Henri Lebesgue (nonfiction): Difference between revisions

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'''Henri Léon Lebesgue''' ForMemRS (French: [ɑ̃ʁi leɔ̃ ləbɛɡ]; June 28, 1875 – July 26, 1941) was a French mathematician most famous for his theory of integration, which was a generalization of the 17th century concept of integration—summing the area between an axis and the curve of a function defined for that axis. His theory was published originally in his dissertation Intégrale, longueur, aire ("Integral, length, area") at the University of Nancy during 1902.
[[File:Henri_Lebesgue.jpg|thumb|Henri Léon Lebesgue.]]'''Henri Léon Lebesgue''' ForMemRS (French: [ɑ̃ʁi leɔ̃ ləbɛɡ]; June 28, 1875 – July 26, 1941) was a French [[Mathematician (nonfiction)|mathematician]] most famous for his theory of integration, which was a generalization of the 17th century concept of integration—summing the area between an axis and the curve of a function defined for that axis. His theory was published originally in his dissertation ''Intégrale, longueur, aire'' ("Integral, length, area") at the University of Nancy during 1902.


Lebesgue once wrote, "Réduites à des théories générales, les mathématiques seraient une belle forme sans contenu." ("Reduced to general theories, mathematics would be a beautiful form without content.")
Lebesgue invented a new method of integration (finding the area under the graph of a function). Lebesgue looked at the codomain of the function for his fundamental unit of area. Lebesgue's idea was to first define measure, for both sets and functions on those sets. He then proceeded to build the integral for what he called simple functions; measurable functions that take only finitely many values. Then he defined it for more complicated functions as the least upper bound of all the integrals of simple functions smaller than the function in question.


During the course of his career, Lebesgue also made forays into the realms of complex analysis and topology. He also had a disagreement with Émile Borel about whose integral was more general. However, these minor forays pale in comparison to his contributions to real analysis; his contributions to this field had a tremendous impact on the shape of the field today and his methods have become an essential part of modern analysis, with applications in fundamental physics.
As part of the development of Lebesgue integration, Lebesgue invented the concept of measure, which extends the idea of length from intervals to a very large class of sets, called measurable sets (so, more precisely, simple functions are functions that take a finite number of values, and each value is taken on a measurable set). Lebesgue's technique for turning a measure into an integral generalises easily to many other situations, leading to the modern field of measure theory.
 
Lebesgue wrote, "Réduites à des théories générales, les mathématiques seraient une belle forme sans contenu." ("Reduced to general theories, mathematics would be a beautiful form without content.")


== In the News ==
== In the News ==
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== Fiction cross-reference ==
== Fiction cross-reference ==
* [[Crimes against mathematical constants]]
* [[Gnomon algorithm]]
* [[Mathematics]]


== Nonfiction cross-reference ==
== Nonfiction cross-reference ==


* [[Émile Borel (nonfiction)]] - Doctoral advisor
* [[Georges de Rham (nonfiction)]] - Doctoral student
* [[Zygmunt Janiszewski (nonfiction)]] - Doctoral student
* [[Mathematician (nonfiction)]]
* [[Mathematician (nonfiction)]]
* [[Paul Montel (nonfiction)]] - Doctoral student


External links:
External links:
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* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Lebesgue Henri Lebesgue] @ Wikipedia
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Lebesgue Henri Lebesgue] @ Wikipedia


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[[Category:Nonfiction (nonfiction)]]
[[Category:Mathematicians (nonfiction)]]
[[Category:Mathematicians (nonfiction)]]
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Latest revision as of 18:33, 24 January 2018

Henri Léon Lebesgue.

Henri Léon Lebesgue ForMemRS (French: [ɑ̃ʁi leɔ̃ ləbɛɡ]; June 28, 1875 – July 26, 1941) was a French mathematician most famous for his theory of integration, which was a generalization of the 17th century concept of integration—summing the area between an axis and the curve of a function defined for that axis. His theory was published originally in his dissertation Intégrale, longueur, aire ("Integral, length, area") at the University of Nancy during 1902.

Lebesgue invented a new method of integration (finding the area under the graph of a function). Lebesgue looked at the codomain of the function for his fundamental unit of area. Lebesgue's idea was to first define measure, for both sets and functions on those sets. He then proceeded to build the integral for what he called simple functions; measurable functions that take only finitely many values. Then he defined it for more complicated functions as the least upper bound of all the integrals of simple functions smaller than the function in question.

As part of the development of Lebesgue integration, Lebesgue invented the concept of measure, which extends the idea of length from intervals to a very large class of sets, called measurable sets (so, more precisely, simple functions are functions that take a finite number of values, and each value is taken on a measurable set). Lebesgue's technique for turning a measure into an integral generalises easily to many other situations, leading to the modern field of measure theory.

Lebesgue wrote, "Réduites à des théories générales, les mathématiques seraient une belle forme sans contenu." ("Reduced to general theories, mathematics would be a beautiful form without content.")

In the News

Fiction cross-reference

Nonfiction cross-reference

External links: