Theory of Numbers
Mersenne
Marin Mersenne was a French number theorist who lived from 1588 to 1648. Mersenne attended the College of Mans, the Jesuit College, and then Sorbonne to study theology. In 1611, he joined the religious order of the Minims. Once in the order, Mersenne continued his studies at Nigeon and Meaux. He became a priest at the Place Royale. The area in Paris, where Mersenne taught, became a meeting ground for Fermat, Pascal, and others who later became the core of the French Academy. Mersenne’s involvement with other prominent mathematicians greatly contributed to the spread of mathematical knowledge throughout Europe at a time when there were no scientific journals. Mersenne’s prime research involved prime numbers.
A prime number is an integer with only positive divisors one and itself. The ancient Greeks proved that there where infinitely many primes and that they where irregularly spaced. Mersenne examined prime numbers and wanted to discover a formula that would represent all primes. The formula is (2p-1) where p is a known prime number. Mersenne claimed that if a number n=(2p-1) is prime then p=2,3,5,7,13,17,31,67,127, and 257, but composite for the other forty-four primes smaller than or equal to 257. He was wrong about five primes less than or equal to 257. He claimed 67 and 257 had a p that was prime and he also missed three that did have a p that was prime. He would never be able to accomplish the task of creating a formula to represent all prime numbers; however the form he created is still used today when searching for large prime numbers.
On January 8th, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, the “King of Rock and Roll” was born. His name was Elvis Presley. He was the son of Vernon Presley who was a truck driver, and his mother was Gladys, a sewing machine operator. He had a twin brother named Jesse, but he was still born, leaving Elvis to grow up as an only child. His father was hardly around, and he was imprisoned for three years for forgery. Surrounding him as a child though, was the gospel music of the Pentecost church, where his love for music first took roots in his heart. In the fifth grade his teacher Oletta Grimes asked Elvis to participate in the talent contest on Children’s Day at the Mississippi – Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. At age ten, he donned his cowboy hat and slipped into a cowboy suit to sing in the talent show, but he was in need of a chair in order to reach the microphone. He sang his personal rendition of Red Foley’s “Old Shep”; it won him a second prize and a free ticket for all the numerous rides in the park. His following Birthday, he received his first guitar from the Tupelo Hardware Store and took lessons from his dad’s brother. In 1948 his family picked up their life and moved to Memphis, Tennessee. It was there that he was exposed to the rhythmic sound of the blues, as well as Jazz on Beale Street, where he grew up...
Now how Elvis changed the music culture has been argued if it was for the good or if it was for the worst. Elvis is in the top 100 most influential people and many argue that he should be taken off that list. Elvis was definitely very influential and was a very great guy that deserves to be on that list and has earned it. To start Elvis started his music career at age 19 with the legendary suns label in Memphis. At 19 he was already becoming
When Elvis was little, he moved very often. Only two things in his life were stable, his family and music. He was picked on a lot as a child because he came from a very poor family. He dyed his hair black and wore it in an unusual style and it made him look like a comic book character, Captain Marvel Jr. With problems at school, Elvis continued to surround himself with music. By high school, his family had moved all the way to Memphis Tennessee. Elvis had a style of music and singing that was all his own. He had taken all he had known and combined it into his own, different style. This style was so different than any other white person had done.
He took his teaching duties very seriously, while he was preparing lectures for his charge on variety an of topics about science. The first scientific work dates were all from this period. It involves topics, which would continue to occupy him throughout his life. In 1571, he began publication of his track. It was intended to form a preliminary mathematical part of a major study on the Ptolemaic astronomical model. He continued to embrace the Ptolemaic (Parshall 1).
Many number theorists, who study certain properties of integers, have been trying to find formulas to generate primes. They believed that 2p-1 would always generate primes whenever p is prime. It turns out that if p is composite, then the number will also be a composite number. However, later mathematicians claimed that 2p-1 only works for certain primes p. For example, the number 11 is a prime because its divisors are only 1 and 11. In this case, 211-1 is 2047 and Hudalricus Regius showed that this number is composite in 1536 because 23 and 89 are factors of 2047. From then on, whenever a prime number can be written in the form of 2p-1, it is considered to be a Mersenne prime. Many conjectures have been made about p. Pietro Cataldi showed that 2p-1 was true for 17 and 19. However, he stated that it was also true for the prime numbers 23, 29, 31, and 37. Number theorists such as Fermat and Euler proved that Cataldi was
Leonhard Euler was born in Basel, Switzerland as the first born child of Paul Euler and Marguerite Brucker on April 15, 1707. Euler’s formal education started in Basel where he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother on his father’s orders. Euler's father wanted his son to follow him in working for the church and sent him to the University of Basel to prepare him in becoming a pastor. He entered the University in 1720 to gain general knowledge before moving on to more advanced studies. Euler’s pastime was used for studying theology, Greek, and Hebrew in order to become a pastor like his father. During that time at the age of thirteen Euler started gaining his masters in Philosophy at the University of Basel, and in 1723 he achieved his master degree. On his weekends, Euler was learning from Bernoulli in several subjects because Bernoulli noticed that Euler was very intelligent in all types of mathematics and it also helped that Euler’s father was a friend of the Bernoulli Family, at the time Johann Bernoulli was Europe’s best mathematician. Bernoulli would later become one of ...
