauss, and Riemann are among those who contributed. At the end of the
nineteenth century, it was recognized that numerous systems of geometry existed. We will look at
spherical geometry (sphere geometry) and hyperbolic geometry (as shown in Escher's prints Circle Limit
I-IV).

B. Modern algebra and number theory

The birth of set theory and issues in mathematical foundations

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the development of modern algebra, number
theory, and the creation of set theory marked significant advances in the foundations of mathematics.
These fields of study substantially altered how mathematicians approached and comprehended
mathematical structures and the logical foundation of mathematics. Modern algebra and number
theory are two different schools of mathematics that have had a significant impact on the field and have
numerous applications in a variety of disciplines. Let us look more closely at each of these areas:

Modern Algebra:

Modern algebra, often known as abstract algebra, is the comprehensive and abstract study of algebraic
structures and their properties. This branch of mathematics goes beyond the basic algebra taught in
schools and focuses on algebraic systems with specific features. Modern algebra's key principles and
themes include:
1.Groups are sets that have an operation (such as addition or multiplication) and satisfy certain axioms.
Group theory is the study of these structures' characteristics and symmetries. The categorization of
finite simple groups is one of the most notable achievements in group theory.

In modern algebra, groups are essential mathematical structures. They play an important role in abstract
algebra and have several applications in mathematics and beyond.

A group is a set G that has a binary operation (commonly written as *) that combines any two members
of G to produce another element in G while meeting the four axioms listed below:

Closure: The result of the operation a * b is also in G for all a, b in G.

Associativity: The operation is associative for every a, b, and c in G, which means that (a * b) * c = a * (b
* c).

The identity element is an element e in G that exists such that for any element an in G, the operation a *
e = e * a exists.

For each element an in G, there exists an element b in G that is known as the inverse of a and indicated
as a(-1), such that a * a(-1) = a(-1) * a = e, where e is the identity element.

1.Rings are algebraic structures that meet specified criteria with two operations (addition and
multiplication). Integers, real numbers, and matrices are examples of rings. The features of these
formations are investigated using ring theory.
Rings are essential algebraic structures in modern algebra that extend some of the most important
properties of numbers, including addition and multiplication. Rings are versatile mathematical objects
that appear in a variety of fields and applications. Here is an introduction to the topic of rings in modern
algebra:

A ring is an algebraic structure made up of a set R and two binary operations, addition (+) and
multiplication (), which satisfy the following axioms:

Additive Closure: The outcome of the addition a + b is also in R for all a, b in R.

Additive Associativity: For all a, b, and c in R, the addition is associative, meaning that (a + b) + c = a + (b
+ c).

Additive Identity: There exists an element 0 in R, called the additive identity, such that for any element a
in R, a + 0 = 0 + a = a.

Additive Inverse: For each element a in R, there exists an element -a in R, called the additive inverse of a,
such that a + (-a) = (-a) + a = 0.

Multiplicative Closure: For all a, b in R, the result of the multiplication a · b is also in R.

Multiplicative Associativity: For all a, b, and c in R, the multiplication is associative, meaning that (a · b) ·
c = a · (b · c).
Distributive Property: Multiplication distributes over addition, meaning that for all a, b, and c in R, a · (b
+ c) = (a · b) + (a · c) and (b + c) · a = (b · a) + (c · a).

1.Fields are algebraic structures that generalize number characteristics. Fields are crucial in algebraic
number theory and are used extensively in mathematics and science.

Fields are fundamental algebraic structures that extend the concept of a ring by providing a
multiplicative identity and demanding that every nonzero element have a multiplicative inverse. Fields
are highly organized algebraic systems that have several applications in mathematics, physics, and
engineering.

1.Vector Spaces are collections of vectors that satisfy specific algebraic conditions. They are
fundamental in linear algebra and find use in physics, engineering, and computer science.

In modern algebra and linear algebra, vector spaces are essential algebraic structures. They give a
foundation for comprehending linear combinations, transformations, and vector spaces in a variety of
mathematical situations ranging from geometry to physics and computer science. Here's a rundown of
vector spaces and their essential characteristics:

Definition of a Vector Space:

A vector space (or linear space) is a non-empty set V of vectors with two operations, vector addition (+)
and scalar multiplication (),

1.Algebraic Structures: Modern algebra examines algebraic structures other than groups, rings, and
fields, such as modules, algebras, and others.

