Background
Mahoney, Michael Sean was born on June 30, 1939 in New York City. Son of Thomas Michael and Dorothy (Hopkins) Mahoney.
( Hailed as one of the greatest mathematical results of t...)
Hailed as one of the greatest mathematical results of the twentieth century, the recent proof of Fermat's Last Theorem by Andrew Wiles brought to public attention the enigmatic problem-solver Pierre de Fermat, who centuries ago stated his famous conjecture in a margin of a book, writing that he did not have enough room to show his "truly marvelous demonstration." Along with formulating this proposition--xn+yn=zn has no rational solution for n > 2--Fermat, an inventor of analytic geometry, also laid the foundations of differential and integral calculus, established, together with Pascal, the conceptual guidelines of the theory of probability, and created modern number theory. In one of the first full-length investigations of Fermat's life and work, Michael Sean Mahoney provides rare insight into the mathematical genius of a hobbyist who never sought to publish his work, yet who ranked with his contemporaries Pascal and Descartes in shaping the course of modern mathematics.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691036667/?tag=2022091-20
( Hailed as one of the greatest mathematical results of t...)
Hailed as one of the greatest mathematical results of the twentieth century, the recent proof of Fermat's Last Theorem by Andrew Wiles brought to public attention the enigmatic problem-solver Pierre de Fermat, who centuries ago stated his famous conjecture in a margin of a book, writing that he did not have enough room to show his "truly marvelous demonstration." Along with formulating this proposition--xn+yn=zn has no rational solution for n > 2--Fermat, an inventor of analytic geometry, also laid the foundations of differential and integral calculus, established, together with Pascal, the conceptual guidelines of the theory of probability, and created modern number theory. In one of the first full-length investigations of Fermat's life and work, Michael Sean Mahoney provides rare insight into the mathematical genius of a hobbyist who never sought to publish his work, yet who ranked with his contemporaries Pascal and Descartes in shaping the course of modern mathematics.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691081190/?tag=2022091-20
mathematician university professor historian of mathematics
Mahoney, Michael Sean was born on June 30, 1939 in New York City. Son of Thomas Michael and Dorothy (Hopkins) Mahoney.
He earned a Ph.D. in history and history of science from Princeton University in 1967, and immediately took a position as an assistant professor there.
He remained at Princeton for over 40 years, until his death in 2008. A conference on the history of science and technology was held in his honor at Princeton in May 2009. Mahoney's biography of Pierre de Fermat received much critical attention including a scathing review by André Weil in 1973.
A second edition of Mahoney's book came out in 1994.
( Hailed as one of the greatest mathematical results of t...)
( Hailed as one of the greatest mathematical results of t...)
Board education regional schools, Princeton, 1983-1986. Trustee National Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Science, since 1986, chair, since 1994. Member History Science Society (council member 1980-1982), Society for History of Technology.
Married Jean Carmel Angelilli, August 20, 1960. Children: Colin Sean, Bridget Elizabeth.