Ernst Friedrich Ferdinand Zermelo (, ; 27 July 187121 May 1953) was a German
logician and
mathematician, whose work has major implications for the
foundations of mathematics
Foundations of mathematics is the study of the philosophical and logical and/or algorithmic basis of mathematics, or, in a broader sense, the mathematical investigation of what underlies the philosophical theories concerning the nature of mathem ...
. He is known for his role in developing
Zermelo–Fraenkel axiomatic set theory and his proof of the
well-ordering theorem
In mathematics, the well-ordering theorem, also known as Zermelo's theorem, states that every set can be well-ordered. A set ''X'' is ''well-ordered'' by a strict total order if every non-empty subset of ''X'' has a least element under the ord ...
. Furthermore, his 1929 work on ranking chess players is the first description of a model for
pairwise comparison
Pairwise comparison generally is any process of comparing entities in pairs to judge which of each entity is preferred, or has a greater amount of some quantitative property, or whether or not the two entities are identical. The method of pairwi ...
that continues to have a profound impact on various applied fields utilizing this method.
Life

Ernst Zermelo graduated from Berlin's Luisenstädtisches Gymnasium (now ) in 1889. He then studied
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
,
physics and
philosophy at the
University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
, the
University of Halle
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university ...
, and the
University of Freiburg. He finished his doctorate in 1894 at the University of Berlin, awarded for a dissertation on the
calculus of variations
The calculus of variations (or Variational Calculus) is a field of mathematical analysis that uses variations, which are small changes in functions
and functionals, to find maxima and minima of functionals: mappings from a set of functions t ...
(''Untersuchungen zur Variationsrechnung''). Zermelo remained at the University of Berlin, where he was appointed assistant to
Planck
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (, ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...
, under whose guidance he began to study
hydrodynamics
In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids— liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) ...
. In 1897, Zermelo went to the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
, at that time the leading centre for mathematical research in the world, where he completed his
habilitation thesis
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
in 1899.
In 1910, Zermelo left Göttingen upon being appointed to the chair of mathematics at
Zurich University, which he resigned in 1916.
He was appointed to an honorary chair at the
University of Freiburg in 1926, which he resigned in 1935 because he disapproved of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and th ...
's regime.
At the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
and at his request, Zermelo was reinstated to his honorary position in Freiburg.
Research in set theory
In 1900, in the Paris conference of the
International Congress of Mathematicians,
David Hilbert
David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many a ...
challenged the mathematical community with his famous
Hilbert's problems
Hilbert's problems are 23 problems in mathematics published by German mathematician David Hilbert in 1900. They were all unsolved at the time, and several proved to be very influential for 20th-century mathematics. Hilbert presented ten of the pro ...
, a list of 23 unsolved fundamental questions which mathematicians should attack during the coming century. The first of these, a problem of
set theory, was the
continuum hypothesis
In mathematics, the continuum hypothesis (abbreviated CH) is a hypothesis about the possible sizes of infinite sets. It states that
or equivalently, that
In Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice (ZFC), this is equivalent to ...
introduced by
Cantor
A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds.
In Judaism, a cantor sings and l ...
in 1878, and in the course of its statement Hilbert mentioned also the need to prove the
well-ordering theorem
In mathematics, the well-ordering theorem, also known as Zermelo's theorem, states that every set can be well-ordered. A set ''X'' is ''well-ordered'' by a strict total order if every non-empty subset of ''X'' has a least element under the ord ...
.
Zermelo began to work on the problems of set theory under Hilbert's influence and in 1902 published his first work concerning the addition of
transfinite cardinals. By that time he had also discovered the so-called
Russell paradox
In mathematical logic, Russell's paradox (also known as Russell's antinomy) is a set-theoretic paradox discovered by the British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell in 1901. Russell's paradox shows that every set theory that conta ...
. In 1904, he succeeded in taking the first step suggested by Hilbert towards the continuum hypothesis when he proved the
well-ordering theorem
In mathematics, the well-ordering theorem, also known as Zermelo's theorem, states that every set can be well-ordered. A set ''X'' is ''well-ordered'' by a strict total order if every non-empty subset of ''X'' has a least element under the ord ...
(''every set can be well ordered''). This result brought fame to Zermelo, who was appointed Professor in Göttingen, in 1905. His proof of the
well-ordering theorem
In mathematics, the well-ordering theorem, also known as Zermelo's theorem, states that every set can be well-ordered. A set ''X'' is ''well-ordered'' by a strict total order if every non-empty subset of ''X'' has a least element under the ord ...
, based on the powerset axiom and the
axiom of choice
In mathematics, the axiom of choice, or AC, is an axiom of set theory equivalent to the statement that ''a Cartesian product of a collection of non-empty sets is non-empty''. Informally put, the axiom of choice says that given any collection ...
, was not accepted by all mathematicians, mostly because the axiom of choice was a paradigm of non-constructive mathematics. In 1908, Zermelo succeeded in producing an improved proof making use of Dedekind's notion of the "chain" of a set, which became more widely accepted; this was mainly because that same year he also offered an
axiomatization
In mathematics and logic, an axiomatic system is any set of axioms from which some or all axioms can be used in conjunction to logically derive theorems. A theory is a consistent, relatively-self-contained body of knowledge which usually con ...
of set theory.
