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G H Hardy
Times obituary
A MATHEMATICIAN OF GENIUS
Professor G. H. Hardy, F.R.S., formerly Sadleirian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, who died at Cambridge yesterday, was perhaps the greatest pure mathematician of his day—he would certainly be ranked in the first half-dozen—and one of the most familiar "characters" of both Oxford and Cambridge, for he belonged to both universities.
Hardy's most original work was in the analytic theory of numbers and allied subjects. Soon after taking his degree, he began a series of researches on the theory of functions of a real variable, from which important results of great generality were obtained, first by himself alone and then in collaboration with J. E. Littlewood. Later, in collaboration with a remarkable self-taught Indian, S. Ramanujan, he did some brilliant work on partitions of numbers. Ramanujan had sent Hardy a letter in 1913 enunciating more than 100 theorems. Although not all were true, Hardy saw that his correspondent was a mathematical genius and took steps to get him to Trinity; he became the first Indian Fellow of Trinity and the first Indian F.R.S., but to Hardy's great grief, he died in 1920.
With Littlewood and G. Pólya, Hardy made an important study of inequalities, and some of their research was published in a book, "Inequalities," in 1934. By himself, he wrote stimulating papers on the representation of numbers as the sum of a square, on the roots of the Riemann ζ-function, and on non-differentiable functions. These were realms into which few were able to follow him, but he was known wherever mathematics is studied for his brilliant textbook, "A Course of Pure Mathematics," which was published in 1908 and went into a sixth edition in 1933.
Godfrey Harold Hardy was the son of Isaac and Sophia Hardy of Cranleigh, Surrey, and was born on February 7, 1877. He was sent to Winchester, where he was in College VI in 1895, and went up as a scholar in 1896 to Trinity College, Cambridge, where his tutor was the redoubtable Dr. Verrall. In 1898 he was fourth Wrangler. Sir James Jeans and John Forbes Cameron, later Master of Gonville and Ca Caius, were bracketed above him, and in the most coveted position stood R. W. H. T. Hudson. He took the second part of the tripos in 1900 and was placed in the first division of the first class; Jeans was then below him in the second division of the first class, and Cameron and Hudson had taken honors similar to his own a year before. Cameron and Hudson had taken the Smith's prizes in 1900; Hardy and Jeans, in that order, took them the following year, and were both elected to Fellowships at Trinity, Hardy in 1900 and Jeans in 1901. Hardy was made a college lecturer in 1906, and in 1914 was appointed Cayley lecturer in the University. In 1919 came an invitation to be Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford with a Fellowship at New College. His own reputation had become worldwide even before he left Cambridge, and he spent the year 1928-29 as Visiting Professor at Princeton and the California Institute of Technology. In 1931 E. W. Hobson died, and by general desire Hardy returned to Cambridge as his successor in the Savilian Chair of Pure Mathematics, with a Fellowship at Trinity once more.
He personified the popular idea of the absent-minded professor But those who formed the idea that he was merely an absent-minded professor would receive a shock in conversation, where he displayed amazing vitality on almost every subject under the sun. For one aspect of life Nature had not equipped him. Religion meant nothing to him, and his quips thereon sometimes amused, but more often hurt. It was in accord with his general philosophy of life that he should support Socialism. But his excursions into these fields were jeux d'esprit. One field where he could have credited something of real value, as shown by several papers, was mathematical logic. In his later years at Cambridge he produced the delightful booklet A Mathematician's Apology, in which he half-humorously displayed the baffling distances of pure mathematics, and, to the delight of readers from many faculties, challenged anyone to dispute their unique quality of utter uselessness. Outside the schools Hardy was an expert tennis player. He also had a passionate devotion to cricket. Every year he had all the averages at his fingertips. He was interested in the game of chess, but was frankly puzzled by something in its nature which seemed to come into conflict with his mathematical principles.
A MATHEMATICIAN OF GENIUS
Professor G. H. Hardy, F.R.S., formerly Sadleirian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, who died at Cambridge yesterday, was perhaps the greatest pure mathematician of his day—he would certainly be ranked in the first half-dozen—and one of the most familiar "characters" of both Oxford and Cambridge, for he belonged to both universities.
Hardy's most original work was in the analytic theory of numbers and allied subjects. Soon after taking his degree, he began a series of researches on the theory of functions of a real variable, from which important results of great generality were obtained, first by himself alone and then in collaboration with J. E. Littlewood. Later, in collaboration with a remarkable self-taught Indian, S. Ramanujan, he did some brilliant work on partitions of numbers. Ramanujan had sent Hardy a letter in 1913 enunciating more than 100 theorems. Although not all were true, Hardy saw that his correspondent was a mathematical genius and took steps to get him to Trinity; he became the first Indian Fellow of Trinity and the first Indian F.R.S., but to Hardy's great grief, he died in 1920.
With Littlewood and G. Pólya, Hardy made an important study of inequalities, and some of their research was published in a book, "Inequalities," in 1934. By himself, he wrote stimulating papers on the representation of numbers as the sum of a square, on the roots of the Riemann ζ-function, and on non-differentiable functions. These were realms into which few were able to follow him, but he was known wherever mathematics is studied for his brilliant textbook, "A Course of Pure Mathematics," which was published in 1908 and went into a sixth edition in 1933.
Godfrey Harold Hardy was the son of Isaac and Sophia Hardy of Cranleigh, Surrey, and was born on February 7, 1877. He was sent to Winchester, where he was in College VI in 1895, and went up as a scholar in 1896 to Trinity College, Cambridge, where his tutor was the redoubtable Dr. Verrall. In 1898 he was fourth Wrangler. Sir James Jeans and John Forbes Cameron, later Master of Gonville and Ca Caius, were bracketed above him, and in the most coveted position stood R. W. H. T. Hudson. He took the second part of the tripos in 1900 and was placed in the first division of the first class; Jeans was then below him in the second division of the first class, and Cameron and Hudson had taken honors similar to his own a year before. Cameron and Hudson had taken the Smith's prizes in 1900; Hardy and Jeans, in that order, took them the following year, and were both elected to Fellowships at Trinity, Hardy in 1900 and Jeans in 1901. Hardy was made a college lecturer in 1906, and in 1914 was appointed Cayley lecturer in the University. In 1919 came an invitation to be Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford with a Fellowship at New College. His own reputation had become worldwide even before he left Cambridge, and he spent the year 1928-29 as Visiting Professor at Princeton and the California Institute of Technology. In 1931 E. W. Hobson died, and by general desire Hardy returned to Cambridge as his successor in the Savilian Chair of Pure Mathematics, with a Fellowship at Trinity once more.
He personified the popular idea of the absent-minded professor But those who formed the idea that he was merely an absent-minded professor would receive a shock in conversation, where he displayed amazing vitality on almost every subject under the sun. For one aspect of life Nature had not equipped him. Religion meant nothing to him, and his quips thereon sometimes amused, but more often hurt. It was in accord with his general philosophy of life that he should support Socialism. But his excursions into these fields were jeux d'esprit. One field where he could have credited something of real value, as shown by several papers, was mathematical logic. In his later years at Cambridge he produced the delightful booklet A Mathematician's Apology, in which he half-humorously displayed the baffling distances of pure mathematics, and, to the delight of readers from many faculties, challenged anyone to dispute their unique quality of utter uselessness. Outside the schools Hardy was an expert tennis player. He also had a passionate devotion to cricket. Every year he had all the averages at his fingertips. He was interested in the game of chess, but was frankly puzzled by something in its nature which seemed to come into conflict with his mathematical principles.
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