Algebraic structures are collections of operations and axioms that govern how those operations act.
These structures serve as the foundation for comprehending and analyzing mathematical objects and
relationships.

Number Theory

The study of the properties and interactions of integers and, more broadly, entire numbers is known as
number theory. It is an ancient branch of mathematics with applications in cryptography, coding theory,
and computer science.

Number theory is a subfield of mathematics that studies numbers, their properties, and their
relationships. It is one of the oldest and most fundamental branches of mathematics, extending back
thousands of years. Number theory investigates number patterns and qualities, with a focus on integers
(whole numbers), prime numbers, and their divisibility features.

Key topics and concepts in number theory include:

1.Prime numbers are natural numbers bigger than one that have no other positive divisors besides 1 and
themselves.

In number theory and mathematics in general, prime numbers are essential objects. They are a type of
positive integer that has two different positive divisors: 1 and themselves. A prime number, in other
words, cannot be divided evenly by any other integer except 1 and itself.

If a positive integer greater than 1 has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself, it is considered prime.
Prime numbers include 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 13.
1.Diophantine Equations: Polynomial equations with integer solutions are diophantine equations.
Fermat's Last Theorem, which was solved by Andrew Wiles in the 1990s, and the Pythagorean theorem,
a basic finding in number theory, are two famous examples.

A Diophantine equation is a polynomial equation in which the unknowns must be integers, requiring
that the solutions be whole numbers. These equations are named after the ancient Greek
mathematician Diophantus, who is known as the "Father of Algebra" and was one of the first
mathematicians to explore them in depth. In mathematics, diophantine equations are employed.

● Number Theory to study properties of integers, including divisibility, prime factorization, and
congruences
● Cryptography

● approximation of real numbers by fractions

● in Geometry the study of rational points on elliptic curves

● Algebraic Geometry

● Integer Programming

● Analysis

● Research and Exploration

1.Modular Arithmetic: Modular arithmetic is concerned with numbers "wrapping around" after they
reach a specific value. It is a key part of number theory and algebra that deals with operations on
remainders. It is also known as clock arithmetic or arithmetic modulo n. It is used in cryptography and
coding theory to examine the arithmetic of integers when they are treated "modulo" a fixed positive
integer, generally represented by "n."

2.Number Theoretic Functions: Number theory studies functions such as the Euler phi function, the
Riemann zeta function, and the Dirichlet L-functions, which have profound ties to other areas of
mathematics such as complex analysis. It is essential in number theory, the subject of mathematics
concerned with the characteristics and interactions of integers. These functions are used to investigate
and characterize several characteristics of numbers, such as divisibility, prime factorization, and
distribution.

3. Algebraic Number Theory: This subfield of number theory includes algebraic numbers, which are
polynomial equation roots with integer coefficients. It investigates their characteristics and
relationships.

It is concerned with the investigation of algebraic structures related to number fields, which are
extensions of rational numbers (fractions) formed by adjoining algebraic numbers. Algebraic number
theory explores the features of these number fields and their algebraic extensions by using tools from
algebra, number theory, and abstract algebra.

Cantor’s Theory of Infinite Sets

This is not the place to go into depth on how Prussia rose to power in a unified Germany. With the
exception of Austria, the long-desired unification of the German states was achieved as a result of the
Franco-Prussian War in 1871. The new German Empire was formed by the governments of 26 different
states and one administrative entity, the seized provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. The rights of the
member states were not equal because they were all subject to Prussia in some fashion. The
constitution granted Prussia prominence and power commensurate with its area, population, and
military prowess in achieving the surprising victory over France. Not only was the king of Prussia with
the title German Emperor hereditary ruler of the empire, but the minister-president was almost always
the imperial chancellor, the head of the federal administration. Thus, the new empire did not signify
Prussia's submergence in Germany, but rather the extension of Prussian power to the entire nation.
Despite becoming the most powerful country on the continent, Germany, like the ancient Prussian
empire, was an authoritarian military state.

