Richard Courant (nonfiction)

Richard Courant.

Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German American mathematician.

He is best known by the general public for the book What is Mathematics?, co-written with Herbert Robbins.

Commenting upon his analysis of experimental results from in-laboratory soap film formations, Courant believed that the existence of a physical solution does not obviate mathematical proof:

Empirical evidence can never establish mathematical existence--nor can the mathematician's demand for existence be dismissed by the physicist as useless rigor. Only a mathematical existence proof can ensure that the mathematical description of a physical phenomenon is meaningful.

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Mathematics

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Herbert Busemann (nonfiction) - Doctoral student
• William Feller (nonfiction) - Doctoral student
• Kurt Friedrichs (nonfiction) - Doctoral student
• David Hilbert (nonfiction) - Doctoral advisor
• Fritz John (nonfiction) - Doctoral student
• Joseph Keller (nonfiction) - Doctoral student
• Edgar Krahn (nonfiction) - Doctoral student
• Martin Kruskal (nonfiction) - Doctoral student
• Anneli Lax (nonfiction) - Doctoral student
• Hans Lewy (nonfiction) - Doctoral student
• Mathematics (nonfiction)
• Otto Neugebauer (nonfiction) - Doctoral student
• Franz Rellich (nonfiction) - Doctoral student

External links:

• Richard Courant @ Wikipedia