Arithmetization of analysis
The phrase "arithmetization of analysis" refers to 19th century efforts to create a "theory of real numbers ... using set-theoretic constructions, starting from the natural numbers." [1] These efforts took place over a period of about 50 years, which saw the following:
- the establishment of fundamental concepts related to limits
- the derivation of the main theorems concerning those concepts
- the creation of the theory of real numbers.
"The theory of real numbers is logically the starting point of analysis in the real domain; historically its creation marks the end of this period."[2]
Prior to these efforts, analysis rested on two pillars: the discrete side on arithmetic, the continuous side on geometry. [3]
"The analytic work of L. Euler, K. Gauss, A. Cauchy, B. Riemann, and others led to a shift towards the predominance of algebraic and arithmetic ideas. In the late nineteenth century, this tendency culminated in the so-called arithmetization of analysis, due principally to K. Weierstrass, G. Cantor, and R. Dedekind."[4]
Notes
- ↑ Arithmetization
- ↑ Vojtěch Jarník (author); Josef Novák (other); Jaroslav Folta (other); Jiří Jarník (other): Bolzano and the Foundations of Mathematical Analysis. (English). Praha: Society of Czechoslovak Mathematicians and Physicists, 1981. pp. 33--42, http://dml.cz/dmlcz/400082.
- ↑ Stillwell
- ↑ Hatcher 2000, 3.2 The Arithmetization of Analysis
References
- Arithmetization, Encyclopedia of Mathematics. URL: http://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=Arithmetization&oldid=31486
- Hatcher, William S. (2000), Foundations of Mathematics: An Overview at the Close of the Second Millenium, Switzerland: Landegg Academy, URL: http://bahai-library.com/hatcher_foundations_mathematics
- Stillwell, John Colin (2013) "The Arithmetizaton of Analysis". Encyclopedia Britannica
Arithmetization of analysis. Encyclopedia of Mathematics. URL: http://encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=Arithmetization_of_analysis&oldid=31783