Questions tagged [cantor]
Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor (1845-1918) was a German mathematician who created set theory.
6 questions
31
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Did Galileo's writings on infinity influence Cantor?
To what extent was Cantor motivated by Galileo's paradox? More generally, to what extent were late 19th century mathematicians motivated by, or even aware of, Galileo's paradox?
This is an issue I've ...
- 3,787
15
votes
3
answers
865
views
Why did Cantor (and others) use $\mathfrak{c}$ for the continuum?
Kontinuum is German for continuum, but Cantor used $\mathfrak{c}$.
Revision. J.W.Perry questions whether or not Cantor ever in fact
used the symbol $\mathfrak{c}$. I must admit I just assumed that he ...
- 1,467
42
votes
3
answers
4k
views
What motivated Cantor to invent set theory?
I can't imagine mathematics without sets, but the question "what was mathematics like before there were sets" is not answerable, I think. Instead, a good answer to the title question should cover a ...
- 822
11
votes
1
answer
459
views
When did the word "Real number" begin to be used as an official terminology to refer to both rational and irrational numbers?
I am really curious about and struggling with finding when the word "Real number" began to be used as an official terminology to refer to both rational and irrational numbers.
In Wiki, it ...
- 213
5
votes
1
answer
710
views
Why was Kronecker dissatisfied with Cantor's submitted paper?
It is said here that
In 1874 Cantor published an article in Crelle's Journal which marks the birth of set theory. A follow-up paper was submitted by Cantor to Crelle's Journal in 1878 but already set ...
- 205
0
votes
0
answers
443
views
Has Cantor's irregular enumeration of rationals ever been discussed?
Enumeration of all positive fractions recently has gained renewed interest (see the list below).
By translation invariance we can be sure that in all intervals (n, n+1] of the real axis, there are the ...
