Eric Temple Bell

Born	February 7, 1883 Peterhead, Scotland
Died	December 21, 1960 Watsonville, California
Residence	United States of America
Nationality	Scottish
Field	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Washington California Institute of Technology
Alma mater	Stanford University Columbia University (Ph.D.)
Academic advisor	Frank Nelson Cole Cassius Keyser
Notable students	Howard Percy Robertson Morgan Ward
Known for	Number theory Bell series Bell polynomials Bell numbers
Notable prizes	Bôcher Memorial Prize (1924)

Eric Temple Bell (February 7, 1883, Peterhead, Scotland - December 21, 1960, Watsonville, California) was a mathematician and science fiction author born in Scotland who lived in the USA for most of his life. He published his non-fiction under his given name and his fiction as John Taine. Eric Bell may refer to: Eric Bell, Irish musician; lead guitarist for Thin Lizzy Eric Temple Bell, Scottish author and mathematician Eric Norman Frankland Bell, Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross Eric Bell (baseball) (b. ... is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1883 (MDCCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... , There is also a suburb of Adelaide named Peterhead, South Australia Peterhead called Ceann Phadraig in Gaelic is a town in Scotland with a population of approximately 18,000. ... This article is about the country. ... December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Scotland. ... This article is about the country. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, as imagined by by Raphael in this detail from The School of Athens. ... The University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. ... The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech)[1] is a private, coeducational research university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... “Stanford” redirects here. ... Columbia University is a private research university in the United States and a member of the prestigious Ivy League. ... Frank Nelson Cole, Ph. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Howard Percy Robertson (January 27, 1903 - August 26, 1961) was a scientist known for contributions related to cosmology and the uncertainty principle. ... Number theory is the branch of pure mathematics concerned with the properties of numbers in general, and integers in particular, as well as the wider classes of problems that arise from their study. ... In mathematics, the Bell series is a formal power series used to study properties of multiplicative arithmetical functions. ... In combinatorial mathematics, the Bell polynomials, named in honor of Eric Temple Bell, are given by the sum extending over all sequences j1, j2, j3, ..., jn−k+1 of positive integers such that Combinatorial meaning If the integer n is partitioned into a sum in which 1 appears j1... The Bell numbers, named in honor of Eric Temple Bell, are a sequence of integers arising in combinatorics that begins thus (sequence A000110 in OEIS): In general, Bn is the number of partitions of a set of size n. ... The Bôcher Memorial Prize was founded by the American Mathematical Society in 1923 in memory of Maxime Bôcher with an initial endowment of $1,450 (contributed by members of that society). ... is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1883 (MDCCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... , There is also a suburb of Adelaide named Peterhead, South Australia Peterhead called Ceann Phadraig in Gaelic is a town in Scotland with a population of approximately 18,000. ... This article is about the country. ... December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. ... Leonhard Euler, considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of mathematics. ... Note that this partial list contains some authors whose works of fantastic fiction would today be called science fiction, even if they predate, or did not work in that genre. ... This article is about the country. ...

Biography

He was born in Peterhead, Scotland; but his father, a fish-factor, moved to San Jose, California in 1884, when he was fifteen months old; the family returned to Bedford, England after his father's death, on January 4, 1896. Bell returned to the United States, by way of Montreal in 1902. , There is also a suburb of Adelaide named Peterhead, South Australia Peterhead called Ceann Phadraig in Gaelic is a town in Scotland with a population of approximately 18,000. ... This article is about the country. ... For other uses, see San José. Nickname: Location of San Jose within Santa Clara County, California. ... , Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... is the 4th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar). ... Nickname: Motto: Concordia Salus (well-being through harmony) Coordinates: , Country Province Founded 1642 Established 1832 Government  - Mayor Gérald Tremblay Area [1][2][3]  - City 365. ...

Bell attended Stanford University and Columbia University (where he was a student of Cassius Jackson Keyser) and was on the faculty first at the University of Washington and later at the California Institute of Technology. “Stanford” redirects here. ... Columbia University is a private research university in the United States and a member of the prestigious Ivy League. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... The University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. ... The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech)[1] is a private, coeducational research university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ...

