| Currently there may be errors shown on top of a page, because of a missing Wiki update (PHP version and extension DPL3). |
| Topics | Help • Register • News • History • How to • Sequences statistics • Template prototypes |
Édouard Lucas
| Édouard Lucas | |
|---|---|
| Personal data : | |
| Real name : | Édouard Lucas |
| Date of birth : | 1842-04-04 |
| Date of death : | 1891-10-03 |
| Nationality : | French |
| Wikipedia entry : | Édouard Lucas |
François Édouard Anatole Lucas (∗ 4. April 1842; † 3. October 1891) was born in Amiens, France and educated at the Ecole Normale Superieure. He worked as a mathematician at the Paris Observatory, served for a time in the army during the Franco-Prussian War, and then became a professor of mathematics in Paris, first at the Lycée Saint Louis and later at Lycée Charlemagne.
Lucas is known for his study of the Fibonacci numbers, including a formula for finding the nth term of the sequence. The related Lucas sequence is named after him. He devised a new method for testing the primality of numbers that did not require finding all of their factors. In 1930, Derrick Henry Lehmer expanded on this work to create the Lucas-Lehmer test. In 1876, Lucas proved the primality of
Lucas was also interested in recreational mathematics, inventing the Tower of Hanoi puzzle, which is now well known through many variants. His four-volume Recreations Mathematiques published between 1882 and 1894 has become a classic in its field.
He died under unusual circumstances. At a dinner for the French Academy for the Advancement of Science, a waiter dropped some plates and a piece of broken china scratched Lucas' cheek. He died a few days later of septicemia (some authorities say erysipelas, a type of bacterial infection).
