The question asked by Hu is very interesting. Many students have indeed asked this question, and they think that the Nobel Prize, which mainly rewards scientific inventions, has no mathematics prize, which is simply unreasonable. Before answering the students' questions, tell a widely circulated story. According to this story, Nobel once proposed to a young lady when she came of age. The young lady has an ambiguous attitude. As a result, the young lady and a mathematician at that time, Mitt Leffler, jointly deceived the Nobel Prize. So Nobel hates mathematicians, so there is no Nobel Prize in Mathematics. Although this story is widely circulated, Nobel did remain unmarried all his life, but there seems to be something wrong. Imagine a great scientist, it is hard to imagine that he would defile his great ideal for a person's grievances.
So what is the reason? We think there are probably the following reasons: First, there was already an influential prize in the field of mathematics at that time, which was called the Scandinavian Prize. Now with this famous prize, Nobel may think it unnecessary to set up a math prize. Secondly, Nobel said in his will that the prize money is mainly to "reward those inventions and discoveries that are of great benefit to mankind". Therefore, as an inventor and industrialist, Nobel decided not to set up a mathematics prize, probably because he was not interested in mathematics. Thirdly, abstract mathematics is not closely related to Nobel's career of invention and discovery, which may be one of the reasons why Nobel did not set up a mathematics prize.
Whenever the annual Nobel Prize is announced, many people naturally have a doubt: apart from the six prizes of Peace Prize, Economics Prize, Literature Prize, Physics Prize, Chemistry Prize, Physiology Prize and Medicine Prize, why is there no math prize? In fact, this is a question that has aroused various speculations for a long time, and it has also brought a lot of controversy. Mathematicians all over the world, excluded from this prize, have fought. 1924, the international congress of mathematicians held in Toronto made a tit-for-tat decision that each international congress of mathematicians would award two gold medals in recognition of scientists who have made outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics.
The Nobel Prize is based on the famous Swedish chemist Alfred? Based on Nobel's will. As for the reason why Mr. Nobel decided not to set up the Nobel Prize in Mathematics, a widely circulated story is that a woman who proposed to him cheated him and stayed with a famous mathematician named Mitt Leffler. However, no one can produce evidence to support this explanation. People only know that Mr. Nobel has never been married, but he has a lover, a Vienna woman named Sophie.
Mitte Leffler was an influential mathematician in Sweden at the end of19th century and the beginning of 20th century. More than a century later, the journal Ekta mathematics 1882 founded by him is still the most authoritative mathematical journal in the world today. He eventually became the president of Stockholm College (the predecessor of Stockholm University). There is no evidence that Mitt Leffler and Alfred? Nobel (who lived in Paris in his later years) had many contacts. Similarly, there is no evidence that there is any hostility between them for some reason. On the contrary, in the last period of Nobel's life, Mitt Leffler actively conducted "diplomatic" negotiations with Nobel, trying to persuade him to devote his main energy to the research work of Stockholm Institute.
It is hard to imagine that when Nobel drafted that famous will with great love, he would change his ideal blueprint because of a little personal resentment, leaving a distorted monument for future generations. Moreover, even if the Nobel Prize was awarded for mathematics at that time, Mitt Leffler was not one of the most promising candidates, because there were some more accomplished mathematicians around him, such as Poincare and Hilbert. Another noteworthy fact is that there was already a very famous Scandinavian prize in the field of mathematics. Since this prize exists, maybe Nobel will feel it unnecessary to set up a math prize in the Nobel Prize.
As an inventor and industrialist, Nobel decided not to set up the mathematics prize, probably because he had no special interest in mathematics or theoretical science, and he thought that mathematics was not a science from which human beings could directly benefit. In his will, he mentioned that these awards should be used to reward "inventions or discoveries" that have great realization benefits for mankind. Perhaps it is in this spirit that among the Nobel Prize winners in physics over the years, there are far more people engaged in experimental science than theoretical science.