The Scottish Book (Polish: Księga Szkocka) was a thick notebook used by mathematicians of the Lwów School of Mathematics in Poland for jotting down problems meant to be solved. The notebook was named after the "Scottish Café" where it was kept.
Originally, the mathematicians who gathered at the cafe would write down the problems and equations directly on the cafe's marble table tops, but these would be erased at the end of each day, and so the record of the preceding discussions would be lost. The idea for the book was most likely originally suggested by Stefan Banach's wife, Łucja Banach. Stefan or Łucja Banach purchased a large notebook and left it with the proprietor of the cafe.[1][2]
The building of the Scottish cafe where the book was recorded and stored1972: Mazur (left) acknowledges Per Enflo with the promised "live goose", the prize for having solved problem 153.
Stanislaw Ulam recounts that the tables of the café had marble tops, so they could write in pencil, directly on the table, during their discussions. To keep the results from being lost, and after becoming annoyed with their writing directly on the table tops, Stefan Banach's wife provided the mathematicians with a large notebook, which was used for writing the problems and answers and eventually became known as the Scottish Book. The book—a collection of solved, unsolved, and even probably unsolvable problems—could be borrowed by any of the guests of the café. Solving any of the problems was rewarded with prizes, with the most difficult and challenging problems having expensive prizes (during the Great Depression and on the eve of World War II), such as a bottle of fine brandy.[3]
For problem 153, which was later recognized as being closely related to Stefan Banach's "basis problem", Stanisław Mazur offered the prize of a live goose. This problem was solved only in 1972 by Per Enflo, who was presented with the live goose in a ceremony that was broadcast throughout Poland.[4]
The café building used to house the Universal Bank [uk] at the street address of 27 Taras Shevchenko Prospekt. The original cafe was renovated in May 2014 and contains a copy of the Scottish Book.
Problems contributed by individual authorsedit
A total of 193 problems were written down in the book.[1]Stanisław Mazur contributed a total of 43 problems, 24 of them as a single author and 19 together with Stefan Banach.[5] Banach himself wrote 14, plus another 11 with Stanisław Ulam and Mazur. Ulam wrote 40 problems and additional 15 ones with others.[1]
During the Soviet occupation of Lwów, several Russian mathematicians visited the city and also added problems to the book.[2]
After World War II, an English translation annotated by Ulam was published by Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1957.[8] After World War II, Steinhaus at the University of Wrocław revived the tradition of the Scottish book by initiating The New Scottish Book in 1945-1958.
Associated peopleedit
The following mathematicians were associated with the Lwów School of Mathematics or contributed to The Scottish Book:
^"Stanislaw Mazur". The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
at the Wayback Machine (archived April 28, 2018), an article by Roman Duda
Photograph and description of the Scottish café (Kawiarnia Szkocka) at the MacTutor archive
Review of Roman Kaluza’s 1996 book The Life of Stefan Banach from American Mathematical Monthly 104 (1997), 577-579.
at the Wayback Machine (archived April 28, 2018) (page in Polish, with unarchived PDF links)
Lviv Scottish Book - A new Scottish Book at the original café following the tradition of the original Scottish Book
Books:
Kałuża, Roman (1996). Ann Kostant and Wojbor Woyczyński (ed.). Through a reporter's eyes: The life of Stefan Banach. Birkhäuser. ISBN0-8176-3772-9. MR 1392949.
Mauldin, R. Daniel, ed. (1981). The Scottish Book: Mathematics from the Scottish Café. Boston, Mass.: Birkhäuser. pp. xiii+268 (2 plates). ISBN3-7643-3045-7. MR 0666400. (Includes selected papers presented at the Scottish Book Conference held at North Texas State University, Denton, Tex., May 1979)
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The Scottish Book Polish Ksiega Szkocka was a thick notebook used by mathematicians of the Lwow School of Mathematics in Poland for jotting down problems meant to be solved The notebook was named after the Scottish Cafe where it was kept Part of the Scottish Book with notes of Stefan Banach and Stanislaw Ulam Originally the mathematicians who gathered at the cafe would write down the problems and equations directly on the cafe s marble table tops but these would be erased at the end of each day and so the record of the preceding discussions would be lost The idea for the book was most likely originally suggested by Stefan Banach s wife Lucja Banach Stefan or Lucja Banach purchased a large notebook and left it with the proprietor of the cafe 1 2 Contents 1 History 2 Problems contributed by individual authors 3 Continuity 4 Associated people 5 References 6 External linksHistory edit nbsp The building of the Scottish cafe where the book was recorded and stored nbsp 1972 Mazur left acknowledges Per Enflo with the promised live goose the prize for having solved problem 153 The Scottish Cafe Polish Kawiarnia Szkocka was the cafe in Lwow now Lviv Ukraine where in the 1930s and 1940s mathematicians from the Lwow School collaboratively discussed research problems particularly in functional analysis and topology Stanislaw Ulam recounts that the tables of the cafe had marble tops so they could write in pencil directly on the table during their discussions To keep the results from being lost and after becoming annoyed with their writing directly on the table tops Stefan Banach s wife provided the mathematicians with a large notebook which was used for writing the problems and answers and eventually became known as the Scottish Book The book a collection of solved unsolved and even probably unsolvable problems could be borrowed by any of the guests of the cafe Solving any of the problems was rewarded with prizes with the most difficult and challenging problems having expensive prizes during the Great Depression and on the eve of World War II such as a