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R. L. Goodstein
Reuben Louis Goodstein (15 December 1912 – 8 March 1985) was an English mathematician with an interest in the philosophy and teaching of mathematics. Education Goodstein was educated at St Paul's School in London. He received his Master's degree from Magdalene College, Cambridge. After this, he worked at the University of Reading but ultimately spent most of his academic career at the University of Leicester. He earned his PhD from the University of London in 1946 while still working in Reading. Goodstein also studied under Ludwig Wittgenstein. Research He published many works on finitism and the reconstruction of analysis from a finitistic viewpoint, for example "Constructive Formalism. Essays on the foundations of mathematics." Goodstein's theorem was among the earliest examples of theorems found to be unprovable in Peano arithmetic but provable in stronger logical systems (such as second-order arithmetic). He also introduced a variant of the Ackermann function that is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thames in southeast England, at the head of a tidal estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Roman Empire, Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the centuries-long host of Government of the United Kingdom, the national government and Parliament of the United Kingdom, parliament. London grew rapidly 19th-century London, in the 19th century, becoming the world's List of largest cities throughout history, largest city at the time. Since the 19th cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Paul's School (London)
St Paul's School is a Selective school, selective Private schools in the United Kingdom, independent day school (with limited boarding school, boarding) for boys aged 13–18, founded in 1509 by John Colet and located on a 43-acre site by River Thames, the Thames in London. St Paul's was one of nine English Public school (United Kingdom), public schools investigated by the Clarendon Commission, which subsequently became known as the Clarendon Commission, Clarendon schools. However, the school successfully argued that it was a private school and consequently was omitted from the Public Schools Act 1868, as was Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, Merchant Taylors', the other day school within the scope of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, Lord Clarendon's terms of reference. Since 1881, St Paul's has had its own Preparatory school (UK), preparatory school, St Paul's Juniors (formerly St Paul's Juniors, Colet Court), which since 1968 has been located on the same site. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pentation
In mathematics, pentation (or hyper-5) is the fifth hyperoperation. Pentation is defined to be repeated tetration, similarly to how tetration is repeated exponentiation, exponentiation is repeated multiplication, and multiplication is repeated addition. The concept of "pentation" was named by English mathematician Reuben Goodstein in 1947, when he came up with the naming scheme for hyperoperations. The number ''a'' pentated to the number ''b'' is defined as ''a'' tetrated to itself ''b - 1'' times. This may variously be denoted as a[5]b, a\uparrow\uparrow\uparrow b, a\uparrow^3 b, a\to b\to 3, or , depending on one's choice of notation. For example, 2 pentated to 2 is 2 tetrated to 2, or 2 raised to the power of 2, which is 2^2 = 4. As another example, 2 pentated to 3 is 2 tetrated to the result of 2 tetrated to 2. Since 2 tetrated to 2 is 4, 2 pentated to 3 is 2 tetrated to 4, which is 2^ = 65536. Based on this definition, pentation is only defined when ''a'' and ''b'' are both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetration
In mathematics, tetration (or hyper-4) is an operation (mathematics), operation based on iterated, or repeated, exponentiation. There is no standard mathematical notation, notation for tetration, though Knuth's up arrow notation \uparrow \uparrow and the left-exponent ^b are common. Under the definition as repeated exponentiation, means , where ' copies of ' are iterated via exponentiation, right-to-left, i.e. the application of exponentiation n-1 times. ' is called the "height" of the function, while ' is called the "base," analogous to exponentiation. It would be read as "the th tetration of ". For example, 2 tetrated to 4 (or the fourth tetration of 2) is =2^=2^=2^=65536. It is the next hyperoperation after exponentiation, but before pentation. The word was coined by Reuben Louis Goodstein from tetra- (four) and iterated function, iteration. Tetration is also defined recursively as : := \begin 1 &\textn=0, \\ a^ &\textn>0, \end allowing for the holomorphic function, hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyperoperation
In mathematics, the hyperoperation sequence is an infinite sequence of arithmetic operations (called ''hyperoperations'' in this context) that starts with a unary operation (the successor function with ''n'' = 0). The sequence continues with the binary operations of addition (''n'' = 1), multiplication (''n'' = 2), and exponentiation (''n'' = 3). After that, the sequence proceeds with further binary operations extending beyond exponentiation, using right-associativity. For the operations beyond exponentiation, the ''n''th member of this sequence is named by Reuben Goodstein after the Greek prefix of ''n'' suffixed with ''-ation'' (such as tetration (''n'' = 4), pentation (''n'' = 5), hexation (''n'' = 6), etc.) and can be written as using ''n'' − 2 arrows in Knuth's up-arrow notation. Each hyperoperation may be understood recursively in terms of the previous one by: :a = \underbrace_,\quad n \ge 2 It may also be defined according to the recursion rule part of the defi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ackermann Function
In computability theory, the Ackermann function, named after Wilhelm Ackermann, is one of the simplest and earliest-discovered examples of a total function, total computable function that is not Primitive recursive function, primitive recursive. All primitive recursive functions are total and computable, but the Ackermann function illustrates that not all total computable functions are primitive recursive. After Ackermann's publication of his function (which had three non-negative integer arguments), many authors modified it to suit various purposes, so that today "the Ackermann function" may refer to any of numerous variants of the original function. One common version is the two-argument Ackermann–Péter function developed by Rózsa Péter and Raphael Robinson. This function is defined from the recurrence relation \operatorname(m+1, n+1) = \operatorname(m, \operatorname(m+1, n)) with appropriate Base case (recursion), base cases. Its value grows very rapidly; for example, \o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second-order Arithmetic
