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Chinguetti

(Encyclopedia)Chinguetti, town, central Mauritania, on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar. Founded in the 8th cent., it was a center on several trans-Saharan trade routes...

Gullstrand, Allvar

(Encyclopedia)Gullstrand, Allvar älˈvär gŭlˈstränd [key], 1862–1930, Swedish ophthalmologist. He was professor (1894–1927) successively of eye therapy and of optics at the Univ. of Uppsala. He applied the...

Pratt, Orson

(Encyclopedia)Pratt, Orson, 1811–81, Mormon apostle, b. Hartford, N.Y.; brother of Parley Parker Pratt. He joined (1830) the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and became (1835) an apostle. An eloquent s...

Hermite, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Hermite, Charles shärl ĕrmētˈ [key], 1822–1901, French mathematician. A professor at the École polytechnique, Paris (1869–76), and at the Faculty of Sciences (1869–97), he exerted a strong ...

Boole, George

(Encyclopedia)Boole, George, 1815–64, English mathematician and logician. He became professor at Queen's College, Cork, in 1849. Boole wrote An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854) and works on calculus an...

combinatorics

(Encyclopedia)combinatorics kŏmˌbĭnətôrˈēəl [key], sometimes called the science of counting, the branch of mathematics concerned with the selection, arrangement, and operation of elements within sets. Combi...

Hilbert, David

(Encyclopedia)Hilbert, David, 1862–1943, German mathematician, professor at Königsberg (1886–95) and Göttingen (1895–1930), b. Königsberg, Germany. His proof of the theorum of invariants (1890) supplanted ...

axiom

(Encyclopedia)axiom, in mathematics and logic, general statement accepted without proof as the basis for logically deducing other statements (theorems). Examples of axioms used widely in mathematics are those relat...

Ramelli, Agostino

(Encyclopedia)Ramelli, Agostino ägōstēˈnō rämĕlˈlē [key], c.1531–c.1600, Italian engineer who served in the armies of the marquis de Marignan and of the duc d'Anjou (later Henry III of France). His book,...

Rheticus

(Encyclopedia)Rheticus (Georg Joachim von Lauchen) rāˈtēko͝os, gāˈôrk yōäˈkhĭm fən louˈkhən [key], 1514–76, German astronomer, mathematician, and first disciple of Copernicus. In 1540 he printed a s...