Biography of Richard Courant

Richard Courant was born in 1888 in a small town of what is now Poland, and died in New Rochelle, N.Y. in 1972. He received his doctorate from the legendary David Hilbert in Göttingen, where later he founded and directed its famed mathematics Institute, a Mecca for mathematicians in the twenties. In 1933 the Nazi government dismissed Courant for being Jewish, and he emigrated to the United States. He found, in New York, what he called "a reservoir of talent" to be tapped. He built, at New York University, a new mathematical Sciences Institute that shares the philosophy of its illustrious predecessor and rivals it in worldwide influence. For Courant mathematics was an adventure, with applications forming a vital part. This spirit is reflected in his books, in particular in his influential calculus text, revised in collaboration with his brilliant younger colleague, Fritz John. (P.D. Lax) Biography of Fritz John Fritz John was born on June 14, 1910, in Berlin. After his school years in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), he studied in Göttingen and received his doctorate in 1933, just when the Nazi regime came to power. As he was half-Jewish and his bride Aryan, he had to flee Germany in 1934. After a year in Cambridge, UK, he accepted a position at the University of Kentucky, and in 1946 joined Courant, Friedrichs and Stoker in building up New York University the institute that later became the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He remained there until his death in New Rochelle on February 10, 1994. John's research and the books he wrote had a strong impact on the development of many fields of mathematics, foremost in partial differential equations. He also worked on Radon transforms, illposed problems, convex geometry, numerical analysis, elasticity theory. In connection with his work in latter field, he and Nirenberg introduced thespace of the BMO-functions (bounded mean oscillations). Fritz John's work exemplifies the unity of mathematics as well as its elegance and its beauty. (J. Moser)

Klappentext

From the reviews: "...one of the best textbooks introducing several generations of mathematicians to higher mathematics. ... This excellent book is highly recommended both to instructors and students." --Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum, 1991

Inhalt

Functions of Several Variables and Their Derivatives: Points and Points Sets in the Plane and in Space; Functions of Several Independent Variables; Continuity; The Partial Derivatives of a Function; The Differential of a Function and Its Geometrical Meaning; Functions of Functions (Compound Functions) and the Introduction of New Independent Variables; The mean Value Theorem and Taylor's Theorem for Functions of Several Variables; Integrals of a Function Depending on a Parameter; Differentials and Line Integrals; The Fundamental Theorem on Integrability of Linear Differential Forms; Appendix.- Vectors, Matrices, Linear Transformations: Operatios with Vectors; Matrices and Linear Transformations; Determinants; Geometrical Interpretation of Determinants; Vector Notions in Analysis.- Developments and Applications of the Differential Calculus: Implicit Functions; Curves and Surfaces in Implicit Form; Systems of Functions, Transformations, and Mappings; Applications; Families of Curves, Families of Surfaces, and Their Envelopes; Alternating Differential Forms; Maxima and Minima; Appendix.- Multiple Integrals: Areas in the Plane; Double Integrals; Integrals over Regions in three and more Dimensions; Space Differentiation. Mass and Density; Reduction of the Multiple Integral to Repeated Single Integrals; Transformation of Multiple Integrals; Improper Multiple Integrals; Geometrical Applications; Physical Applications; Multiple Integrals in Curvilinear Coordinates; Volumes and Surface Areas in Any Number of Dimensions; Improper Single Integrals as Functions of a Parameter; The Fourier Integral; The Eulerian Integrals (Gamma Function); Appendix