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Emmy Noether: Mathematicians
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By the early 1930s, Emmy Noether was at the center of a vigorous group of researchers at Göttingen. She still held a low-level position, ill-paid and without tenure, but her power as a mathematician was not in doubt. Her colleagues regarded her with awe and affection, though since they were all male, and Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany was only a dozen or so years in the past, the affection expressed itself in ways that would not be accepted nowadays. Noether did not at all conform to the standards of femininity current in that time and place — nor, it has to be said in fairness to her colleagues, any other time and place. She was stocky and plain, with thick glasses and a deep, harsh voice. She wore shapeless clothes and cropped her hair.
Emmy Noether was a German born mathematician best known for her contributions in abstract algebra. She ... discovered a theorem in the Calculus of Variations, known as Noether's theorem, which plays a fundamental role in writing down conservation laws in theoretical physics. More information on Noether can be found HERE.
Known primarily for her profound and beautiful theorems in ring theory, Emmy Noether's most significant achievement runs deeper: she changed the way mathematicians think about their subject. and not in complicated algebraic calculations," said her colleague P.S. Alexandroff during a memorial service after her death. In this way, she cleared a path toward the discovery of new algebraic pattems that had previously been obscured.
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Brilliant mathematicians often make their greatest contributions early in their careers; Noether was one of the notable exceptions to that rule. She began producing her most powerful and creative work about the age of 40. Her change in style started with a 1920 paper on non-commutative fields (systems in which an operation such as multiplication yields a different answer foraxb than for b x a). During the years that followed, she developed a very abstract and generalized approach to the axiomatic development of algebra. As Weyl attested, "she originated above all a new and epoch-making style of thinking in algebra."
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It was during these early postwar years that Noether did the work she is mainly remembered for. It's not easy to explain that work to non-mathematicians. Suffice to say the following: Modern mathematicians don't just restrict their attention to numbers and geometric figures. They study many weird and wonderful mathematical objects, all discovered (or invented — there is a philosophical point here you can discuss among yourselves) in the 19th and 20th centuries. These objects are purely abstract creations. They have names like "group," "field," "module," "lattice," "manifold," "scheme."
Danielle Stretch looks back at the remarkable life of pioneering mathematician Emmy Amalie Noether (1882-1935). Despite her constant struggles to make her way in a man's world, she made significant contributions to the development of modern algebra. "> Danielle Stretch looks back at the remarkable life of pioneering mathematician Emmy Amalie Noether (1882-1935). Despite her constant struggles to make her way in a man's world, she made significant contributions to the development of modern algebra.
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