List of greatest mathematicians
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Niels Henrik Abel
Norwegian mathematician (1802–1829)
Niels Henrik Abel (AH-bəl, Norwegian:[ˌnɪlsˈhɛ̀nːɾɪkˈɑ̀ːbl̩]; 5 August 1802 – 6 April 1829) was a Norwegian mathematician who made pioneering contributions in a variety of fields.[1] His most famous single result is the first complete proof demonstrating the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation in radicals. This question was one of the outstanding open problems of his day, and had been unresolved for over 250 years.[2] He was also an innovator in the field of elliptic functions and the discoverer of Abelian functions. He made his discoveries while living in poverty and died at the age of 26 from tuberculosis.
Most of his work was done in six or seven years of his working life.[3] Regarding Abel, the French mathematician Charles Hermite said: "Abel has left mathematicians enough to keep them busy for five hundred years."[3][4] Another French mathematician, Adrien-Marie Legendre, said: "What a head the young Norwegian has!"[5]
The Abel
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By Ashley Langham
Niels Henrik Abel is a Norwegian mathematician that had a very short and tragic life. He only lived twenty seven years and most of his mathematical influence was recognized only after his death. In fact, for most of his life he struggled with poverty, securing a permanent position in mathematics, and struggled to make a lasting impression on some of the more well-known mathematicians, and their circles, of the time.
Despite his many pitfalls in life, he was able to find a new approach for solving quintic equations; therefore solving a centuries old problem that had mathematicians before him completely stumped. His mathematical training was mostly extracurricular tutoring and self teaching. He was able to pick up mathematical concepts rather quickly and efficiently. By the time he left for college, his mentor Bernt Holmboë considered him a “mathematical genius”.
His Paris Memoir was discovered and published years after his death. It is considered to be a milestone in the development of mathematics. His work in several fields of mathematics continu
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Biography
Niels Abel's life was dominated by poverty and we begin by putting this in context by looking briefly at the political problems which led to economic problems in Norway. At the end of the 18th century Norway was part of Denmark and the Danish tried to remain neutral through the Napoleonic wars. However a neutrality treaty in 1794 was considered a aggressive act by Britain and, in 1801, the British fleet destroyed most of the Danish fleet in a battle in the harbour at Copenhagen. Despite this Denmark-Norway avoided the war until 1807 when Britain feared that the Danish fleet might be used by the French to invade. Using the philosophy that attack is the best form of defence, the English attacked and captured the whole Danish fleet in October 1807.Denmark then joined the alliance against Britain. The continental powers blockaded Britain, and as a counter to this Britain blockaded Norway. The twin blockade was a catastrophe to Norway preventing their timber exports, which had been largely to Britain, and preventing their grain imports from Denmark. An economic crisis
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