bottle of fine brandy 3 For problem 153 which was later recognized as being closely related to Stefan Banach s basis problem Stanislaw Mazur offered the prize of a live goose This problem was solved only in 1972 by Per Enflo who was presented with the live goose in a ceremony that was broadcast throughout Poland 4 The cafe building used to house the Universal Bank uk at the street address of 27 Taras Shevchenko Prospekt The original cafe was renovated in May 2014 and contains a copy of the Scottish Book Problems contributed by individual authors editA total of 193 problems were written down in the book 1 Stanislaw Mazur contributed a total of 43 problems 24 of them as a single author and 19 together with Stefan Banach 5 Banach himself wrote 14 plus another 11 with Stanislaw Ulam and Mazur Ulam wrote 40 problems and additional 15 ones with others 1 During the Soviet occupation of Lwow several Russian mathematicians visited the city and also added problems to the book 2 Hugo Steinhaus contributed the last problem on 31 May 1941 shortly before the German attack on the Soviet Union 6 7 this problem involved a question about the likely distribution of matches within a matchbox a problem motivated by Banach s habit of chain smoking cigarettes 1 Continuity editAfter World War II an English translation annotated by Ulam was published by Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1957 8 After World War II Steinhaus at the University of Wroclaw revived the tradition of the Scottish book by initiating The New Scottish Book in 1945 1958 Associated people editThe following mathematicians were associated with the Lwow School of Mathematics or contributed to The Scottish Book P Alexandroff Pavel Alexandrov Herman Auerbach murdered in Belzec extermination camp A F Fermant ru Bermant Anisim Fyodorovich i e Anisim Fedorovich Bermant Bogolubov Nikolay Bogolyubov Stefan Banach forced to live as a lice feeder died of cancer in 1945 Karol Borsuk imprisoned for working in the Underground Warsaw University Meier Eidelheit murdered in the Holocaust in 1943 Samuel Eilenberg fled Europe for Princeton University in 1939 Maurice Rene Frechet Leopold Infeld returned from Cambridge to Lwow in 1935 but left again for Princeton University in 1936 under the Nazi threat Joseph Kampe de Feriet Marek Kac went to study in the US in 1938 his family who stayed were murdered in Krzemieniec in 1942 Stefan Kaczmarz died in unclear circumstances in 1939 after being called up for military service Bronislaw Knaster lived as a lice feeder during the occupation of Lwow Kazimierz Kuratowski worked in the Underground Warsaw University Antoni Lomnicki murdered in the Massacre of Lviv professors Lazar Lyusternik participated in the persecution of his teacher in 1936 Jozef Marcinkiewicz believed killed in the Katyn massacre his manuscripts entrusted to his parents were lost Stanislaw Mazur John von Neumann moved to Princeton University in 1930 Wladyslaw Nikliborc pl died 1948 Cyril Offord Wladyslaw Orlicz Stanislaw Ruziewicz murdered in the Massacre of Lviv professors Stanislaw Saks joined the Polish underground executed in 1942 by Gestapo Juliusz Schauder had no paper to record his results after 1941 killed by Gestapo in 1943 Jozef Schreier took his life in the Drohobycz Ghetto in 1943 to avoid capture Waclaw Sierpinski house burned by Nazis in 1944 worked in the Underground Warsaw University Sergei Sobolev Hugo Steinhaus spent World War II in hiding teaching in illegal underground education Ludwig Sternbach taken to Belzec extermination camp Simion Stoilow Edward Szpilrajn later changed his name to Edward Marczewski to escape Nazi persecution Stanislaw Ulam left Poland for the US in 1939 worked on the Manhattan project Rolin Wavre A J Gus Ward see problems 156 and 157 The Scottish Book Later Fellow and Bursar at Emmanuel College Cambridge England Antoni Zygmund emigrated to the US in 1940 References edit a b c d Raikhel Yuri January 2010 Scottish Book Lviv s mathematical relic Den Retrieved November 17 2011 a b Visser Jan Visser Muriel 2003 Talking about the unknown PDF TechTrends 47 1 5 8 doi 10 1007 BF02763324 S2CID 62646372 Mauldin ed Mauldin ed Kaluza Stanislaw Mazur The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews Scotland Retrieved November 17 2011 Manuscript of Scottish book PDF at the Wayback Machine archived April 28 2018 Ulam page 88 Ulam Stanislaw The Scottish Book PDF pp I II sent by Stan Ulam from Los Alamos to Professor Copson in Edinburgh on January 28 1958 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scottish Book Scottish book preface At the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan website archived by the Wayback Machine Ulam Stan ed 1958 The Scottish book PDF English version of Scottish book archived from the original PDF on 28 April 2018 typescript of the English version Scottish book Web page at the Wayback Machine archived April 28 2018 at Home Page of Stefan Banach at the Wayback Machine archived April 28 2018 Manuscript of Scottish book PDF at the Wayback Machine archived April 28 2018 The New Scottish Book at the Wayback Machine archived April 28 2018 an article by Roman Duda Photograph and description of the Scottish cafe Kawiarnia Szkocka at the MacTutor archive Review of Roman Kaluza s 1996 book The Life of Stefan Banach from American Mathematical Monthly 104 1997 577 579 The New Scottish Book in PDF files at the Wayback Machine archived April 28 2018 page in Polish with unarchived PDF links Lviv Scottish Book A new Scottish Book at the original cafe following the tradition of the original Scottish Book Books Kaluza Roman 1996 Ann Kostant and Wojbor Woyczynski ed Through a reporter s eyes The life of Stefan Banach Birkhauser ISBN 0 8176 3772 9 MR 1392949 Mauldin R Daniel ed 1981 The Scottish Book Mathematics from the Scottish Cafe Boston Mass Birkhauser pp xiii 268 2 plates ISBN 3 7643 3045 7 MR 0666400 Includes selected papers presented at the Scottish Book Conference held at North Texas State University Denton Tex May 1979 49 50 09 N 24 1 57 E 49 83583 N 24 03250 E 49 83583 24 03250 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Scottish Book amp oldid 1216069649, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