People have come to regard Germany's last part of the nineteenth century as a golden age of
mathematical study, and they are not without reason, as even a brief list of its university teachers will
demonstrate. Although mathematical generations and ideas inevitably overlap, the great names on the
scene after 1870 include Georg Cantor, Richard Dedekind, Paul Gordan, Eduard Heine, David Hilbert,
Otto Holder, Adolf Hurwitz, Felix Klein, Leopold Kronecker, Ernst Kummer, Ferdinand Lindemann,
Rudolph Lipschitz, Hermann Minkowski, Moritz Pasch, and Karl Weierstrass. As a result of this galaxy of
talent, there was always strong rivalry and, at times, bitter hostility in German mathematical circles. This
was especially evident in the publicly expressed reservations about Cantor's theory of infinite sets, one
of the most shockingly innovative contributions to mathematics in the last 2500 years. It's difficult to say
if the bizarre concept of the "actually infinite" sparked the violent reaction or the strong personalities of
the individuals involved. The outcome was the same.

Although Georg Ferdinand Cantor (1845-1918) was born in St. Petersburg and lived there until 1856, he
should be considered a German mathematician because he was educated and employed in German
universities. Cantor's stockbroker father had persuaded him to study engineering, a more lucrative field
than mathematics, and with that goal in mind, he began his university studies in Zurich in 1862. The
senior Cantor eventually consented to let his son pursue a career in mathematics, and after a semester
at Zurich, he transferred to the University of Berlin. He went to hear the renowned trio, Weierstrass,
Kummer, and Kronecker, speak. He got his Ph.D. from Berlin in 1867 after submitting a thesis on number
theory difficulties, a thesis that in no way foreshadowed his future work. Cantor acquired a position as
Privatdozent at Halle University two years later, where he remained until his retirement in 1913.

Cantor's earliest research on trigonometric series was influenced by Weierstrass' analytic lectures. A
series of five publications published between 1870 and 1872 demonstrated that the uniqueness of a
function's representation by a trigonometric series persists even if convergence is denied for an infinite
collection of points in the interval [0; 2]. Cantor's uniqueness argument was significantly dependent on
the nature of specific point sets in the real line, and only to a lesser amount on trigonometric series,
therefore it was only reasonable for him to investigate the latter's repercussions. Cantor's second
publication, Über eine Eigenschaft des Inbegriffes aller reellen algebraischen Zahlen (On a Property of
the System of all the Real Algebraic Numbers), published in Crelle's Journal in 1874, is considered the
origin of set theory. Over the next two decades, the requirement to compare the magnitudes of infinite
sets of numbers drove Cantor, almost against his will, to his concept of transfinite numbers and
immortality. Set theory gained autonomy as a mathematical discipline after emerging from specific
problems posed by trigonometric representation and reaching full articulation in Cantor's lengthy survey
Beiträge zur Begr undung der Transfiniten Mengenlehre of 1895 (translated into English in 1915 under
the title Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers).

In several aspects, the year 1872 was noteworthy in mathematics. Cantor set the groundwork for an
altogether new discipline of study. There was also Klein's well-known inaugural presentation as a
professor at Erlangen. Weierstrass also presented an example of a continuous nondifferentiable function
to the Berlin Academy that year. And Dedekind published Stetigheit und irrationale Zahlen, in which he
constructed the irrational numbers using his famous "cuts." The problem of irrational numbers had
existed since the time of the Pythagoreans, but no successful attempt to give them a precise
mathematical meaning had been made until 1872. They "existed" as decimal approximations, and the
logical underpinning of, say, 3 was no more certain than William Shanks' approximation to 707 places in
1853. (It took him 15 years of calculation, and later an error in the 528th place was discovered.) Cantor's
attention was drawn to these issues when he realized that an understanding of the nature of the elusive
irrationals was at the heart of his proof of the uniqueness of the trigonometric representation. Cantor
established a rigorous definition of the irrational numbers using what we now call Cauchy sequences in
his article published in 1872, the year of Dedekind's creation. Thus, during the 1870s, Weierstrass,
Dedekind, and Cantor all succeeded in establishing algebraically self-contained theories of irrational
numbers, but they replaced the limit concept with an appeal to set-theoretic intuition.

