Mathematical Induction

Title page of the arithmetic of Peter Apian, showing the Pascal triangle. (From Rara
Arithmetica by David Eugene Smith, published by Chelsea Publishing Company in 1970.)

Francesco Maurolicos Use of Induction

Francesco Maurolico (14941575) is generally acknowledged to have been one of the
foremost mathematicians of the sixteenth century. For instance, of his treatises on the
treasures of classical mathematicsa text on the Conics of Apollonius and a collection of
writings of Archimedesthe works of Archimedes did not appear until 1685, the first edition
of 1594 having been lost at sea.
The earliest mathematician who appeared in the fixing of a name to this process of
argumentation was John Wallis; in his Arithmetica Infinitorum (1656), he found per modum
inductionis the ratio of the sum of the squares 0; 1; 4; 9; : : : ; n
2
to the product n
2
(n + 1).
Augustus De Morgans article Induction (Mathematics) in the Penny Cyclopedia (1838)
suggested the name successive induction for the method, but at the end of the article De
Morgan incidentally referred to it as mathematical induction, which is the first use of the
term. The expression complete induction attained popularity in Germany after Dedekind used



it in a paper in 1887. In the present century, the name mathematical induction has gained
complete ascendancy over other descriptive terms.
Maurolicos reconstruction of the Conics was completed in 1547, but not published until
1654, by which time several other versions had appeared. The chief record of his optical
research, Photismi de Lumine et Umbra (1611) anticipated many of the findings in Keplers
own Astronomiae Pars Optica of 1604.
The greatest number of Maurolicos mathematical writings are gathered together in his
Opuscula Mathematica and Arithmeticorum Libri Duo, which were published as companion
pieces at Venice in 1575.




9.3 The Bernoullis and Laplace

Christiaan Huygenss Pamphlet on Probability


Christiaan Huygens
(16291695)
(Extract taken from A History of Science, Technology
and Philosophy in the 16th and 17th Centuries, by A.
Wolf. Reproduced by kind permission of Unwin Hyman
Ltd.)
















Descartes, fearing the censure of the Catholic Church, chose to live for 20 years in the Dutch
Republic where he was able to publish the Discours de la Methode pour bien conduire sa
Raison.
The leading continental scientist of the late seventeenth century was Christiaan Huygens
(16291695), a native of the Hague. Taught by tutors at home until the age of 16, he attended
the University of Leiden from 1647 until 1649. By 1666 his renown as a physicist,
astronomer, and mathematician was such that Louis XIV offered him a senior position in the
newly founded Academie des Sciences, along with a substantial stipend and free living
quarters. His stay in Paris lasted until 1681 when he returned to his Dutch homeland to
recover from illness. In the last years of his life, Huygens brought out the treatise Traite de
la Lumi`ere, describing his radically new wave theory of light.
The earliest work on the mathematical treatment of probability is the De Ratiociniis in Ludo
Aleae of Huygens. It appeared first as an appendix to Frans van Schootens Exercitationes
Mathematicae (Mathematical Exercises), printed in Leyden in 1657.


The Bernoulli Brothers: John and James
The Bernoulli family, Protestant in faith, fled Antwerp in 1583, after it had been captured by
Catholic Spain. The first to attain prominence were the brothers James (Jacques, Jacob)
Bernoulli and John (Jean, Johann) Bernoulli, grandsons of the fugitive from Antwerp. Their
careers form the connecting link between the mathematics of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.




James Bernoulli
(16541705)
(Extract taken from A History of Science, Technology
and Philosophy in the 18th Century, by A. Wolf. Reproduced
by kind permission of Unwin Hyman Ltd.)

James Bernoulli (16541705), carrying out his fathers wish for him to enter the ministry,
took a degree in theology at the University of Basel in 1676. During the years 16761682,
Bernoulli traveled widely in France, England, and the Netherlands, familiarizing himself with
the work of the leading mathematicians and scientists. In 1682, he opened a school for
mathematics and science in his native city of Basel, presumably distilling the fruits of his new
learning. Five years later, Bernoulli was appointed professor of mathematics at the University
of Basel, holding the chair until his death.
The essentials of the differential calculus first appeared in print in a six-page paper by
Leibniz in the Acta Eruditorum of 1684, and the essentials of the integral calculus followed in
1686. It is said that when the aging Huygens in 1690 wanted to master the newly proposed
methods, there were not half a dozen men qualified to expound on the subject.
When he died in 1705, the all-but-complete manuscript was given to his 18-year-old nephew,
Nicholas Bernoulli, with a view to editing it for publication. The Ars Conjectandi was
published in Latin in 1713, eight years after James Bernoullis death.
The Ars Conjectandi comes in four parts. The first is a reproduction of Huygenss De
Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae. The second part of the Ars Conjectandi contains practically all the
standard results on permutations and combinations in the form in which they are still
expressed. In this part, he gave an array
1 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 0 0 0 0
1 2 1 0 0 0
1 3 3 1 0 0
1 4 6 4 1 0
1 5 10 10 5 1
. . . . . .