He did research in number theory; see in particular Bell series. He attempted—not altogether successfully—to make the traditional umbral calculus (understood at that time to be the same thing as the "symbolic method" of Blissard) logically rigorous. He also did much work using generating functions, treated as formal power series, without concern for convergence. He is the eponym of the Bell polynomials and the Bell numbers of combinatorics.^[1] In 1924 he was awarded the Bôcher Memorial Prize for his work in mathematical analysis. Number theory is the branch of pure mathematics concerned with the properties of numbers in general, and integers in particular, as well as the wider classes of problems that arise from their study. ... In mathematics, the Bell series is a formal power series used to study properties of multiplicative arithmetical functions. ... In mathematics, before the 1970s, the term umbral calculus was understood to mean the surprising similarities between otherwise unrelated polynomial equations, and certain shadowy techniques that can be used to prove them. ... In mathematics a generating function is a formal power series whose coefficients encode information about a sequence an that is indexed by the natural numbers. ... In mathematics, a power series (in one variable) is an infinite series of the form where the coefficients an, the center c, and the argument x are usually real or complex numbers. ... In the absence of a more specific context, convergence denotes the approach toward a definite value, as time goes on; or to a definite point, a common view or opinion, or toward a fixed or equilibrium state. ... In combinatorial mathematics, the Bell polynomials, named in honor of Eric Temple Bell, are given by the sum extending over all sequences j1, j2, j3, ..., jn−k+1 of positive integers such that Combinatorial meaning If the integer n is partitioned into a sum in which 1 appears j1... The Bell numbers, named in honor of Eric Temple Bell, are a sequence of integers arising in combinatorics that begins thus (sequence A000110 in OEIS): In general, Bn is the number of partitions of a set of size n. ... Combinatorics is a branch of pure mathematics concerning the study of discrete (and usually finite) objects. ... The Bôcher Memorial Prize was founded by the American Mathematical Society in 1923 in memory of Maxime Bôcher with an initial endowment of $1,450 (contributed by members of that society). ... Analysis has its beginnings in the rigorous formulation of calculus. ...

Fiction and poetry

In the early 1920's, Bell wrote several long poems. He also wrote several science fiction novels, which independently invented some of the earliest devices and ideas of science fiction.^[2] Only The Purple Sapphire was published at the time, under the pseudonym John Taine; this was before Hugo Gernsback and the genre publication of science fiction. His novels were published later, both in book form and serialized in the magazines. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... A pseudonym (Greek: , pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons legal name. ... Hugo Gernsback (August 16, 1884 - August 19, 1967) was an inventor and magazine publisher who also wrote science fiction and whose publication included the first science fiction magazine. ...

Writing about mathematics

Men of Mathematics by E.T. Bell

Bell wrote a book of biographical sketches titled Men of Mathematics, (one chapter of which was the first popular account of the 19th century woman mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya) and which is still in print. The book inspired many people to take up mathematics, though later historians of mathematics have disputed the accuracy of much of Bell's history. Bell romanticized Évariste Galois to a point that Tony Rothman describes as deliberate fiction, the creation of a legend.^[3] His treatment of Georg Cantor, which reduced his relationships with his father and with Leopold Kronecker to stereotypes, has been even more severely criticized.^[4] Image File history File links Men_of_Mathematics. ... Image File history File links Men_of_Mathematics. ... Men of Mathematics by E.T. Bell Men of Mathematics is a well-known book on the history of mathematics written by the mathematician E.T. Bell. ... Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (Russian Софья Васильевна Ковалевская), also known as Sonya Kovalevsky (January 15, 1850-February 10, 1891), was the first major Russian female mathematician, and also the first woman who was appointed to a full professorship in Europe 1889 (Sweden). ... Galois at the age of fifteen from the pencil of a classmate. ... Tony Rothman (b. ... Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor (March 3, 1845, St. ... Leopold Kronecker Leopold Kronecker (December 7, 1823 - December 29, 1891) was a German mathematician and logician who argued that arithmetic and analysis must be founded on whole numbers, saying, God made the integers; all else is the work of man (Bell 1986, p. ...

