Erland Samuel Bring (19 August 1736 – 20 May 1798) was a Swedish mathematician. Bring studied at

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

between 1750 and 1757. In 1762 he obtained a position of a reader in history and was promoted to professor in 1779. At Lund he wrote eight volumes of mathematical work in the fields of algebra, geometry, analysis and astronomy, including ''Meletemata quaedam mathematica circa transformationem aequationum algebraicarum'' (1786). This work describes Bring's contribution to the

algebraic solution A solution in radicals or algebraic solution is an expression of a solution of a polynomial equation that is algebraic, that is, relies only on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, raising to integer powers, and extraction of t ...

of equations. Bring had developed an important transformation to simplify a

quintic equation In mathematics, a quintic function is a function of the form :g(x)=ax^5+bx^4+cx^3+dx^2+ex+f,\, where , , , , and are members of a field, typically the rational numbers, the real numbers or the complex numbers, and is nonzero. In other word ...

to the form

x^5 + px + q = 0

(see Bring radical). In 1832–35 the same transformation was independently derived by George Jerrard. However, whereas Jerrard knew from the past work by

Paolo Ruffini Paolo Ruffini (22 September 1765 – 10 May 1822) was an Italian mathematician and philosopher. Education and career By 1788 he had earned university degrees in philosophy, medicine/surgery and mathematics. His works include developments in a ...

and

Niels Henrik Abel Niels Henrik Abel ( , ; 5 August 1802 – 6 April 1829) was a Norwegian mathematician who made pioneering contributions in a variety of fields. His most famous single result is the first complete proof demonstrating the impossibility of solvin ...

that a general quintic equation can not be solved, this fact was not known to Bring, putting him in a disadvantage.J J O'Connor and E F Robertso
Erland Samuel Bring
/ref> Bring's curve is named after him.

References

1736 births 1798 deaths 18th-century Swedish mathematicians Algebraists Lund University alumni Academic staff of Lund University {{Sweden-mathematician-stub