Jacques Charles François Sturm

Jacques Charles François Sturm
Jacques Charles François Sturm
Born	September 29, 1803 Geneva
Died	December 15, 1855 Paris
Nationality	French
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	École Polytechnique
Known for	Sturm–Liouville theory Sturm's theorem Speed of sound
Notable awards	Légion d'Honneur (1837) Copley Medal (1840)

Jacques Charles François Sturm (September 29, 1803 – December 15, 1855) was a French mathematician.

Life and work

Sturm was born in Geneva (then part of France) in 1803. His family had emigrated from Strasbourg around 1760. In 1818, he started to follow the lectures of the academy of Geneva. In 1819, the death of his father forced Sturm to give lessons to children of the rich in order to support his own family. In 1823, he became tutor to the son of Madame de Staël.

At the end of 1823, Sturm stayed in Paris for a short time following the family of his student. He resolved, with his school-fellow Colladon, to try his fortune in Paris, and obtained employment on the Bulletin universel. In 1829, he discovered the theorem which bears his name and which concerns the determination of the number of real roots of a numerical equation included between given limits,.

Sturm benefited from the 1830 revolution, as his Protestant faith ceased to be an obstacle to employment in public high schools. At the end of 1830, he was thus appointed as a professor of Mathématiques Spéciales at the collège Rollin.

He was chosen a member of the Académie des Sciences in 1836, filling the seat of André-Marie Ampère. Sturm became répétiteur in 1838, and in 1840 professor in the École Polytechnique. The same year, after the death of SD Poisson, Sturm was appointed as mechanics professor of the Faculté des Sciences of Paris. His works, Cours d'analyse de l'école polytechnique (1857–1863) and Cours de mécanique de l'école polytechnique (1861), were published after his death in Paris, and were regularly republished.

He was the co-eponym of the Sturm–Liouville theory with Joseph Liouville. Sturm's theorem is a basic result for proving the existence of real zeroes of functions.

In 1826, with his colleague Jean-Daniel Colladon, Sturm helped make the first experimental determination of the speed of sound in water.^[1]

In 1851 his health began to fail. He was able to return to teaching for a while during his long illness, but in 1855 he died. ^[1]

The asteroid 31043 Sturm is named for him.^[2] Sturm's name is part of the list of the 72 names engraved at the Eiffel Tower.

Distinctions

• Grand prix de Mathématiques (December 4, 1834)
• Member of the academy of Berlin (1835)
• Member of the academy of Saint-Petersburg (1836)
• Officier de la Légion d'Honneur (1837)
• Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London (1840)
• Member of the Royal Society of London (1840)

Selected writing

• Cours d'analyse de l'Ecole polytechnique. Tome premier (Gauthier-Villars, 1877)
• Cours d'analyse de l'Ecole polytechnique. Tome second (Gauthier-Villars, 1877)
• Cours de mécanique de l'Ecole polytechnique (Gauthier-Villars, 1883)

See also

• Sturm–Liouville theory
• Sturm's theorem
• Sturm–Picone comparison theorem
• Sturm separation theorem

References

1. ^ ^{a b} J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson (2001). "Biography: Jacques Charles François Sturm". University of St. Andrews School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences. http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Sturm.html. Retrieved 9 September 2011. 
2. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D.; International Astronomical Union (2003). Dictionary of minor planet names. Berlin; New York: Springer-Verlag. p. 889. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=KWrB1jPCa8AC&pg=PA889. Retrieved 9 September 2011. 

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Sturm, Jacques Charles François". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Jacques Charles François Sturm", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Sturm.html .
• Notice sur la vie et les travaux de M. Sturm Nouvelles annales de mathématiques journal des candidats aux écoles polytechnique et normale 15 p. 72 (1856)
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Sturm, Jacques Charles François". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Sturm, Jacques Charles François". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
  • "Sturm, Jacques-Charles-Francois". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 

Persondata
Name	Sturm, Jacques Charles Francois
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 29, 1803
Place of birth	Geneva
Date of death	December 15, 1855
Place of death	Paris