1. The surname Pafnuty Chebyshev has been transliterated in several different ways, like Tchebichef, Tchebychev, Tchebycheff, Tschebyschev, Tschebyschef, Tschebyscheff, Cebycev, Cebysev, Chebysheff, Chebychov, Chebyshov, and Chebychev, a mixture between English and French transliterations considered erroneous.
Currently, the English transliteration Pafnuty Chebyshev has gained widespread acceptance, except by the French, who prefer Tchebychev.
One of nine children, Pafnuty Chebyshev was born in the village of Okatovo in the district of Borovsk, province of Kaluga.
Pafnuty Chebyshev's father, Lev Pavlovich, was a Russian nobleman and wealthy landowner.
Pafnuty Chebyshev Lvovich was first educated at home by his mother Agrafena Ivanovna Pozniakova and by his cousin Avdotya Kvintillianovna Sukhareva.
Pafnuty Chebyshev mentioned that his music teacher played an important role in his education, for she "raised his mind to exactness and analysis".
Pafnuty Chebyshev's disability prevented his playing many children's games and he devoted himself instead to mathematics.
In summer 1837, Pafnuty Chebyshev passed the registration examinations and, in September of that year, began his mathematical studies at the second philosophical department of Moscow University.
In 1841 Pafnuty Chebyshev was awarded the silver medal for his work "calculation of the roots of equations" which he had finished in 1838.
In 1847, Pafnuty Chebyshev promoted his thesis pro venia legendi "On integration with the help of logarithms" at St Petersburg University and thus obtained the right to teach there as a lecturer.
Pafnuty Chebyshev was elected an extraordinary professor at St Petersburg University in 1850, ordinary professor in 1860 and, after 25 years of lectureship, he became merited professor in 1872.
Pafnuty Chebyshev accepted other honorary appointments and was decorated several times.
In 1856, Pafnuty Chebyshev became a member of the scientific committee of the ministry of national education.
In 1878, Pafnuty Chebyshev presented a paper on garment cutting, inspired by a lecture by Edouard Lucas, to the French Association for the Advancement of the Sciences.
Pafnuty Chebyshev is known for his work in the fields of probability, statistics, mechanics, and number theory.
The Pafnuty Chebyshev inequality is used to prove the weak law of large numbers.
Pafnuty Chebyshev was the first person to think systematically in terms of random variables and their moments and expectations.
Pafnuty Chebyshev is considered to be a founding father of Russian mathematics.