Cantor attempted to define a set (Menge in German) in the opening sentence of his famous synoptic
work of 1895. Although they were novel at the time, the following terms are no longer novel:
We are to understand a set as any group of concrete and recognizable objects of our intuition or mind.
These objects are known as M's elements.

Although "collection into a whole" is only a paraphrase of the concept of set, Cantor understood the
phrases definite and distinct. The former's intended meaning was that given a set M, one should be able
to judge whether any particular member would belong to M; the characteristic distinguishable is taken
as indicating that any two components of the same set are distinct. The inference is that a set is
determined purely by what is contained within it, i.e. by its elements.

Cantor defined the concept of set as broadly as feasible. There were no restrictions on the type of the
considered things or how they were grouped together. Because his concept was not specific enough to
prevent him from considering something like the "set of all sets," it eventually led to certain well-known
paradoxes about the infinite. These paradoxes, which threatened the very foundations of logic and
mathematics, necessitated the refinement of Cantor's naive concept of "set." The attempted
improvements in the definition were so unsuccessful in identifying the notion that today we find it
convenient to take set and element as undefined terms.

It should be noted that Cantor was not the only person who was interested in the properties of infinite
sets, nor was he the first. Galileo was intrigued by the fact that a subset of an infinite set could contain
as many elements as the entire set. He made the telling discovery in his Dialogue Concerning the Two
Chief World Systems (1632): "There are as many squares as there are numbers because they are just as
numerous as their roots." He wondered whether of the two sets, squares or natural numbers, could be
greater. He abandoned the study since it was not accessible to reason, seeing only a problem in this
revelation.

Cantor defined "as many" by taking the word to mean that there must be a one-to-one relationship
between the two sets in question:

If there is a one-to-one correspondence between the elements of two sets M and M', they are
equivalent (equipotent, equinumerous), written M M'.

It is obvious that two finite sets with the same number of items are comparable. However, Cantor's
definition of equivalence makes no use of the concept of finiteness. It is based solely on the concept of
one-to-one correspondence, which can be applied to any set, finite or infinite. The set of natural
numbers, in Galileo's example, is equivalent to the set of perfect squares via the mapping that sends a
natural number n to its square n2. This demonstrates how a set can be equivalent to a subset of itself.

The terms finite set and infinite set have previously been used in an informal manner, but they may now
be given a definite meaning thanks to the concept of equivalency. Because most people only meet finite
sets in their daily lives, it is common practice to define a finite set in the positive sense first, and then
define an infinite set as one that is not finite:

A set M is finite if it is either empty or contains a natural integer n such that M 1, 2, 3,... Otherwise, M is
infinity.

Bernhard Bolzano (1781-1848), a Bohemian priest who was fired from his position as professor of
religion at the University of Prague for heresy, made the first positive steps toward a theory of sets in
the mid-nineteenth century. Despite his primary interests in social, ethical, and theological issues,
Bolzano was drawn to logic and mathematics, particularly analysis. Unfortunately, the majority of
Bolzano's mathematical publications remained in manuscript form and did not capture the attention of
his contemporaries or have a direct influence on the subject's growth. (Many of them were first
published in 1962.) Many intriguing elements of set theory can be found in Bolzano's tiny work
Paradoxien des Unendlichen (Paradoxes of the Infinite), which was released three years after his death
by a student he had befriended. Bolzano elaborated on Galileo's conundrum about the one-to-one
correspondence between natural numbers and perfect squares, giving more examples of
correspondences between the elements of an infinite set and a proper subset. What had troubled
Galileo and Bolzano as a peculiar property of infinite sets was elevated to the rank of a definition of the
infinite by Dedekind, who received his doctorate under Gauss. In 1888, Dedekind published Was sind
und was sollen die Zahlen (The Nature and Meaning of Numbers), a tiny pamphlet in which he suggested
a definition of infinite that made no explicit reference to the concept of natural number:
If a set M is equivalent to a proper subset of itself, it is infinite; otherwise, M is finite.

Cantor embraced this approach, and his work evolved in a similar manner to that of his close friend,
Dedekind.

