Jules Tannery

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Jules Tannery
Jules Tannery.jpg
Jules Tannery (1848-1910). Photo by A. Gerschel & Sons (c. 1866).
Born (1848-03-24)24 March 1848
Mantes-sur-Seine, France
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Paris, France
Nationality French
Fields Mathematician
Institutions École Normale Supérieure
Université de Paris
Sorbonne
Alma mater École Normale Supérieure
Doctoral advisor Charles Hermite
Doctoral students Albert Châtelet
Jacques Hadamard
Known for Philosophy of mathematics
Influenced Paul Tannery
Paul Painlevé
Jules Drach
Émile Borel
Élie Cartan
Notes
Brother of Paul Tannery

Jules Tannery (24 March 1848 – 11 December 1910) was a French mathematician, brother of the mathematician and historian of science Paul Tannery, who notably studied under Charles Hermite and was the PhD advisor of Jacques Hadamard. Tannery's theorem on interchange of limits and series is named after him.[1]

Under Hermite, he received a doctorate in 1874 for his thesis Propriétés des intégrales des équations différentielles linéaires à coefficients variables.

Tannery was an advocate for mathematics education, particular as a means to train children in logical consequence through synthetic geometry and mathematical proofs.[2]

Tannery discovered a surface of the fourth order of which all the geodesic lines are algebraic. He was not an inventor, however, but essentially a critic and methodologist. He once remarked, "Mathematicians are so used to their symbols and have so much fun playing with them, that it is sometimes necessary to take their toys away from them in order to oblige them to think."

He notably influenced Pierre Duhem, Paul Painlevé, Jules Drach, and Émile Borel to take up science.

His efforts were mainly directed to the study of the mathematical foundations and of the philosophical ideas implied in mathematical thinking. Tannery was "an original thinker, a successful teacher, and a writer endowed with an unusually clear, brilliant and attractive style."[3]

Works

References

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  2. Jules Tannery The Teaching of Elementary Geometry via Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences
  3. G. B. Mathews (1910) Jules Tannery Nature 85:175 (#2145)
  • George Sarton (1947) "Paul, Jules, and Marie Tannery (with a note on Grégoire Wyrouboff)", Isis 38 (1/2): 33–51.

External links