Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Four Colour Conjecture

    Uploaded by

    Veeraragavan Subramaniam
    13 views1 page
    Clarence Newton Reynolds Jr. was the head of the mathematics department at WVU from 1938 to 1946. He received his PhD from G.D. Birkhoff after studying under Maxime Bocher at Harvard. Reynolds spent his career at WVU trying to prove the Four Color Conjecture, and in 1926-1927 was able to prove it for maps with no more than 28 countries using classical reduction techniques. This was one of the best partial results until 1976 when Appell, Haken, and Koch used computers to fully prove the four color theorem. Reynolds had invented a "Relativity Slide Rule" in the 1910s-1920s to demonstrate Einstein's theory of relativity.

    Original Description:

    Clarence Newton Reynolds, Jr. (1890-1954) Head of WVU Mathematics Departmenrt, 1938-1946. He was at first a student of Maxime Bocher at Harvard. After Bocher's death, Reynolds took his Ph.D. under G. D. Birkhoff, and spent the rest of his life at WVU trying to prove the Four Color Conjecture. In two papers in the Annals of Mathematics in 1926-1927 Reynolds was able to use clsassical reduction techniques to prove that four colors suffice for all maps having no more than 28 countries. This was one of the best results until 1976 when Kenneth Appell, Wolfgang Haken and graduate student John Koch used computers and new techniques to prove the theorem that 4 colors always suffice.

    Original Title

    Four colour conjecture

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    Clarence Newton Reynolds Jr. was the head of the mathematics department at WVU from 1938 to 1946. He received his PhD from G.D. Birkhoff after studying under Maxime Bocher at Harvard. Reynolds spent his career at WVU trying to prove the Four Color Conjecture, and in 1926-1927 was able to prove it for maps with no more than 28 countries using classical reduction techniques. This was one of the best partial results until 1976 when Appell, Haken, and Koch used computers to fully prove the four color theorem. Reynolds had invented a "Relativity Slide Rule" in the 1910s-1920s to demonstrate Einstein's theory of relativity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    13 views1 page

    Four Colour Conjecture

    Uploaded by

    Veeraragavan Subramaniam
    Clarence Newton Reynolds Jr. was the head of the mathematics department at WVU from 1938 to 1946. He received his PhD from G.D. Birkhoff after studying under Maxime Bocher at Harvard. Reynolds spent his career at WVU trying to prove the Four Color Conjecture, and in 1926-1927 was able to prove it for maps with no more than 28 countries using classical reduction techniques. This was one of the best partial results until 1976 when Appell, Haken, and Koch used computers to fully prove the four color theorem. Reynolds had invented a "Relativity Slide Rule" in the 1910s-1920s to demonstrate Einstein's theory of relativity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 1

    Clarence Newton Reynolds, Jr.

    (1890-1954) Head of WVU Mathematics Departmenrt, 1938-1946. He


    was at first a student of Maxime Bocher at Harvard. After Bocher's death,
    Reynolds took his Ph.D. under G. D. Birkhoff, and spent the rest of his
    life at WVU trying to prove the Four Color Conjecture. In two papers in the
    Annals of Mathematics in 1926-1927 Reynolds was able to use clsassical
    reduction techniques to prove that four colors suffice for all maps having
    no more than 28 countries. This was one of the best results until 1976
    when Kenneth Appell, Wolfgang Haken and graduate student John Koch
    used computers and new techniques to prove the theorem that 4 colors always
    suffice. Reynolds had joyously told a friend of mine (retired Professor Wilbur
    Bluhm) who had been a student at WVU circa 1946, that he had proved the
    4CC, but it is said that Philip Franklin found an error in the proof. I have not
    been able to find the manuscript in his posthumous papers, so it remains
    unknown whether he was onto something. He did leave a large table of
    'topologically applicable number-theoretic functions', but no evidence how
    this might have been applied. He gave a talk about this at the 1950
    International Congress of Mathematicians at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
    Reynolds patented a 'Relativity Slide Rule' in the 1910 to 1920 period that
    shows how Einstein's addition of velocities operates. I have his large,
    working classroom model, a wooden device about six feet long. He
    published a paper about this in the old Bulletin of the West Virginia University
    Scientific Association, Vol. 2(1923), pp. 3-11, showing how to construct and
    operate it. A photo of this device is displayed here:

    Here is the four foot long wooden working model of the


    Relativity
    Slide Rule invented by Professor C. N. Reynolds.
    Remark: I shall never forget my own excitement when Frank Bernhart
    told me in 1976 about the amazing new and correct proof of the 4CC! This
    event was a highlight of our conversation at the AMS Summer Meeting at
    Toronto, Canada in August 1976. But wouldn't it be comforting to find an
    old-fashioned proof we could check easily?

    You might also like