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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.
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