CALCULUS Understanding
Its Concepts and Methods
CALCULUS Understanding
Its Concepts and Methods
Henri Padé (1863--1953) --- Historical Sketch
Henri Padé was born in northern France late in 1863 and graduated with a
baccalaureate degree at age 17. After continuing his education in Paris and
graduating from the École Normale Supérieure, he embarked upon a
career of secondary school teaching in 1886. His first mathematical research
publication appeared in 1888. The next year, he went to Germany to study
mathematics in Leipzig and Göttingen. In 1892, he obtained his doctorate,
the subject of his thesis being what are today called
Padé approximations. His approximations
are related to continued fractions, which are of the general
form
that,
like infinite series, never end. Because they take so much space when written
in the above form, they are often represented
as
Padé's doctoral supervisor Charles Hermite had earlier used continued
fractions in his 1873 proof that the number
is transcendental.
Upon completing his doctoral work, Pade taught in Lille, in northern France. Then four years later, he went to Poirtiers to take a professorial position, thence a year later to the University of Bordeaux. He received the Grand Prix of the French Academy of Sciences in 1906.
He spent the remainder of his career in higher administrative posts in various French universities.
Set each of the continued fractions
and
equal to
,
and can solve for
.
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Copyright © 2006 Darel Hardy, Fred Richman, Carol Walker, Robert Wisner. All rights reserved. Except upon the express prior permission in writing, from the authors, no part of this work may be reproduced, transcribed, stored electronically, or transmitted in any form by any method.