Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829) was a Norwegian mathematician (although born and died Danish Swedish) was born, he developed his career and died in the early nineteenth century. It is a contemporary of Byron, Espronceda, Beethoven and E. Galois, another French mathematician whose life keeps certain similarities: Both died young, they worked in solving equations of degree greater than 5, and both represent the romantic intellectual model that was both in his time.
Abel's name is related to many algebraic structures, some theorems on equations and in many astronomical concepts (one of the largest craters on the moon named after him) and paid tribute mathematicians giving its name in 2002 to celebrate bicentennial of his birth, the equivalent of Nobel Prize in Mathematics (Did you know that does not exist, nor will there ever a Nobel Prize in Mathematics? one day I'll talk about that.)
Perhaps those who suffered from this madness called small Modern Mathematics remember the name of abelian groups. Yes? Abel it is that which we speak.
Abel's life was marked by bad luck. I happened to be born in what today would call a dysfunctional family, with his father and alcoholic mother. His father, who was a pastor and political enthusiast who championed the cause of the independence of Norway, died when young Abel only had 13 years until he was 19, his family endured much hardship, but would be more accurate to say that went hungry. Fortunately, Abel was able to continue their studies and the age of 19 won a scholarship that allowed him to enroll at the University of Oslo.
in Oslo noted for his ability in algebra and in particular in resolving equation fifth grade. He once thought he had found the formula to solve the equations of fifth grade, but by analyzing their solutions concluded that this was impossible, and in parallel with Galois, who never met showed the impossibility of its resolution. He published his findings in 1824 in language so vague that it was not able to make him understand any of his environment. Obscure language that became the mark of the house and possibly because their work was not recognized until more than 20 years after his death. In the century
XIX being Norwegian was not exactly an advantage, so if the young Abel wanted to hobnob with the elite mathematics had to go to Germany or Paris, so he took his most important (on a thing called elliptic functions) and the minimal scholarship Swedish government embarked on the conquest of Germany. Before departure, and by way of letter sent to Gauss a treatise on elliptic functions, that never read (probably lost it or never even received.) In Berlin, while awaiting the response of Gauss, Abel met Crelle, engineer (he built the first railway track in Germany) and a lover of mathematics mathematical journal founded the most important of the day: The Journal de Crelle.
Crelle The friendship lasted a lifetime Abel, and beyond his death, addressed Crelle Abel received the recognition they deserved and that life was denied. For six months steadily Abel published in the Journal, but that did not give to live. The scholarship was running out and his health began to suffer from the difficulties suffered in Berlin (he lived for several weeks on the street).
disappointed by the silence of Gauss decides to go to Paris, where he worked the "other" big mathematics: Legendre, Fourier, and Cauchy. Abel sent a report of its work to the Paris Academy of Sciences seeking a professorship, or scholarship or something to let him continue his work. Fourier, secretary of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, commissioned Legendre evaluation. Legendre received the report and, without reading it, lost it. In their defense I must say that I had more than 70 years and was no longer the work of discovering young talents. In fact he died six years later. Abel
When asked about the matter, Fourier resend asked him again, and this time he charged that evaluate Cauchy. Cauchy was a great mathematician, but it was a good person, you may discover the genius that Cauchy had ahead and decide to hide the papers or postpone the decision indefinitely Abel because it aimed to "throne" of Fourier (Chair Academy of Sciences) and a guy like you probably Abel had departed from the race or at least would have overshadowed. To get an idea of \u200b\u200bwho we are talking about: Cauchy was denounced by one of his students to appropriate the results and publish them with your name. The fact is that the papers in the hands of Cauchy disappeared again.
Meanwhile, Abel and can survive in Paris, thanks to the supports that young mathematicians as Crelle, Poisson and especially Jacobi. But even the most strong wills are broken and in 1826, less than a year after have come to Paris, Abel, seriously ill with tuberculosis (was romantic even for diseases) decides to return to Norway. There, deep in debt to accept any job that comes to pass, from school teacher to mushing.
However, Crelle, his best friend kept going to get a job that let him live in mathematics, and eventually got him a professorship at the University of Berlin, since that would have guaranteed a good economic position the rest of his days.
Unfortunately it was too late: Abel died almost destitute, sick tubrculosis in April 1829. Two days after of his funeral, at his home received the appointment letter from the University of Berlin.
A sad life, chaired by bad luck, the man who could have been the greatest mathematician of the nineteenth century, and worth Heredea of \u200b\u200bGauss.
Units