Cantor expended much effort defending himself against many mathematicians who saw the infinite as a
description of unbounded expansion expressed by some symbol rather than an accomplished amount.
The conventional definition of the infinite was something "increasing above all bounds, but always
remaining finite," as it appeared in Cantor's work, and it was "fixed mathematically by numbers in the
definite form of a completed whole." What most bothered the critics was that a "actually infinite" set
was an abstraction with no physical reality—there was no evidence that endless groups of physical
objects existed. Whose opinions were more authoritative than those of Carl Friedrich Gauss, the Prince
of Mathematics? The impact of this gigantic figure undoubtedly set the tone for the mathematical world
until nearly the end of the century. Gauss expressed his fear of the infinite in a famous letter to
Schumacher in 1831:

In terms of your proof, I must strongly object to your use of the infinite as something accomplished, as
this is never authorized in mathematics. The infinite is merely a figure of speech; an abbreviated form
for the idea that there are limitations to which certain ratios may approach as near as we choose, while
other magnitudes may be allowed to rise beyond all bounds. ...There will be no paradoxes as long as
Finite Man does not mistake the infinite for something fixed, as long as he is not led by a learned habit
of thought to consider the limitless to be bounded.

Cantor advocated something even more surprising and impious than simply establishing infinite sets:
endowing each set with a number reflecting its plurality. This would enable him to identify infinite sets
based on "size," demonstrating, for example, that there are "more" real numbers than integers. Some
mathematicians of the time could accept, albeit grudgingly, Cantor's infinite sets, adopting an attitude
similar to that of a gentleman regarding adultery: better to execute the act than utter the phrase in front
of a lady. It was an actually infinite number that was illegal, and using it compelled Cantor to spend the
remainder of his life in the middle of a storm.

Cantor's attempt to measure sets led to the development of the concept of cardinal numbers. In his
early publications, he thought it preferable to take a neutral stance regarding cardinal numbers, stating
what they are meant to do rather than what they are:

If two sets are equivalent, they have the same cardinal number or power.

Thus, a cardinal number is "something" associated to a set in such a way that two sets are assigned the
same cardinal if and only if they are equal, according to Cantor. In his final (1895) exposition of their
theory, he attempted to eliminate this ambiguity with a definition "by abstraction":

If we abstract both from the nature of the elements and from the order in which they are given, we get
the cardinal number or power of the set.

As a result, the cardinal number of the set M was taken to be the universal concept shared by all sets
comparable to M. The origin of the double bar in Cantor's symbol M for the cardinal number of the set
M is the process of double abstraction, or discarding both the specific features of the components and
any ordering inside the set. The current notation o(A) for the cardinal number of A will suffice for our
needs.

Cantor's "definition" of cardinal number is hardly sufficient, and several attempts to codify the idea were
made. In his Grundlagen der Arithmetik of 1884, logician Gottlob Frege proposed a concept that did not
become well recognized until Bertrand Russell, who had independently arrived at the same idea, gave
importance to it in his Principles of Arithmetic (1903). The cardinal number of a set A is the set of all sets
equivalent to A, according to the so-called Frege-Russell formulation. (Unless logical measures are
followed, a set that contains all sets with a specific feature may not exist.) On the other hand, John von
Neumann (1928) chose a fixed set from the set of all sets comparable to A to serve as the cardinal of A.
It is likely unimportant what a cardinal number is; all that is required is that it is an item shared by just
those sets that are comparable to each other. A finite cardinal is the cardinal number of a finite set,
whereas an infinite cardinal is referred to as a "transfinite cardinal."

Cantor became a mathematical heretic by developing an arithmetic of transfinite numbers equivalent to

regular arithmetic. The outrage was quick, vehement, and widespread. Cantor was accused of infringing
on the territory of philosophers and breaking religious values. Despite this, he had the backing of several
colleagues, most notably Dedekind, Weierstrass, and Hilbert. Cantor's work would eventually be
described by Hilbert as "the finest product of mathematical genius and one of the supreme
achievements of purely intellectual human activity."

