Bernhard riemann mathematician biography
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Georg Friedrich Bernhard Rieman - Life
Milena Hering
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann was born in Breselenz, Germany, on September 17th 1826. He was the second of 6 children of a Protestant minister and received his elementary education from his father, later assisted by a local teacher. At Easter in 1840 he moved to Hannover, where he stayed with his grandmother to visit the Lyceum. When his grandmother died two years later, he went to the Johanneum in Lueneburg. Because he was interested in mathematical matters beyond school, the director, Mr. Schmalfuss, encouraged him to do mathematics through lending him books about mathematics, which he would bring back a few days later to discuss them. Probably Euler and Legendres ``Théorie des Nombres" were among them.
In spring term 1846 he enrolled in the University of Göttingen, where he started studying theology and philology. But he always attended classes in mathematics, too, and finally his father gave him permission to do only mathematics. In this time, mathematical education in Göttingen was quite poor, even Gauss only taught elementary classes in applied mathematics and so Riemann moved to Berlin in spring 1847. There were Jacobi, Steiner and Dirichlet, who would have great influence on him.
In spring 1849 he returned to Göttingen, where the situation had changed due to the return of W.Weber. He took courses in physics, philosophy and education. In 1851 he wrote his thesis on complex function theory and Riemann surfaces and got his Ph.D. on December 16th.
The following two years he worked on his Habilitationsschrift about Fourier series. Of the three possible subjects for the Habilitationsvortrag, Gauss choose surprisingly the last: ``Über die Hypothesen, die der Geometrie zugrundeliegen", because he was curious how such a young man could handle a theme like that. A letter to his brot
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann
Quick Info
Breselenz, Hanover (now Germany)
Selasca, Italy
Biography
Bernhard Riemann's father, Friedrich Bernhard Riemann, was a Lutheran minister. Friedrich Riemann married Charlotte Ebell when he was in his middle age. Bernhard was the second of their six children, two boys and four girls. Friedrich Riemann acted as teacher to his children and he taught Bernhard until he was ten years old. At this time a teacher from a local school named Schulz assisted in Bernhard's education.In 1840 Bernhard entered directly into the third class at the Lyceum in Hannover. While at the Lyceum he lived with his grandmother but, in 1842, his grandmother died and Bernhard moved to the Johanneum Gymnasium in Lüneburg. Bernhard seems to have been a good, but not outstanding, pupil who worked hard at the classical subjects such as Hebrew and theology. He showed a particular interest in mathematics and the director of the Gymnasium allowed Bernhard to study mathematics texts from his own library. On one occasion he lent Bernhard Legendre's book on the theory of numbers and Bernhard read the 900 page book in six days.
In the spring of 1846 Riemann enrolled at the University of Göttingen. His father had encouraged him to study theology and so he entered the theology faculty. However he attended some mathematics lectures and asked his father if he could transfer to the faculty of philosophy so that he could study mathematics. Riemann was always very close to his family and he would never have changed courses without his father's permission. This was granted, however, and Riemann then took courses in mathematics from Moritz Stern and Gauss.
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Bernhard Riemann
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (17 September 1826 near Hanover – 20 July 1866 Selasca, Italy) was a German mathematician. He had a short life and did not write down very much about his discoveries, but the things he discovered were all extremely important and had a revolutionary effect on mathematics. He contributed to many fields of mathematics, such as analysis, geometry, mathematical physics and number theory. Today, many people see him as a great mathematician. He was among the first mathematicians that worked on complex analysis. The kind of geometry he started (which is called Riemannian geometry today) is one of the bases of the theory of relativity, developed by Albert Einstein.
Life
[change | change source]Childhood
[change | change source]Bernhard Riemann was the second child in a family of six children. His father was a Lutheranpastor. The family was very poor and did not have much to eat. Several of the children died, and Bernhard always had poor health. His parents were loving, but he was a very shy boy. Later in life he had to try very hard to be brave enough to speak in public. His father was one of his first teachers. The young boy was very keen to learn about everything. When he was ten he had a specialist maths teacher, but he was often better at maths than his teacher. When he was 14, he went to Hanover where he lived with his grandmother so that he could go to a Gymnasium school. His father wanted him to be a priest, but Bernhard was much too shy to preach to people. In the end he let him study maths.
There is a well-known story from Riemann’s school days. The school director, Milo Mizner, excused him from maths lessons because the lessons were much too easy for him. Bernhard asked the director whether he could borrow a difficult maths book to read, so the director lent him Théorie des Nombres (Theory of Numbers) by Legendre. This was a huge book with maths that was so difficult that only a few people in t
By Olivia Mancuso
Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866) was a shy German mathematician known for his fear of public speaking and the brilliant journey to overcome it. He became a mathematics professor after presenting a habilitation thesis on multidimensional spaces. His contributions to mathematics include Riemannian Geometry, which profoundly impacted Einstein's theory of relativity. Read on to learn about this prolific German mathematician!
Bernhard Riemann’s Early Life (1826-1846)
Bernhard Riemann was born on September 17, 1826, in Breselenz, a village in the Kingdom of Hanover (now known as Germany). His father was a poor Lutheran pastor who fought in the Napoleanic Wars, and his mother passed before Bernhard and his siblings reached adulthood.
Riemann was a timid child and often suffered from nervous breakdowns – especially when public speaking (this will be relevant later!). However, he showed great promise in mathematics and exhibited exceptional talent, particularly in his calculation abilities at a very young age.
After being homeschooled until age 14, Riemann went to Hanover to live with his grandmother and attend "lyceum," which we know as middle school in the United States. He later attended high school at Johanneum Lüneburg, where he studied the Bible rigorously, planning to follow in his father's footsteps. Though he had every intention of doing so, mathematics often stole his focus – and his teachers noticed. They were amazed by his ability to perform complex math equations – often quicker than themselves! Johanneum Lüneburg's principal even borrowed Riemann math books from his library, including Legendre's 900-page book on the theory of numbers. He read it in just six days.
After high school, Riemann attended the University of Göttingen to study Christian theology. However, mathematics drew his attention once again – and under the guidance of his professor, Carl Friedrich Gauss asked his fat