1. Charles Hermite was the first to prove that e, the base of natural logarithms, is a transcendental number.
15 Facts About Charles Hermite
1. 2.
Charles Hermite's methods were used later by Ferdinand von Lindemann to prove that is transcendental.
3.
Charles Hermite was born in Dieuze, Moselle, on 24 December 1822, with a deformity in his right foot that would impair his gait throughout his life.
4.
Charles Hermite was the sixth of seven children of Ferdinand Hermite and his wife, Madeleine nee Lallemand.
5.
Charles Hermite obtained his secondary education at College de Nancy and then, in Paris, at College Henri IV and at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand.
6.
Charles Hermite read some of Joseph-Louis Lagrange's writings on the solution of numerical equations and Carl Friedrich Gauss's publications on number theory.
7.
Charles Hermite wanted to take his higher education at Ecole Polytechnique, a military academy renowned for excellence in mathematics, science, and engineering.
8.
However, after one year the school would not allow Charles Hermite to continue his studies there because of his deformed foot.
9.
Charles Hermite struggled to regain his admission to the school, but the administration imposed strict conditions.
10.
Charles Hermite did not accept this, and he quit the Ecole Polytechnique without graduating.
11.
Charles Hermite married Joseph Bertrand's sister, Louise Bertrand, in 1848.
12.
In 1848, Charles Hermite returned to the Ecole Polytechnique as repetiteur and examinateur d'admission.
13.
An inspiring teacher, Charles Hermite strove to cultivate admiration for simple beauty and discourage rigorous minutiae.
14.
Charles Hermite's published courses of lectures have exercised a great influence.
15.
In 1858, Charles Hermite showed that equations of the fifth degree could be solved by elliptic functions.