Mathematician:Edward Waring

Mathematician

English mathematician mainly active in the fields of number theory and analysis.

Most famous for posing what are now called:

• Waring's Problem
• Waring's Prime Number Conjecture, otherwise known as the Goldbach Conjecture.

Nationality

English

History

• Born: c. 1736
• Died: 15 August 1798

Problems posed

• Waring's Problem
• Waring's Prime Number Conjecture
• Numerator of p-1th Harmonic Number is Divisible by Prime p

Results named for Edward Waring can be found here.

Publications

• 1762: Miscellanea Analytica
• 1770: Meditationes Algebraicae (a second edition of Miscellanea Analytica)
• 1772: Proprietates Algebraicarum Curvarum
• 1794: An Essay on the Principles of Human Knowledge

Critical View

Waring was one of the profoundest mathematicians of the eighteenth century; but the inelegance and obscurity of his writings prevented him from obtaining that reputation to which he was entitled.

-- Thomas Thomson

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Edward Waring": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Waring, Edward (1734-98)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Waring, Edward (1734-98)