French mathematician. Graduated from the Paris Institute of Technology. He used to be a professor at the French Academy, the Paris Higher Normal School and the University of Paris. Academician of French Academy of Sciences. Important discoveries have been made in function theory, higher algebra, differential equations and so on. In 1858, the solution of quintic equation is obtained for the first time by using elliptic function. 1873 proves the transcendence of the base e of natural logarithm. There are many concepts named after his surname in various branches of modern mathematics (indicating some symmetry), such as "Hermite quadratic form" and "Hermite operator".
A Math Master with Poor Academic Achievements-Hermite
Hermite was the greatest algebraic geometer in the19th century, but he failed in the college entrance examination five times because he failed in the math exam. He barely graduated from college, and every time he failed in the exam, it was for math subjects. After graduating from college, he could not enter any graduate school because the subject he failed was mathematics. Mathematics is the love of his life, but the math exam is a nightmare of his life. But this can't change his greatness: he put forward the "* * * yoke matrix" in the textbook first; For more than a thousand years, the "general solution of quintic equation" that human beings could not solve was solved by him first; He is the first person in the world to prove the "transcendence" of the base of natural logarithm. His life has proved that "a person who can't pass the exam can still have a winning life", and what's more amazing is that failing the exam has become a blessing in his life. How did this happen? Well (expressing hesitation, etc.) ... maybe you can find the answer in this article!
Open the map of Europe, and a small map named Lorraine is embedded in the northeast corner of France. This place has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times, because the Rhine River estuary in the north and the Marne River in the south can go straight to Paris; The Ardennes on the verge are the military commanding heights; This stratum contains the largest iron ore in Europe. As early as the Holy Roman Empire, the grassland in Lorraine was stained with the blood of knights. 187 1 After the bloody German soldiers ravaged France, the land that France was asked to cede was Lorraine.
The lineage of a revolutionary.
After a hundred years of war, Lorraine left behind a group of hardworking and philosophical French who were able to face the hardships of the environment. Hermite 1822 12 was born in Diyug, a small village in Lorraine. His parents and grandparents both participated in the French Revolution. Grandfather was arrested by the Paris Commune, an extremist political group after the Great Revolution, and died in prison. Some relatives died on the guillotine. His father was an outstanding metallurgical engineer. Because he was wanted by the commune, he fled to the small village of Lorraine on the French border and worked incognito as a miner in an iron mine. The owner of the iron mine is Lallemand, a standard and tenacious Lorraine. He has a stronger daughter, Madeleine. In that conservative era, Madeleine was famous for "daring to wear pants without skirts outdoors" and fiercely managing miners. But as soon as she met this engineer from Paris, she softened up, knew whether the other person was killed or married to him, and gave birth to seven children for him. Hermite ranks fifth among seven children. He was born with a disability in his right foot and needed to walk with crutches. Half of him has the blood of his father's excellent intelligence and ideal struggle, and the other half has the strong blood of Lorraine, whose mother dares to do things and loves and hates each other. This is the first sign of his extraordinary career.
Understanding the beauty of mathematics from the master
Hermite was a problem student since he was a child. He always likes to argue with the teacher in class, especially some basic questions. He especially hates exams. In his later article, he wrote: "Learning is like the sea, and exams are like hooks. The teacher always hangs the fish on the hook and teaches the fish how to swim freely and balance in the sea? " Seeing that he didn't do well in the exam, the teacher hit him on the foot with a wooden stick. He hates it. He later wrote: "The purpose of education is to use the brain, not the feet. What's the use of kicking? Can kicking make people smart? " He did badly in the math exam, mainly because he was good at math. What he said made the math teacher even more mad. He said: "Math class is a pool of smelly water and a pile of rubbish. People with good math scores are second-rate people because they only know how to move garbage. " He pretends to be a first-rate scientific madman. But what he said is also true. Most of the greatest mathematicians in history were born in subjects unrelated to mathematics, such as literature, diplomacy, engineering, military and so on. Hermite spent a lot of time reading the original works of mathematicians such as Newton and Gauss. He believes that only there can we find "the beauty of mathematics, that is, back to the basic point of argument, where we can drink the source of mathematics excitement." When he was old, he recalled the frivolity of his youth and wrote: "Traditional mathematics education requires students to learn step by step and train them to apply mathematics to engineering or business. So we don't pay attention to stimulating students' creativity. But mathematics has its own beauty of abstract logic. For example, solving quadratic equations, the existence of roots itself is a kind of beauty. The value of mathematics is not only for the application in life, but also should not be reduced to a tool for engineering and commercial applications. The breakthrough of mathematics still needs to constantly break through the existing pattern. "
Filial piety genius
Hermite's performance worried his parents. His parents sent him to the Louis-Le-Grande Middle School in Paris, only asking him to study hard and willing to pay more money. Because of his outstanding talent in mathematics, he can't put himself into the mold of mathematics education, but in order to comply with his parents' wishes, he has to face those subtle and complicated calculations every day, which makes him extremely painful. This filial genius seems destined to torture himself all his life. The entrance examination of Paris Institute of Technology is held twice a year. /kloc-I began to take the exam at the age of 0/8, and I didn't pass it until the fifth time with the result of crane tail. In the meantime, when he almost gave up, he met a math teacher, Richard. Teacher Richard said to Hermite, "I believe you are the second mathematical genius after Lagrange." Lagrange is known as Beethoven in mathematics, and his approximate root solution is known as "the poem of mathematics". But Hermite's talent is not enough. Teacher Richard said, "You need God's grace and persistence to complete your studies, so that you won't be sacrificed by the traditional education that you think is rubbish." So, he failed again and again, but continued to take the exam.
