Henri Lebesgue (nonfiction)
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 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.")
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.
In the News
Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
External links:
- Henri Lebesgue @ Wikipedia
Attribution: