János Bolyai

János Bolyai (15 December 1802 – 27 January 1860) or Johann Bolyai, was a Hungarian mathematician who developed absolute geometry—a geometry that includes both Euclidean geometry and hyperbolic geometry. The discovery of a consistent alternative geometry that might correspond to the structure of the universe helped to free mathematicians to study abstract concepts irrespective of any possible connection with the physical world. Quotes In 1823, non-Euclidean geometry was discovered simultaneously, in one of those inexplicable coincidences, by a Hungarian mathematician, Janos (or Johann) Bolyai, aged twenty-one, and a Russian mathematician, Nikolai Lobachevsky, aged thirty. And, ironically, in that same year, the great French mathematician Adrien-Marie Legendre came up with what he was sure was a proof of Euclid's fifth postulate, very much along the lines of Saccheri. Incidentally, Bolyai's father, Farkas (or Wolfgang) Bolyai, a close friend of the great Gauss, invested much effort in trying to prove Euclid's fifth postulate. Douglas Hofstadter Gödel, Escher, Bach 91-92 External links Category:Mathematicians from Hungary Category:1802 births Category:1860 deaths