Mathematics On Stamps

Liechtenstein
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (1749 – 1827) was an influential French scholar whose work was important to the development of mathematics, statistics, physics, and astronomy. His Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) translated the geometric study of classical mechanics to one based on calculus. He developed the Bayesian interpretation of probability. He formulated Laplace's equation, and pioneered the Laplace transform which appears in many branches of mathematical physics. The Laplacian differential operator, widely used in mathematics, is also named after him. He advanced the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the Solar System and was one of the first scientists to postulate the existence of black holes and the notion of gravitational collapse.

Here is an image of a stamp featuring a female allegorical figure of "Learning," a bridge, and an airplane, designed by Remus Georgescu, printed by photogravure, and issued by Romania on September 5, 1945 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the journal Gazeta matematica, Scott No. 597.

- nethryk

János Apáczai Csere (1625-1659) was a Transylvanian Hungarian mathematician and polyglot, famous for his work "The Hungarian Encyclopedia," the first textbook to be written in the Hungarian language, which included sections on arithmetic and geometry. Here is an image of a stamp honoring the scholarly mathematician, designed by Hungarian artist Sándor Légrády (1906-1987), printed by photogravure, and issued by Hungary on December 15, 1954, Scott No. 1098, plus an image of a bust of János Apáczai Csere.

- nethryk

Macau 2015 Magic Squares II

Germany
350th Anniversary of the birth of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
June 13, 1996
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 - 1716) was a German polymath and philosopher who occupies a prominent place in the history of mathematics and the history of philosophy. He developed calculus and invented mechanical calculators. He also refined the binary number system which is the foundation of virtually all digital computers.

DDR (Germany)
The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Friedrich Gauss
April 19, 1977
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 – 1855) is considered one of the most influential mathematicians in history. He published over 150 works and made such important contributions as the fundamental theorem of algebra, the least squares method, Gauss-Jordan elimination, and the bell curve, or Gaussian error curve. He also made important contributions to physics and astronomy.

Hong Kong 2015 Value of Pi, by Zu Chongzhi.

France
The 400th Anniversary of the Birth of René Descartes
March 30, 1996
René Descartes (1596 – 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry. Descartes created the Cartesian coordinate system which allows reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allows geometric shapes to be expressed by algebraic equations.

DDR (Germany)
The 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Richard Dedekind
May 5, 1981
Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind (1831 – 1916) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to abstract algebra, algebraic number theory and the definition of the real numbers.
The design shows a portrait of Dedekind and the formula of Dedekind section.

I love that Dedekind stamp...gotta get one of those.

France
Bicentenary of the Birth of Augustin Cauchy
November 13, 1989
Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789 – 1857) was a French mathematician. He was one of the first to state and prove theorems of calculus rigorously. He almost singlehandedly founded complex analysis and the study of permutation groups in abstract algebra.
The design features a portrait of Augustin Cauchy and Cauchy's integral formula.

FRG (Germany)
Bicentenary of the Birth of Friedrich W. Bessel
June 19, 1984
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784 – 1846) was a German astronomer and mathematician. He is best known for the Bessel functions which are especially important for many problems of wave propagation and static potentials.
The stamp design shows Bessel's portrait and a graphic representation of the Bessel functions.

Nils Henrik Abel, 1802 – 1829, issued 1929: This is probably some of the oldest stamps picturing a mathematician. Before him, only Kings and Henrik Ibsen had been pictured on Norwegian stamps. The mathematicians equivalent to the Nobel Prize - The Abel Prize - is anmed after him.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Henrik_Abel :
Niels Henrik Abel was a Norwegian mathematician who made pioneering contributions in a variety of fields. His most famous single result is the first complete proof demonstrating the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation in radicals. This question was one of the outstanding open problems of his day, and had been unresolved for 250 years. He was also an innovator in the field of elliptic functions, discoverer of Abelian functions. Despite his achievements, Abel was largely unrecognized during his lifetime; he made his discoveries while living in poverty and died at the age of 26. ..the French mathematician Charles Hermite said: "Abel has left mathematicians enough to keep them busy for five hundred years."



This stamp was issued in 2002, commemorating Abels 200th birthday - and the establishment of the Abel prize:

The Abel Prize https://www.maa.org/external_archiv...n_04_04.html

There is no Nobel Prize for mathematics, but many mathematicians have won the prize, most commonly for physics but occasionally for economics, and in one case for literature. For instance, when mathematician John Nash won a Nobel Prize in 1994, it was for a result that had a major impact in economics. (Nash's achievement was celebrated in director Ron Howard's 2002 movie A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe.) The Abel Prize is intended to give the mathematicians their own equivalent of a Nobel Prize. Such an award was first proposed in 1902 by King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway, just a year after the award of the first Nobel Prizes. However, plans were dropped as the union between the two countries was dissolved in 1905. As a result, mathematics has never had an international prize of the same dimensions and importance as the Nobel Prize.

Plans for an Abel Prize were revived in 2000, and in 2001 the Norwegian Government granted NOK 200 million (about $22 million) to create the new award. Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829), after whom the prize is named, was a leading 19th-century Norwegian mathematician whose work in algebra has had lasting impact despite Abel's early death aged just 26. Today, every mathematics undergraduate encounters Abel's name in connection with commutative groups, which are more commonly known as "abelian groups" (the lack of capitalization being a tacit acknowledgement of the degree to which his name has been institutionalized).

As it happens, Abel's own field of group theory plays a role in the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem, but this is not a condition for the award of the Abel Prize. The Abel Prize is awarded annually, and is intended to present the field of mathematics with a prize at the highest level. Laureates are appointed by an independent committee of international mathematicians.

As a result of Norway's action, made in part to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Abel's birth in 2002, mathematicians now too have an award equivalent to the Nobel Prize

Adult education classroom with an addition problem on a blackboard, and the UN emblem, designed by A. Mendandi, printed by lithography, and issued by Chad on June 16, 1970 to publicize International Education Year, Scott No. 226.

- nethryk

A really interesting theme. Original and new!