Chapters
Chapters
Dorrego López, E. (2023). Un punto de inflexión: la teoría de las paralelas de Lambert. En: De Paz, M; Ferreirós, J. (2023). La génesis de la geometría. Editorial Plaza y Valdés.
Dorrego López, E. (2023). The impact of analysis on the understanding of irrational quantities. Legendre's contribution in context. In: Crippa, D., Massa Esteve, M. R. (2023). The consolidation of algebraization in the 17th and 18th centuries: a dialogue between dwarfs and giants, centres and peripheries. London: College Publications.
"This chapter will examine how the change of paradigm occurred with the introduction of analysis changed the prevalent understanding of irrational quantities. Due to their being particularly important, we present a brief sketch of Euler’s and Lambert’s contribution to the comprehension of irrational quantities: Euler proved for the first time the irrationality of e and Lambert the irrationality of π. As a case study, we focus on Legendre’s proof of the irrationality of π and π2 —the former being conspicuously shorter than Lambert’s—, presenting to the reader an easy-to-follow analysis of his proof, and a contextualized study of these remarkable results included in his Éléments de Géométrie (1794)."