Edward Vermilye Huntington

Background

Huntington was born in Clinton, N. Y. in 1874. He was the son of Chester Huntington and Katharine Hazard Smith Huntington.

Education

He received the A. B. from Harvard in 1895 and the A. M. two years later. After two years teaching mathematics at Williams College (1897 - 1899), he spent the next two years studying in Europe and received the Ph. D. from the University of Strasbourg in 1901.

Career

Huntington became instructor in Harvard in 1901 and remained on the faculty of the department of mathematics until his retirement in 1941. He became assistant professor in 1905, associate professor in 1915, and professor of mechanics in 1919. The latter title – unusual in a department of mathematics – reflected Huntington's deep interest in not only the mathematical study of mechanics but also in applications of mathematics, particularly to physical and engineering problems.

In 1918-1919 he served as a major on the general staff, on statistical duty in Washington, D. C. Huntington's major scientific contribution lay in his work on the logical foundations of mathematics. He devised sets of axioms for many parts of mathematics, in particular for Euclidean geometry (1912), and developed techniques for showing that no axiom is a consequence of the others ("independence") and that the axioms describe precisely what they are supposed to ("completeness"). His book The Continuum, and Other Types of Serial Order, With an Introduction to Cantor's Transfinite Numbers (1917) introduced several generations of students to the theory of sets of points and transfinite numbers.

Huntington's work in other fields, although principally didactic, contributed to his reputation as an expert on the teaching and applications of mathematics. He was an enthusiastic and effective teacher, who vigorously defended his own ideas about how certain topics – notably the concepts of mass and weight in mechanics – ought to be presented. He compiled or edited a number of innovative mathematical tables and may have been the first to publish trigonometric tables adapted to the decimal division of the degree. (Despite the convenience of Huntington's presentation, such tables did not become popular until the advent of highspeed computers. )

Huntington's most influential contribution outside of pure mathematics was a theory of the apportionment of representatives in Congress. The United States Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) states that "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, " but does not explain that statement or tell how the apportionment is to be carried out. In the 1920's Huntington made an extensive analysis of the problem, settled on the so-called method of equal proportions as the most satisfactory, and advocated it with his usual persuasiveness. His recommendation was adopted by Congress on November 15, 1941. (The method has substantial deficiencies that Huntington chose to ignore; a detailed modern analysis has been made by Balinski and Young. )

He died in Cambridge, Massachussets.

Achievements

• Edward Vermilye Huntington is remembered as an American mathematician, who authored four-place tables of logarithms and trigonometric functions and several other mathematical treatises.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Fundamental Laws of Addition and Multiplication in Elementary Algebra (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Fundamental Laws of Addition and Multipl...)

  • Tables Of Logarithms And Trigonometric Functions

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • The Continuum As A Type Of Order: An Exposition Of The Modern Theory (1905)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Handbook of Mathematics for Engineers ( 1918 )

    (Originally published in 1918. This volume from the Cornel...)

Membership

Huntington was a prominent supporter of the Mathematical Association of America, formed in 1915 to promote the interests of collegiate mathematics. He served as its first vice-president and in 1918 became president. In 1924 he was elected vice-president of the research-oriented American Mathematical Society.

Interests

• Huntington's other interests included music (for which he devised an improved system of notation), mountain climbing, and Esperanto.

Connections

On July 6, 1909, Huntington married Susie Edwards Van Volkenburgh; they had no children.

Father:

Chester Huntington

Mother:

Katharine Hazard Smith Huntington

Spouse:

Susie Edwards Van Volkenburgh

References

• A Vest-pocket Handbook of Mathematics for Engineers