Zermelo began to axiomatize set theory in 1905; in 1908, he published his results despite his failure to prove the consistency of his axiomatic system. See the article on
Zermelo set theory
Zermelo set theory (sometimes denoted by Z-), as set out in a seminal paper in 1908 by Ernst Zermelo, is the ancestor of modern Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZF) and its extensions, such as von Neumann–Bernays–Gödel set theory (NBG). It be ...
for an outline of this paper, together with the original axioms, with the original numbering.
In 1922,
Abraham Fraenkel
Abraham Fraenkel ( he, אברהם הלוי (אדולף) פרנקל; February 17, 1891 – October 15, 1965) was a German-born Israeli mathematician. He was an early Zionist and the first Dean of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem ...
and
Thoralf Skolem
Thoralf Albert Skolem (; 23 May 1887 – 23 March 1963) was a Norwegian mathematician who worked in mathematical logic and set theory.
Life
Although Skolem's father was a primary school teacher, most of his extended family were farmers. Skol ...
independently improved Zermelo's axiom system. The resulting 8 axiom system, now called
Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms (ZF), is now the most commonly used system for
axiomatic set theory
Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly conce ...
.
Zermelo's navigation problem
Proposed in 1931, the
Zermelo's navigation problem In mathematical optimization, Zermelo's navigation problem, proposed in 1931 by Ernst Zermelo, is a classic optimal control problem that deals with a boat navigating on a body of water, originating from a point A to a destination point B. The boat i ...
is a classic
optimal control
Optimal control theory is a branch of mathematical optimization that deals with finding a control for a dynamical system over a period of time such that an objective function is optimized. It has numerous applications in science, engineering an ...
problem. The problem deals with a boat navigating on a body of water, originating from a point O to a destination point D. The boat is capable of a certain maximum speed, and we want to derive the best possible control to reach D in the least possible time.
Without considering external forces such as current and wind, the optimal control is for the boat to always head towards D. Its path then is a line segment from O to D, which is trivially optimal. With consideration of current and wind, if the combined force applied to the boat is non-zero, the control for no current and wind does not yield the optimal path.
Publications
*
*
*
Jean van Heijenoort, 1967. ''From Frege to Gödel: A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931''. Harvard Univ. Press.
**1904. "Proof that every set can be well-ordered," 139−41.
**1908. "A new proof of the possibility of well-ordering," 183–98.
**1908. "Investigations in the foundations of set theory I," 199–215.
*1913. "On an Application of Set Theory to the Theory of the Game of Chess" in Rasmusen E., ed., 2001. ''Readings in Games and Information'', Wiley-Blackwell: 79–82.
*1930. "On boundary numbers and domains of sets: new investigations in the foundations of set theory" in Ewald, William B., ed., 1996. ''From Kant to Hilbert: A Source Book in the Foundations of Mathematics'', 2 vols.
Oxford University Press: 1219–33.
Works by others:
*''Zermelo's Axiom of Choice, Its Origins, Development, & Influence,'' Gregory H. Moore, being Volume 8 of ''Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences,'' Springer Verlag, New York, 1982.
See also
*
Axiom of choice
In mathematics, the axiom of choice, or AC, is an axiom of set theory equivalent to the statement that ''a Cartesian product of a collection of non-empty sets is non-empty''. Informally put, the axiom of choice says that given any collection ...
*
Axiom of infinity
In axiomatic set theory and the branches of mathematics and philosophy that use it, the axiom of infinity is one of the axioms of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. It guarantees the existence of at least one infinite set, namely a set containing t ...
*
Axiom of limitation of size
*
Axiom of union
In axiomatic set theory, the axiom of union is one of the axioms of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. This axiom was introduced by Ernst Zermelo.
The axiom states that for each set ''x'' there is a set ''y'' whose elements are precisely the eleme ...
*
Boltzmann brain
The Boltzmann brain thought experiment suggests that it might be more likely for a single brain to spontaneously form in a void (complete with a memory of having existed in our universe) rather than for the entire universe to come about in the ma ...
*
Choice function
A choice function (selector, selection) is a mathematical function ''f'' that is defined on some collection ''X'' of nonempty sets and assigns some element of each set ''S'' in that collection to ''S'' by ''f''(''S''); ''f''(''S'') maps ''S'' to ...
*
Cumulative hierarchy
In mathematics, specifically set theory, a cumulative hierarchy is a family of sets W_\alpha indexed by ordinals \alpha such that
* W_\alpha \subseteq W_
* If \lambda is a limit ordinal, then W_\lambda = \bigcup_ W_
Some authors additionally ...
*
Pairwise comparison
Pairwise comparison generally is any process of comparing entities in pairs to judge which of each entity is preferred, or has a greater amount of some quantitative property, or whether or not the two entities are identical. The method of pairwi ...
*
Von Neumann universe
In set theory and related branches of mathematics, the von Neumann universe, or von Neumann hierarchy of sets, denoted by ''V'', is the class of hereditary well-founded sets. This collection, which is formalized by Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory ...
*
14990 Zermelo,
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
References
*
*
Grattan-Guinness, Ivor (2000) ''The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940''. Princeton University Press.
*
*
*
Ebbinghaus, Heinz-Dieter (2007) ''Ernst Zermelo: An Approach to His Life and Work''. Springer.
External links
*
*
Zermelo Navigation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zermelo, Ernst
1871 births
1953 deaths
20th-century German philosophers
19th-century German mathematicians
Mathematical logicians
Writers from Berlin
People from the Province of Brandenburg
Set theorists
University of Zurich faculty
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni
University of Freiburg alumni
University of Freiburg faculty
University of Göttingen faculty
German male writers
20th-century German mathematicians