BENOIT RITTAUD
40 articles published in Tangente
KnowledgeN°220Oct 17, 2024Structuring randomness
Bringing order to the unpredictable is the aim of the concept of a probability space. By gathering the possible outcomes of a random experiment and their chances of occurring into a coherent structure, we can turn probability into an exact science.
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History and CultureN°91Aug 25, 2024Between geometry and philology
The mathematician Olry Terquem's review of Cauchy's paper on polyhedra ends in a most curious fashion.
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History and CultureN°91Aug 25, 2024A mathematical password
In their 1894 book on the slang of the École polytechnique, Albert Lévy and Gaston Pinet recount an anecdote illustrating the atmosphere that could prevail in Paris during the revolutions of 1830 and 1848.
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History and CultureN°91Aug 24, 2024A man of controversy
Disputes over the authorship of theorems reflect the bitter controversies that pitted Cauchy against some mathematicians of his time.
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History and CultureN°91Aug 24, 2024Cauchy the poet
Although his name means only one thing to us—that of a mathematician—Cauchy also had a solid classical education. Having won distinction in the literary papers of the Concours général, he even tried his hand at poetry to explain the value of his science.
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History and CultureN°91Aug 23, 2024The other bicentenary
In France, 1989 was a year of major celebrations marking the bicentenary of the 1789 Revolution. Yet it was also the bicentenary of Cauchy's birth.
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History and CultureN°91Aug 23, 2024A series of errors
Nobody is perfect—not even the greatest mathematicians in their own field. Take Cauchy, who made a mistake concerning the convergence of series of functions—one that no student would dare make today.
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History and CultureN°91Aug 23, 2024Worth reading
Writing a biography of a man like Cauchy is a tour de force.
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NewN°91Aug 23, 2024Editorial
The latest elections were a fiasco for the government, which has faced intense popular opposition and serious economic difficulties for months. Hoping to regain the initiative, the head of state then decides, to everyone’s surprise, to dissolve the National Assembly…
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Games and ChallengesN°219Aug 22, 2024A cork on the river
Set a cork adrift on the surface of a river. When its path is too difficult to calculate, approximation methods are the only option. Sometimes, however, the way the water flows makes the reliability of such methods problematic.
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History and CultureN°218Jun 13, 2024The man of fractures
For millennia, straight lines, circles, parabolas, and other smooth surfaces had reigned supreme and unchallenged over geometry. Then Mandelbrot unleashed the "mathematical monsters" of the early 20th century, transforming our picture of the world forever.
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Math for everyoneN°90May 06, 2024The spirit of quadratic fields
Why keep adding more and more elements to the set of known numbers? Adjoining just one number to the rationals and combining it with them is already enough to produce many sets with a wealth of wonders to reveal.
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