In mathematical logic, second-order arithmetic is a collection of axiomatic systems that formalize the natural numbers and their subsets. It is an alternative to axiomatic set theory as a foundation of mathematics, foundation for much, but not all, of mathematics. A precursor to second-order arithmetic that involves third-order parameters was introduced by David Hilbert and Paul Bernays in their book ''Grundlagen der Mathematik''. The standard axiomatization of second-order arithmetic is denoted by Z2. Second-order arithmetic includes, but is significantly stronger than, its first-order logic, first-order counterpart Peano_axioms#Peano_arithmetic_as_first-order_theory, Peano arithmetic. Unlike Peano arithmetic, second-order arithmetic allows Quantification (logic), quantification over sets of natural numbers as well as numbers themselves. Because real numbers can be represented as (infinite set, infinite) sets of natural numbers in well-known ways, and because second-order arithmet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formal System
A formal system is an abstract structure and formalization of an axiomatic system used for deducing, using rules of inference, theorems from axioms. In 1921, David Hilbert proposed to use formal systems as the foundation of knowledge in mathematics. The term ''formalism'' is sometimes a rough synonym for ''formal system'', but it also refers to a given style of notation, for example, Paul Dirac's bra–ket notation. Concepts A formal system has the following: * Formal language, which is a set of well-formed formulas, which are strings of symbols from an alphabet, formed by a formal grammar (consisting of production rules or formation rules). * Deductive system, deductive apparatus, or proof system, which has rules of inference that take axioms and infers theorems, both of which are part of the formal language. A formal system is said to be recursive (i.e. effective) or recursively enumerable if the set of axioms and the set of inference rules are decidable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peano Arithmetic
In mathematical logic, the Peano axioms (, ), also known as the Dedekind–Peano axioms or the Peano postulates, are axioms for the natural numbers presented by the 19th-century Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano. These axioms have been used nearly unchanged in a number of metamathematical investigations, including research into fundamental questions of whether number theory is consistent and complete. The axiomatization of arithmetic provided by Peano axioms is commonly called Peano arithmetic. The importance of formalizing arithmetic was not well appreciated until the work of Hermann Grassmann, who showed in the 1860s that many facts in arithmetic could be derived from more basic facts about the successor operation and induction. In 1881, Charles Sanders Peirce provided an axiomatization of natural-number arithmetic. In 1888, Richard Dedekind proposed another axiomatization of natural-number arithmetic, and in 1889, Peano published a simplified version of them a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematical Analysis
Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limit (mathematics), limits, and related theories, such as Derivative, differentiation, Integral, integration, measure (mathematics), measure, infinite sequences, series (mathematics), series, and analytic functions. These theories are usually studied in the context of Real number, real and Complex number, complex numbers and Function (mathematics), functions. Analysis evolved from calculus, which involves the elementary concepts and techniques of analysis. Analysis may be distinguished from geometry; however, it can be applied to any Space (mathematics), space of mathematical objects that has a definition of nearness (a topological space) or specific distances between objects (a metric space). History Ancient Mathematical analysis formally developed in the 17th century during the Scientific Revolution, but many of its ideas can be traced back to earlier mathematicians. Early results in analysis were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finitism
Finitism is a philosophy of mathematics that accepts the existence only of finite set, finite mathematical objects. It is best understood in comparison to the mainstream philosophy of mathematics where infinite mathematical objects (e.g., infinite sets) are accepted as existing. Main idea The main idea of finitistic mathematics is not accepting the existence of infinite objects such as infinite sets. While all natural numbers are accepted as existing, the ''set'' of all natural numbers is not considered to exist as a mathematical object. Therefore quantifier (logic), quantification over infinite domains is not considered meaningful. The mathematical theory often associated with finitism is Thoralf Skolem's primitive recursive arithmetic. History The introduction of infinite mathematical objects occurred a few centuries ago when the use of infinite objects was already a controversial topic among mathematicians. The issue entered a new phase when Georg Cantor in 1874 introduced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proceedings Of The London Mathematical Society
The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and the Operational Research Society (ORS). History The Society was established on 16 January 1865, the first president being Augustus De Morgan. The earliest meetings were held in University College, but the Society soon moved into Burlington House, Piccadilly. The initial activities of the Society included talks and publication of a journal. The LMS was used as a model for the establishment of the American Mathematical Society in 1888. Mary Cartwright was the first woman to be President of the LMS (in 1961–62). The Society was granted a royal charter in 1965, a century after its foundation. In 1998 the Society moved from rooms in Burlington House into De Morgan House (named after the society's first president), at 57–5 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
