Christian Goldbach
Encyclopedia
Christian Goldbach was a German
mathematician
who also studied law
. He is remembered today for Goldbach's conjecture
.
, part of Brandenburg-Prussia
, Goldbach was the son of a pastor. He studied at the Royal Albertus University
.
After finishing his studies he went on long educational voyages from 1710 to 1724 through Europe, visiting other German states, England, Holland, Italy, and France, meeting with many famous mathematicians, such as Gottfried Leibniz
, Leonhard Euler
, and Nicholas I Bernoulli. Back in Königsberg he got acquainted with Georg Bernhard Bilfinger
and Jakob Hermann
.
He went on to work at the newly opened St Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1725. Later on, he was a tutor to the later Tsar Peter II
in 1728. In 1742 he entered the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He died on November 20, 1764 at age of 74, at Moscow
.
. He also studied and proved some theorems on perfect powers, such as the Goldbach-Euler theorem, and made several notable contributions to analysis.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
who also studied law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
. He is remembered today for Goldbach's conjecture
Goldbach's conjecture
Goldbach's conjecture is one of the oldest unsolved problems in number theory and in all of mathematics. It states:A Goldbach number is a number that can be expressed as the sum of two odd primes...
.
Biography
Born in the Duchy of Prussia's capital KönigsbergKönigsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...
, part of Brandenburg-Prussia
Brandenburg-Prussia
Brandenburg-Prussia is the historiographic denomination for the Early Modern realm of the Brandenburgian Hohenzollerns between 1618 and 1701. Based in the Electorate of Brandenburg, the main branch of the Hohenzollern intermarried with the branch ruling the Duchy of Prussia, and secured succession...
, Goldbach was the son of a pastor. He studied at the Royal Albertus University
University of Königsberg
The University of Königsberg was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as second Protestant academy by Duke Albert of Prussia, and was commonly known as the Albertina....
.
After finishing his studies he went on long educational voyages from 1710 to 1724 through Europe, visiting other German states, England, Holland, Italy, and France, meeting with many famous mathematicians, such as Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....
, Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion...
, and Nicholas I Bernoulli. Back in Königsberg he got acquainted with Georg Bernhard Bilfinger
Georg Bernhard Bilfinger
Georg Bernhard Bilfinger , German philosopher, mathematician and statesman, son of a Lutheran minister, was born at Cannstatt in Württemberg....
and Jakob Hermann
Jakob Hermann
Jakob Hermann was a mathematician who worked on problems in classical mechanics. He is the author of Phoronomia, an early treatise on Mechanics. In 1729, he proclaimed that it was as easy to graph a locus on the polar coordinate system as it was to graph it on the Cartesian coordinate system...
.
He went on to work at the newly opened St Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1725. Later on, he was a tutor to the later Tsar Peter II
Peter II of Russia
Pyotr II Alekseyevich was Emperor of Russia from 1727 until his death. He was the only son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, son of Peter I of Russia by his first wife Eudoxia Lopukhina, and Princess Charlotte, daughter of Duke Louis Rudolph of Brunswick-Lüneburg and sister-in-law of Charles VI,...
in 1728. In 1742 he entered the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He died on November 20, 1764 at age of 74, at Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
Contributions
Goldbach is most noted for his correspondence with Leibniz, Euler, and Bernoulli, especially in his 1742 letter to Euler stating his Goldbach's ConjectureGoldbach's conjecture
Goldbach's conjecture is one of the oldest unsolved problems in number theory and in all of mathematics. It states:A Goldbach number is a number that can be expressed as the sum of two odd primes...
. He also studied and proved some theorems on perfect powers, such as the Goldbach-Euler theorem, and made several notable contributions to analysis.