George David Birkhoff facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
George David Birkhoff
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | March 21, 1884 |
| Died | November 12, 1944 (aged 60) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard University University of Chicago |
| Known for | Ergodic theorem Birkhoff's axioms |
| Awards | Bôcher Memorial Prize (1923) Newcomb Cleveland Prize (1926) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Harvard University Yale University Princeton University Radcliffe College |
| Doctoral advisor | E. H. Moore |
| Doctoral students | Clarence Adams Raymond Brink Robert D. Carmichael Bernard Koopman Rudolph Langer Charles Morrey Marston Morse G. Baley Price I. M. Sheffer Marshall H. Stone Joseph L. Walsh Hassler Whitney David Widder Kenneth Williams |
George David Birkhoff (born March 21, 1884 – died November 12, 1944) was an American mathematician. He is most famous for something called the ergodic theorem. Birkhoff was one of the most important leaders in American mathematics during his time. Many people thought he was the best American mathematician of his generation.
His home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, called the George D. Birkhoff House, is now a special National Historic Landmark.
Contents
About His Life
George David Birkhoff was born in Overisel Township, Michigan. His parents were David Birkhoff and Jane Gertrude Droppers. His son, Garrett Birkhoff (1911–1996), also became a famous mathematician.
His Career and Studies
Birkhoff studied at Harvard University, where he earned his first two degrees. He then got his Ph.D. (a very high degree in academics) in 1907 from the University of Chicago. His Ph.D. work was about differential equations, which are special math problems that describe how things change.
Even though E. H. Moore was his official advisor, Birkhoff was greatly inspired by the writings of another famous mathematician, Henri Poincaré. After teaching for a short time at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Princeton University, he joined Harvard University in 1912. He taught there until he passed away.
Awards and Special Recognitions
In 1923, George Birkhoff received the very first Bôcher Memorial Prize. This is a major award given by the American Mathematical Society. He won it for a paper he wrote in 1917, which included an idea now called the Birkhoff curve shortening process.
He was also chosen to be a member of many important groups, including:
- the United States National Academy of Sciences
- the American Philosophical Society
- the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- the Académie des Sciences in Paris (France)
- the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (in Vatican City)
- the London and Edinburgh Mathematical Societies (in the United Kingdom)
Today, there is a special award named after him, the George David Birkhoff Prize. It is given for important work in applied mathematics.
His Service to Mathematics
George Birkhoff helped lead the American Mathematical Society:
- He was the Vice-President from 1919.
- He was the President from 1925 to 1926.
- He was an editor for a math journal called Transactions of the American Mathematical Society from 1920 to 1924.
His Important Math Work
George Birkhoff made many important contributions to mathematics.
In 1912, he tried to solve the four color problem. This problem asks if you can color any map using only four colors so that no two neighboring countries have the same color. To do this, he created something called the chromatic polynomial. Even though his method didn't solve the four color problem, the chromatic polynomial itself became a very important tool in a field of math called algebraic graph theory.
In 1913, he solved a famous math problem known as Poincaré's "Last Geometric Theorem." This was a special part of the three-body problem, which is about how three objects move under each other's gravity (like planets orbiting a star). Solving this problem made him famous around the world.
In 1927, he published a book called Dynamical Systems. This book is about how systems change and evolve over time. He also wrote about the basic ideas of relativity and quantum mechanics, which are two big areas of physics. In 1923, he proved something important about black holes. He showed that a special type of black hole (called the Schwarzschild geometry) is the only one that can exist if it's perfectly round. This meant that black holes weren't just a math idea, but could actually form from very massive stars.
Birkhoff's most lasting achievement was his discovery of the ergodic theorem in 1931. This theorem helps predict the long-term behavior of systems that change over time, like how gases behave in a container. It combined ideas from physics and a math area called measure theory. The ergodic theorem has been very important in many fields, including probability theory and functional analysis.
He also worked on number theory (the study of numbers), the Riemann–Hilbert problem, and continued to think about the four colour problem. He even came up with his own way to set up the rules of Euclidean geometry, which was different from other mathematicians' ideas. This work led to his textbook, Basic Geometry (1941).
In 1933, he wrote a book called Aesthetic Measure. In this book, he suggested a mathematical theory of aesthetics, which means using math to understand what makes things beautiful. To write this book, he spent a year studying art, music, and poetry from different cultures around the world.
Discussions About Hiring
During the 1930s, many mathematicians came to the USA from Europe. There were some discussions and disagreements about George Birkhoff's influence on who was hired for jobs at American universities. Some people, like Albert Einstein, felt that Birkhoff's actions made it harder for certain groups of mathematicians to get jobs.
However, others, like Saunders Mac Lane, believed that Birkhoff's main goal was to help American mathematicians who had studied in the USA find jobs. He wanted to make sure there were good opportunities for them.
Selected Books
- Birkhoff, George David and Ralph Beatley. 1959. Basic Geometry, 3rd ed. Chelsea Publishing Co. [Reprint: American Mathematical Society, 2000. ISBN: 978-0-8218-2101-5]
See also
In Spanish: George David Birkhoff para niños
- Birkhoff factorization
- Birkhoff–Grothendieck theorem
- Birkhoff's theorem
- Birkhoff's axioms
- Birkhoff interpolation
- Birkhoff–Kellogg invariant-direction theorem
- Poincaré–Birkhoff theorem
- Equidistribution theorem
- Chromatic polynomial
- Recurrent point
- Topological dynamics
