Levi Leonard Conant (March 3, 1857, Littleton, Massachusetts – October 11, 1916,

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

specializing in

trigonometry Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics concerned with relationships between angles and side lengths of triangles. In particular, the trigonometric functions relate the angles of a right triangle with ratios of its side lengths. The fiel ...

Education and career

He attended

Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...

, Andover and

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

(B.A., 1879, A.M., 1887) and later

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

(Ph.D., 1893), studying mathematics. He was professor of mathematics at the Dakota School of Mines from 1887 to 1890, then attended

Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research uni ...

for a year before beginning teaching at

Worcester Polytechnic Institute The Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is a Private university, private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1865, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities and now h ...

(WPI) in

in 1891, where he taught for the remainder of his life. He was head of the Mathematics Department at WPI from 1908 until his death, and was interim president from 1911 to 1913. He married twice, first in 1884 to Laura Chamberlain (died 1911) and again in 1912 to Emma B. Fisher. On October 11, 1916, aged 59, he was struck by a truck in front of his home and was killed.

The Number Concept

Conant's most significant work was his 1896 book ''The Number Concept: Its Origin and Development''. This was a seminal work in the

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour, wh ...

and

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

study of

numerals A numeral is a figure (symbol), word, or group of figures (symbols) or words denoting a number. It may refer to: * Numeral system used in mathematics * Numeral (linguistics), a part of speech denoting numbers (e.g. ''one'' and ''first'' in English ...

, focusing on the analysis of Native American number systems from a generally cultural evolutionist theoretical perspective. Conant's

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

data generally reflected the limited development of anthropology at the time. Conant's characterization of the numeral systems of Native American languages as 'primitive' or 'savage' is not widely accepted today. Conant's work, however, influenced scholars such as

Lucien Lévy-Bruhl Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (; 10 April 1857 – 13 March 1939) was a French scholar trained in philosophy who furthered anthropology with his contributions to the budding fields of sociology and ethnology. His primary field interest was ways of thinking. ...

, and represented the first systematic comparative analysis of numeral systems of North America.

Legacy

Conant left $10,000 to the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

in his will, which was disbursed in 1976 following the death of Conant's second wife. In 2000 the Society established a yearly prize ( Levi L. Conant Prize) in his name to honor the best expository paper published in the Bulletin of the AMS or the Notices of the AMS in the past five years.

Major works

*''The Number Concept: Its Origin and Development'' (1896) *''Original Exercises in Plane and Solid Geometry'' (1905) *''Plane and Spherical Trigonometry'' (1909)

References

*Anonymous. 1916. Notes and news. ''American Mathematical Monthly'' 23(10): 401. *Marquis, Albert Nelson, ed. 1908–09. ''Who's Who in America: a Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States.'' Chicago: Marquis.

External links

WPI Mathematical Sciences Department - History
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Mathematics Genealogy Project record
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conant, Levi L. 1857 births 1916 deaths Levi L. 19th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians People from Littleton, Massachusetts People from Worcester, Massachusetts Dartmouth College alumni Syracuse University alumni Clark University alumni Worcester Polytechnic Institute alumni Worcester Polytechnic Institute faculty Mathematicians from New York (state)