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Biography of Nikolai Ivanovich LobachevskiiName: Nikolai Ivanovich LobachevskiiBirth Date: December 2, 1792 Death Date: February 24, 1856 Place of Birth: Gorkii, Russia Nationality: Russian Gender: Male Occupations: mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevskii The Russian mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevskii (1792-1856) was one of the first to found an internally consistent system of non-Euclidean geometry. His revolutionary ideas had profound implications for theoretical physics, especially the theory of relativity.Nikolai Lobachevskii was born on Dec. 2 (N.S.; Nov. 21, O.S.), 1792, in Nizhni Novgorod (now Gorkii) into a poor family of a government official. In 1807 Lobachevskii entered Kazan University to study medicine. However, the following year Johann Martin Bartels, a teacher of pure mathematics, arrived at Kazan University from Germany. He was soon followed by the astronomer J. J. Littrow. Under their instruction, Lobachevskii made a permanent commitment to mathematics and science. He completed his studies at the university in 1811, earning the degree of master of physics and mathematics.In 1812 Lobachevskii finished his first paper, "The Theory of Elliptical Motion of Heavenly Bodies." Two years later he was appointed assistant professor at, occupying the chair vacated …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…the development of non-Euclidean geometry came a dozen years after his death. Perhaps the finest tribute he ever received came from the British mathematician and philosopher William Kingdon Clifford, who wrote in his Lectures and Essays, "What Vesalius was to Galen, what Copernicus was to Ptolemy, that was Lobachevsky to Euclid." Further Reading There is no definitive biography of Lobachevskii in English. Useful works include E.T. Bell, Men of Mathematics (1937); Veniamin F. Kagan, N. Lobachevsky and His Contributions to Science (trans. 1957); and Alexander S. Vucinich, Science in Russian Culture, vol. 1: A History to 1860 (1963). Valuable for treating Lobachevskii's geometry in historical perspective are Roberto Bonola, Non-Euclidean Geometry: A Critical and Historical Study of Its Developments (trans. 1955); A. D. Aleksandrov, "Non-Euclidean Geometry," in Mathematics: Its Content, Methods, and Meaning, vol. 3, edited by A.D. Aleksandrov, A. N. Kolmogorov, and M.A. Lavrentev (trans. 1964); and Carl B. Boyer, A History of Mathematics (1968). |