The Mathematical Significance Of Leon Mirsky
Essay Preview: The Mathematical Significance Of Leon Mirsky
Report this essay
The Mathematical Significance of Leon Mirsky
Leon Mirsky was born on December 19, 1918 in Russia. In 1926, The Mirsky family moved to Germany and seven years later in 1933, they were forced out of Germany and settled in Bradford, England. In 1936, he began studying for his Intermediate Exam at Kings College in London. After his exam, he received a scholarship for a degree in math. Leon graduated in 1940 and went on to receive his Masters Degree and then a Ph.D. in 1949.
In his work towards a mathematics degree, Mirsky developed a great interest in the number theory and Mr. Edmund Landu, a proponent of the theory who wrote several papers on the subject in 1899. The Number Theory is a theory describing all of the properties of numbers, such as prime numbers, algebraic number fields, and quadratic forms.
Mirsky studied three major fields, the first being the theory of numbers, the second being linear algebra, and the third being combinatorics. In his first field of study, the theory of numbers, he studied numbers that are not divisible by the rth power of an integer. He also verified, with similar results, the representation of an odd integer as the sum of three primes. He also contributed to the Goldbach conjecture that any even number greater than two can be written as the sum of two prime numbers. He also added to the twin primes conjecture which says that twin primes are pairs to primes that are 2 apart. Examples of this are 41 and 43 as well as 5 and 7. The conjecture also states that pairs of such primes are infinite.
Mirsky also studied linear algebra on which he wrote several papers. Mirsky most notably wrote An Introduction to Linear Algebra (1955) as well as 35 other papers on the subject. His accomplishments in this field include proving the existence of matrices with eigenvalues and diagonal elements. His book, An Introduction to Linear Algebra covers information that includes determinants, vectors, matrices, linear equations and quadratic forms.
Finally, Mirsky studied in the field of combinatorics. Combinatorics is the branch of mathematics which studies the enumeration, combination, and permutation of sets of numbers as well as the mathematical relations that characterize their properties. Some mathematicians use the term combinatorics to describe discrete mathematics, but in this case the latter definition is what Mirsky studied. With his study of combinatorics, he wrote another important book called The Transversal Theory. He also further developed the ideas from Halls Theorem which states, verbatim, that a finite family of sets has a system of distinct representatives if, and only if, the union of every k