Bell's later book, Development of Mathematics has been less famous, but Constance Reid finds it has many fewer weaknesses. The Last Problem is a hybrid, between a social history and a history of mathematics.

Works

Non-fiction books

• An Arithmetical Theory of Certain Numerical Functions, Seattle Washington, The University, 1915, 50p.
• The Cyclotomic Quinary Quintic, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, The New Era Printing Company, 1912, 97p.
• Algebraic Arithmetic, New York, American Mathematical Society, 1927, 180p.
• Debunking Science, Seattle, University of Washington book store, 1930, 40p.
• The Search for Truth, Baltimore, Reynal and Hitchcock, 1934, 279p.
  • Reprint: Williams and Wilkins Co, 1935
• Man and His Lifebelts, New York, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1938, 340p.
  • Reprint: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1935, 2nd printing 1946
  • Reprint: Kessinger Publishing, 2005
• Men of Mathematics, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1937, 592p.
• The Development of Mathematics, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1945, 637p.
  • Reprint: New York, McGraw-Hill, 1945
  • Reprint: Dover Publications, 1992
• The Magic of Numbers, Whittlesey House, 1946, 418p.
  • Reprint: New York, Dover Publications, 1991, ISBN 0-486-26788-1, 418p.
  • Reprint: Sacred Science Institute, 2006
• Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Science (1951)
• The Last Problem, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1961, 308p.
  • Reprint: Mathematical Association of America, 1990, ISBN 0-88385-451-1, 326p.
• Numerology, Hyperion Press, 1979, ISBN 0-88355-774-6, 195p.
• Queen Of The Sciences

Dover Publications is a book publisher founded in 1941. ... Jean-François Millet Le Semeur (The Sower) Simon & Schuster logo, circa 1961. ... The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on undergraduate mathematics education. ...

Scholarly papers

• [This subsection needs attention.]

Novels

• The Purple Sapphire (1924)
• The Gold Tooth (1927)
• Quayle's Invention (1927)
• Green Fire (1928)
• The Greatest Adventure (1929)
• The Crystal Horde (1930)
• The Iron Star (1930)
• The Time Stream (1931)
• Seeds of Life (1931)
• Before the Dawn (1934)
• The Forbidden Garden (1947)
• The Cosmic Geoids and One Other (1949)
• The Crystal Horde (1952)
• G.O.G. 666 (1954)

Poetry

• The Singer (1916)

Quotes

• "Time makes fools of us all. Our only comfort is that greater shall come after us."[1]

Notes

1. ^ He is not the eponym of the "bell curve", which is so called because of its apparent similarity in shape to the cross-section of a bell.
2. ^ Reid, Constance (1993). The Search for E.T. Bell, also known as John Taine. ISBN 0-88385-508-9. “"Most fiction writers are, after all, primarily fiction writers," he [Glenn Hughes, professor of English literature] wrote of Bell. "Some of them may show a trifle more finesse in plot handling or characterization, but none of them surpasses Bell in grandness of conception or accuracy of detail. One has always the uncanny feeling that [he] is dealing in probabilities, and that many of his most extravagant dreams are but pre-visions of nightmares in store for the human race.” 
3. ^ "Genius and Biographers: The Fictionalization of Evariste Galois" by Tony Rothman; American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 89, No. 2. (Feb., 1982), pp. 84-106; citation p. 103. JSTOR URL
4. ^ See chiefly Ivor Grattan-Guiness: "Towards a Biography of Georg Cantor", Annals of Science, 27 (1971), 345-391

The normal distribution, also called the Gaussian distribution, is an important family of continuous probability distributions, applicable in many fields. ...

References

• Constance Reid. The Search for E.T. Bell, Also Known as John Taine. Washington, DC, Mathematical Association of America, 1993, ISBN 0-88385-508-9, x, 372p.
• Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent, 36. ISBN 0-911682-20-1. 

Author of A Handbook of Science Fiction and Fantasy. ...

External links

• Biographical sketch by Constance Reid
• O'Connor, John J; Edmund F. Robertson "Eric Temple Bell". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.  
• Eric Temple Bell at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Eric Temple Bell at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database