Charles Hermite
| Charles Hermite | |
|---|---|
Charles Hermite circa 1887
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| Born |
December 24, 1822 Dieuze, Moselle |
| Died | January 14, 1901 (aged 78) Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions |
École Polytechnique Sorbonne |
| Alma mater |
Collège Henri IV, Sorbonne Collège Louis-le-Grand, Sorbonne |
| Doctoral students |
Léon Charve Henri Padé Mihailo Petrović Henri Poincaré Thomas Stieltjes Jules Tannery |
| Known for | Proof that e is transcendental Hermitian adjoint Hermitian form Hermitian function Hermitian matrix Hermitian metric Hermitian operator Hermite polynomials Hermitian transpose Hermitian wavelet |
Prof Charles Hermite (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl ɛʁˈmit]) FRS FRSE MIAS (December 24, 1822 – January 14, 1901) was a French mathematician who did research on 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 later used by Ferdinand von Lindemann to prove that π is transcendental.
In a letter to Thomas Joannes Stieltjes in 1893, Hermite remarked: "I turn with terror and horror from this lamentable scourge of continuous functions with no derivatives."
Hermite was born in Dieuze, The Moselle on 24 December 1822, with a deformity in his right foot which would affect his gait for the rest of his life. He was the sixth of seven children of Ferdinand Hermite, and his wife Madeleine Lallemand. His father worked in his mother's family drapery business, and also pursued a career as an artist. The drapery business relocated to Nancy in 1828 and so did the family.
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