A man riding on the back of a snail.
One year after Hermite entered the technical college, the French education authorities suddenly issued an order that people with physical disabilities should not enter the engineering department. Hermite had to transfer to the literature department. Mathematics in the literature department has been much easier, and as a result, he still failed in mathematics. Interestingly, at the same time, he published "Reflections on the Solution of Quintic Equation" in the French Journal of Mathematical Research "Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics", which shocked the mathematical community.
In human history, Greek mathematicians in the third century discovered the solutions of linear equations and quadratic equations. After that, how many first-class mathematicians have been puzzling over the solutions from quartic equation to nth equation, and they have never been able to solve them. Unexpectedly, 300 years later, a literature student who often failed the math exam actually put forward the correct solution. Hermite knew that he had been "deeply poisoned by the pioneering research of mathematics and deeply loved it". Fortunately, his good friend Bertrand soon helped him learn the math he was going to study at school. It brings endless suffering to this pioneering genius and rigid mathematics education; Only the understanding and encouragement of friendship can support him to go on and let him graduate from college with marginal results at the age of 24. Unable to cope with the exam and continue their studies, they had to find a school as a teaching assistant and correct students' homework. I have been a teaching assistant for almost twenty-five years. Although he published algebra continued fraction theory, function theory and equation theory in these twenty-five years, he is very famous all over the world, and his mathematics level far exceeds that of all university professors at that time, but he can't take the exam. Without an advanced degree, Hermite can only continue to correct students' homework. Social reality is so cruel and ignorant to him.
Teachers who don't take exams
What prompted Hermite to advance cynically? There are three important factors. First, the wife's understanding and concentricity. Hermite's wife, that is, the sister of his college friend Bertrand, followed the talented husband who could not take the exam year after year without any regrets. Second, some people really appreciate him and will not despise him because he is physically disabled and lacks a dazzling degree. People who appreciate him are also famous in the field of mathematics, including Cauchy, who is famous for studying the convergence and divergence of infinite series and differential equations, Jacoby, who is famous for publishing elliptic functions and determinant theory, and joseph liouville, editor-in-chief of Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics. These are experts, who appreciate each other. People who are really experts can support a loser to go a long way more than a little false glory in getting high marks. The third is Hermite's belief. Hermite was seriously ill at the age of 43. Cauchy came to see him and spread the gospel to him. Faith gave him another kind of value and satisfaction. When Hermite was 49 years old, Paris University asked him to be a professor. In the next twenty-five years, almost all the great French mathematicians came from his door. We don't know how he attends classes, but one thing is certain-there is no exam.
Understanding another world in trigonometric geometry
Failure to pass the exam brought him a lot of troubles: his work was not smooth, he retaken the exam many times, others looked down on him and he felt inferior. But it brought him many blessings: knowing his wife, friends, beliefs and the maturity of his whole life. Later, Bell, a professor of mathematics at California Institute of Technology, described Hermite in a passage in Review of Great Mathematicians in History: "The more talented mathematicians in history, the more cynical they are, and the more mocking they speak. There is only one exception, and that is Hermite. He has a truly perfect personality. " Hermite died on190165438+1October 4th. In his later years, he wrote: "Trigonometric geometry is immortal. There is no absolute triangle in nature. But there is a perfect and absolute triangle in people's minds to measure the external shape. No one knows why the sum of triangles is 180 degrees, and no one knows why the longest side of a triangle has the largest angle. These basic features of trigonometric geometry are not invented or imagined by people, but exist when people are ignorant, and will not change no matter how time and space change. I'm just a person who stumbled across these features. The existence of triangular geometry proves that there is a world that will never change. "