Kronecker’s View of Set Theory

Leopold Kronecker (1823-1891), Cantor's former professor, became the focus of his problems, a
type of personal devil. Kronecker had made significant contributions to higher algebra, but when it came
to the foundations of mathematics, he did little more than openly condemn his contemporaries'
achievements. Kronecker, the son of a wealthy merchant in Liegnitz, Prussia, was tutored at home until
he entered the local gymnasium, where Ernst Kummer happened to be lecturing. (Because no university
positions were available when Kummer received his Ph.D., he taught in his former gymnasium for ten
years.) While still at Liegnitz, Kronecker became interested in mathematics through Kummer's
stimulation and support. In 1841, he enrolled at the University of Berlin, which was then the world's
mathematical capital, and studied with Dirichlet, Jacobi, and Eisenstein.

The German student of the time was free to attend the lectures of his choice or even to transfer
from one university to another, with no prescribed curriculum and ultimately responsible only to his
examiners. Kronecker spent the summer of 1843 at the University of Bonn before transferring to Breslau
for two semesters. Kummer, his previous teacher, was a professor there at the time. Kronecker then
returned to Berlin to complete a thesis on algebraic number theory under Dirichlet. Kronecker was
unable to return to Berlin and his love of mathematics for 11 years after being forced to quit academia
to manage the lucrative family business. By this time, the presence of both Kummer and Weierstrass
had caused a fresh blooming in mathematics at the University of Berlin. Kronecker was elected a
member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1860 on Kummer's proposal; this status permitted him to
conduct lectures at the university, which he did often beginning in 1861. Because the wealthy Kronecker
could afford to teach without a chair, he turned down the professorship in mathematics at Göttingen,
which had previously been held by Gauss, Dirichlet, and Riemann. Kummer abruptly retired in 1882,
sensing the beginning of a fall in productivity. Kronecker was then asked to succeed his old mentor,
making him the first individual to hold a position at Berlin while also earning a degree.

Kronecker was a little man who became increasingly self-conscious about his size as he grew
older. Any mention of his height was interpreted as a knock on his intellectual abilities. He was
venomous and personal in his attacks on people whose mathematics he rejected; his views on the new
theory of infinite sets were venomous and indignant. Cantor's daring foray into the domain of the
infinite was founded entirely on nonconstructive reasoning, which Kronecker emphatically rejected from
the start. "Definitions must contain the means of reaching a decision in a finite number of steps," he
asserted dogmatically, "and existence proofs must be conducted so that the quantity in question can be
calculated with any required degree of accuracy." Any discussion of infinite sets, according to Kronecker,
was illegitimate because it began with the assumption that infinite sets exist in mathematics.

Kronecker was vehemently opposed not only to Cantor's unbridled use of infinite sets, but also
to most of modern analysis. His main concern was with the new formulations of irrational numbers,
Dedekind's via his device of "cuts," and Weierstrass's by classes of rational numbers. Kronecker believed
that these produced numbers that could not exist. Returning to the ancient Pythagorean perspective,
Kronecker asserted unequivocally that all mathematics must be built up by finite procedures from
natural numbers. This counterrevolutionary purpose is exposed in his oft-quoted remark, "God created
natural numbers, and all the rest is the work of man." It is not surprising that Kronecker found
Weierstrass' analysis unacceptable, lacking constructive procedures for determining quantities whose
existence was merely established by the free use of "theological existence proofs." One day, he reduced
the distinguished old man to tears with an abrasive remark about "the incorrectness of all those
conclusions used in the so-called present method of analysis."
 Although Kronecker's concept of mathematical existence enraged and embittered Weierstrass,
it was the high-strung Cantor who suffered the most from such unyielding criticism. Cantor had intended
to be appointed as a professor at the University of Berlin, arguably the greatest German honor available
during his productive period. But opposition to his work was growing, particularly because of its use of
the 'actually infinite.' In Berlin, the almost omnipotent Kronecker blocked Cantor's every attempt to
advance, and when a professorship at Göttingen was to be offered, Cantor was passed over in favor of
less qualified candidates. Cantor spent his whole professional career, some 44 years, at Halle University,
a minor school with no great reputation. Cantor's temperament suffered greatly as a result of what he
saw as Kronecker's malevolent persecution, resulting in a total psychological breakdown in 1884.
Although he recovered from this crisis within a year, mental illness would follow him for the rest of his
life.

