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The Mersenne Society

A WSU Math Circle Reading Program


|  Schedule  |  Sugested Readings  |  Book Reviews  |  Member Contributions  |  Links  |

The WSU Math Circle is organizing a new program. It is called The Mersenne Society of Mathematics. A flyer is available for viewing and downloading.   A registration form must be completed for membership

In the directory "Suggested Readings" (above) will be a listing of books that should appeal to the members (That does not mean you have to read them all!).  The directory "Book Reviews"  will contain reviews written by members of books they have read.  The directory "Members Contributions" will contain papers written by members--these could be brief biographies or interesting historical information that a member wishes to share. The directory "Links" will contain links to web pages that may be of interest to the members.

The Mersenne Society was created to keep young people interested in mathematics by reading about its history and the people involved with the development of mathematics. The organization gets its name from Marin Mersenne.


Mersenne

Marin Mersenne

Although he was a French clergy and not really a mathematician, the role of the Frenchman Marin Mersenne as a sort of clearing house and go-between for mathematical thought in France during the 17th Century was crucial. Mersenne corresponded, and shared correspondence, with the great mathematicians of the period: Pascal and his father, Fermat, Descartes, and Roberval, to name a few. Here is a quote from his biography on the St. Andrew's site.

From 1623 he (Mersenne) began to make a careful selection of savants who met at his convent in Paris or corresponded with him from all across Europe and even from as far afield as Constantinople and Transylvania (present-day Hungary). His regular visitors, or correspondents, included Peiresc, Gassendi, Descartes, Roberval, Beeckman, J B van Helmont, Fermat, Hobbes, Etienne Pascal, and his son Blaise Pascal. He set up meetings of scholars from around Europe during which they would read and review scientific papers, both national and international, exchange contacts with other scholars and plan and discuss experiments and other work. This came to be known as the Academie Parisiensis and sometimes among friends as the Academie Mersenne. It was notably one of most resourceful centers of research at that time, meeting weekly at members' houses and later in Mersenne's cell due to his weakened health. The list of Mersenne's correspondents kept increasing and Mersenne himself did not hesitate to travel to meetings with scholars all around Europe.

When do we meet

The Mersenne Society meets the last Saturday of the month from 3:30 to 4:30 pm. If you are interested, the registration and consent form must be filled out and sent to:    Mersenne Society | Box 33 | Wichita State University | 1845 Fairmount St. Wichita, Kansas 67260-033




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