Charles Hermite

Data di nascita: 24 Dicembre 1822
Data di morte: 14 Gennaio 1901
In: Parigi, Francia


Storia:

He was a French mathematician who did research concerning number theory, quadratic forms, invariant theory, orthogonal polynomials, elliptic functions, and algebra.
Hermite polynomials, Hermite interpolation, Hermite normal form, Hermitian operators, and cubic Hermite splines are named in his honor.
One of his students was Henri Poincaré.

He was the first to prove that e, the base of natural logarithms, is a transcendental number. His methods were used later by Ferdinand von Lindemann to prove that π is transcendental.
In a letter to Thomas Joannes Stieltjes, Hermite remarked, "I turn with terror and horror from this lamentable scourge of continuous functions with no derivatives."
The Hermite crater near the Moon's north pole is named in his honor.


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