Cantor gained an influential friend in Gösta Mittag-Lefler, who had studied under Weierstrass in
Berlin, in the hostile intellectual world. Mittag-Lefler's wife was rich, thus he could afford to start a new
mathematical journal, Acta Mathematica. In order to make a good first impression, he advocated
publishing French translations of Cantor's most important articles. No doubt he was thinking of Crelle's
fortunate fortune, who began his journal with a plentiful supply of Abel's work. These translations,
which appeared in Acta Mathematica volume 2 (1883), helped spread Cantor's views on set theory.

Even Mittag-Lefler, a close supporter, failed to recognize Cantor's research's revolutionary

nature. He requested that Cantor retract a detailed exposition of the properties of ordered sets that was
scheduled to appear in the seventh volume of Acta Mathematica (1885-1886). Mittag-Lefler proposed
that because the work did not contain the solution to any crucial problem, it would be preferable not to
publish it and instead allow the results to be rediscovered—say, in a hundred years—when it was
revealed that Cantor had them far earlier. Despite his displeasure at being told that his work was "one
hundred years premature," Cantor agreed to this terrible request. The amended page proofs of the
rejected article were discovered among Cantor's surviving documents as events unfolded. The paper
was published 85 years later in the Acta Mathematica in 1970.

Cantor was fatigued from the long fight to get acknowledgement for his work. Cantor's life was
marked by periods of mental illness that forced him to spend time in various sanatoria beginning with
the first of his depression crises in 1884. During his periods of clarity, he was more interested in
Elizabethan scholarship and religious works than in mathematics. Cantor published little on set theory
until his comprehensive Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers (in the
Mathematische Annalen for 1895 and 1897), apart from a short paper in 1892 putting forth the
"diagonal argument" for the uncountability of the real numbers. This two-part memoir was less a
gathering of new ideas and more of a final declaration of many of the most significant outcomes since
1870.

Only after Cantor's research was completed in the 1900s did his ideas begin to gain traction. The
mathematical world's initial mistrust was replaced by appreciation and even admiration. The Sylvester
Medal of the Royal Society of London (1904), among the numerous prizes and honorary degrees granted
on Cantor, deserves special note due to its rarity. William Henry Young and his wife Grace Chisholm
Young wrote The Theory of Sets of Points, the first complete textbook on set theory and its applications
to the general theory of functions, in 1906. Cantor complained to the Youngs in 1908 about the lack of
importance attached to his work by Germans "who do not seem to know me, although I have lived
among them for fifty-two years." In 1915, an event of international importance was planned at Halle to
celebrate his seventieth birthday; however, due to the war, only a few close German friends were able
to gather to pay him honor. at 1918, Cantor died at a psychiatric clinic in Halle.

From where we are now, we can see that Cantor earned the respect of the next generation of
mathematicians that most of his contemporaries denied him. Although the discovery of the infinite
paradoxes forced many of his ideas to be modified, the core notions of set theory survived to become
cornerstones in the foundations of many other fields of mathematics. Kronecker, on the other hand,
despite his position of authority, was unable to obtain support for his "mathematical nihilism."
Adherence to the position that existence claims are useless unless they include a construction for the
alleged object would necessitate the abolition of most of modern mathematics. Kronecker was arguing
against the undeniable reality that proofs of pure existence frequently yield the most general results
with the least amount of effort. Kronecker, an obstinate supporter of his ideas, only succeeded in halting
Cantor's work's early growth for two decades.

Countable and Uncountable Sets

As Cantor moved away from the established traditions of mid-nineteenth-century analysis and focused
on linear point sets, a new era in mathematics began. In 1874, he published his first purely set theoretic
paper, On a Property of the Collection of All Real Algebraic Numbers, in which he distinguished two
types of infinite sets on the real line. Dedekind recognized this distinction in his memoir Stetigkeit und
die Irrationalzahlen (1872): 'The line L is infinitely richer in point-individuals than the domain R of
rational numbers in number-individuals.' The term 'countable' was later used by Cantor to describe the
simplest kind of infinite, one that has the power of the natural numbers.

Definition

A set A is countable (denumerable, enumerable) if it has a one-to-one connection with the set N of
natural numbers. Uncountable (nondenumerable) sets are infinite sets that cannot be counted.