Elvis Aaron Presley, born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, grew up listening to gospel music of the Pentecostal church (rockhall 1). Presley “was the guy the guys wanted to be, and the guy girls wanted to date” (Di Luca 1). He influenced fashion, American dance, music, and became one of first rock and roll sensations. As Di Luca states in his article, “His talent, good looks, sensuality, charisma, and good humor endeared him to millions,” (1). Presley had a major lasting impact on fashion, American dance and sexuality, and music.
It is said that when history looks upon the life of an individual when their time has passed; it is not the dates on the tombstone that define the man but the dash in between. Such was the case in the life of theologian, philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal. Pascal was born on the 19th of June 1623, in Clermont-Ferrand France and died at the age of 39 of tuberculosis on the 19th August 1662 in Paris, but the bulk of his career, his success and life achievement began in his early years. As a young boy, Pascal’s lost his mother and soon afterward his father moved the family, Blaise and his two sisters to Paris. Pascal’s father, Étienne Pascal was a mathematician himself and taught Pascal Latin and Greek, which at the time was considered
In the essay “Why We Crave Horror Movie,” Stephen King describes that horror movies are beneficial for the people because we are all mentally ill. King explains that horror movie is a sort of release because everyone has a dark side in our body, so watching horror movie can keep the hungry alligators under control. People watch horror movie because they want to prove themselves that they are not afraid of a horror movie, and they are normal people too. King describes horror movie like a roller coaster, so people have enough courage to sit through the whole ride. People also enjoy seeing other people in danger. A horror movie can also keep the dark emotion down such as violence and aggression, and it allows people to remain happy and sane. A horror movie can
Leonhard Paul Euler was born the son of a pastor on April 15, 1707 in Basel, Switzerland. Soon after he was born, his family moved to Riehen, where Leonhard would spend most of his childhood. Leonhard’s father, Paul, was good friends with the Bernoulli family, whose patriarch, Johann Bernoulli, was then viewed as Europe’s leading mathematician. Bernoulli would eventually become a great influence on Leonhard’s life. When Leonhard was thirteen, he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother in Basel, where he enrolled in the University of Basel and eventually earned his Master’s in Philosophy, and wrote his dissertation comparing the philosophies of Newton and Descartes. Euler was following in his father’s footsteps, studying theology, Greek, and Hebrew, and was determined to become a pastor. However, Johann Bernoulli was convinced Euler was destined to become a great mathematician, and talked Paul Euler into letting his son pursue his own passio...
Born in France on March 31st, 1596, Rene Descartes grew to be known as ‘The Father of Modern Philosophy”. Not only was Rene a philosophical man but he contributed greatly to Mathematics and his ideas have influenced our daily lives in a productive way. DesCartes was raised in a very religious christian family, his father was a member of the parliament and strongly believed in education at a young age. DesCartes studied at the Jesuit college at the mere age of eight. As a child and throughout his adulthood physical incapabilities enabled DesCartes to function as swift or promptly as his peers. Growing up and until the day of his death, Descartes’s health was always a major precaution he was forced to remain aware of. The Jesuit college granted him the immunity of resting in mornings before class. It was this education that led him to contribute philosophical and mathematical theories and devices that still hold a great value to mathematicians and everyday people even today in the 21st century. From a very young age he had interests in mathematics and analytical geometry. Descartes’s contributions to modern day society were affected by his young adulthood, soon he created mathematical and scientific ideas, and lastly philosophical ideas.
Blaise Pascal lived during a time when religion and science were clashing and challenging previous discoveries and ideas. Pascal lived from 1623 to 1662 due to his untimely death at the age of thirty nine. The scientific community grew enormously and Pascal was a great contributor to this growth. The growth in the scientific community is known as the Scientific Revolution. He lived in a time where an absolute monarch came into power, King Louis the XIV. Louis XIV was a believer in “one king, one law, and one faith” (Spielvogel, 2012). Pascal saw the destruction of protestant practices in France and the growth and acceptance of scientific discoveries. He used the scientific method to refine previous experiments that were thought to be logical but Pascal proved otherwise and eventually led to Pascal’s Law. He spent his life devoted to two loves: God and science. Within his book, “Pensees,” Pascal argues and shares his thoughts about God, science, and philosophy.
Horror films are a genre that many people enjoy. No one will ever completely grasp why it is that we crave it. Some believe it’s the thrill and others find it is the feeling of fear itself. According to Alan Jones, author of The Rough Guide to Horror Movies, fear is “… what we feel when anything frightens us or promotes terror or fear” (Jones, ix). Andrew Tudor disagrees. He presumes that the attempts of explaining horror’s appeal are not specific and do not explain all the reasons a mixed population enjoy horror (Tudor). Personally, I credit horrors charm to the thrill it provides the audience.
Food teaches, or illustrates, something meaningful about life, health, family, and culture. Although food keeps us alive there are many ways we misuse food. We can use the mistreatment of food to learn about our family, our health, and our culture. Abuse and mistreatment of food looks different for each person based on our culture and experiences in life. Ever since I was little, my family looked towards food for comfort. The most prominent time that sticks out to me was when my mom passed away. We were filling the void of our loss with the food we were deciding to eat. We weren’t eating healthy and we didn’t really care what was going into our bodies or how much we were putting in. Along with not eating healthy, we weren’t exercising or watching
A mere mention of the term theatre acts as a relief to many people. It is in this place that a m...