Mathematics
From the publication of his first paper in 1929, during his days as a student, until his death, Ulam was constantly writing on mathematics. The list of Ulam's publications, which includes more than 150 papers, contains many on pure mathematics. Some topics represented here by a significant number of papers are: set theory (including measurable cardinals and abstract measures), topology, transformation theory, ergodic theory, group theory, projective algebra, number theory, combinatorics, and graph theory.
Ulam's colleague at Colorado, Jan Mycielski, has given his perspective on Ulam's contributions to mathematics. In their paper honoring the 100th anniversary of his birth, Ciesielski and Rassias give more insight, and note that, in March 2009, the Mathematical Reviews database contained an "amazing" 697 papers with the name "Ulam" in their titles. Paul Erdős has also commented on Ulam's work in mathematics.
Some notable results of this work are:
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Read more about this topic: Stanislaw Ulam
Famous quotes containing the word mathematics:
“Mathematics alone make us feel the limits of our intelligence. For we can always suppose in the case of an experiment that it is inexplicable because we don’t happen to have all the data. In mathematics we have all the data ... and yet we don’t understand. We always come back to the contemplation of our human wretchedness. What force is in relation to our will, the impenetrable opacity of mathematics is in relation to our intelligence.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“In mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater:
For he, by geometric scale,
Could take the size of pots of ale;
Resolve, by sines and tangents straight,
If bread and butter wanted weight;
And wisely tell what hour o’ th’ day
The clock doth strike, by algebra.”
—Samuel Butler (1612–1680)
“Why does man freeze to death trying to reach the North Pole? Why does man drive himself to suffer the steam and heat of the Amazon? Why does he stagger his mind with the mathematics of the sky? Once the question mark has arisen in the human brain the answer must be found, if it takes a hundred years. A thousand years.”
—Walter Reisch (1903–1963)