mathematics

Jules Molk

Jules Molk is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jules Molk rather than just read about it. In short: Jules Molk (8 December 1857 in Strasbourg, France – 7 May 1914 in Nancy) was a French mathematician who worked on elliptic functions. The French Academy of Sciences awarded him the Prix Binoux for 1913.

Key takeaways

Jules Molk belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jules Molk to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jules Molk from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jules Molk (8 December 1857 in Strasbourg, France – 7 May 1914 in Nancy) was a French mathematician who worked on elliptic functions. The French Academy of Sciences awarded him the Prix Binoux for 1913. He was appointed to the chair of applied mathematics at the University of Nancy upon the death of Émile Léonard Mathieu in 1890. From 1902 until his death in 1914, Molk was the leader and editor-in-chief of the publication of a French encyclopedia of pure and applied mathematical sciences based upon Klein's encyclopedia. It was a translation of the volumes in German and required the collaboration of many mathematicians and theoretical physicists from France, Germany, and several other European countries. Among the noteworthy contributors are: Paul Appell, Felix Klein, Jacques Hadamard, David Hilbert, Émile Borel, Paul Montel, Maurice Fréchet, Édouard Goursat, Ernst Zermelo, Ernst Steinitz, Arthur Schoenflies, Philipp Furtwängler, Carl Runge, Vilfredo Pareto, Ernest Vessiot, Gino Fano, George Darwin, Paul Langevin, Jean Perrin, Karl Schwarzschild, Pierre Boutroux, Edmond Bauer, Max Abraham, Arnold Sommerfeld, Ernest Esclangon, Paul Ehrenfest, and Tatyana Pavlovna Ehrenfest.

The French edition of the Encyclopaedia of the Pure Mathematical Sciences edited and published after the German edition is neither a straight translation nor a simple adaptation for the French readership. It was intended as an erudite and sometimes controversial re-reading of the German edition, by a group of scholars brought together by Jules Molk, professor of rational mechanics at the University of Nancy. He was familiar with the scientific literature in Germany having lived in Berlin between 1880 and 1884 and having written a thesis focused on an overview of the German breakthroughs in Mathematics. The first volumes of this French edition appeared in 1908, with the help of ... Teubner and Gauthier Villars, and the last in 1916, two years after the death of Jules Molk. Only half of the volumes released from Teubner in 1908 were published, and that with some difficulty. Nevertheless, such a Franco-German scientific collaboration was remarkable and totally new. In 1906 Molk was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Publications Tannery, Jules; Molk, Jules (1972) [1893], Éléments de la théorie des fonctions elliptiques. Tomes I, II, III, IV. Calcul différentiel, New York: Chelsea Publishing Co., ISBN 978-0-8284-0257-6, MR 0392471 Éléments de la théorie des fonctions elliptiques. Tome 1, sur Gallica. Éléments de la théorie des fonctions elliptiques. Tome 2, sur Gallica. Éléments de la théorie des fonctions elliptiques. Tome 4, sur Gallica. Éléments de la théorie des fonctions elliptiques Volumes 1 et 2, sur Archive.org. Éléments de la théorie des fonctions elliptiques Tome 1, sur Archive.org.

Encyclopédie des sciences mathématiques pures et appliquées Site des Editions Jacques Gabay Linum, livres numériques mathématiques Encyclopédie des sciences mathématiques pures et appliquées Volume 1, sur Archive.org. Encyclopédie des sciences mathématiques pures et appliquées Tome 4 Volume 2 Archived 2018-01-07 at the Wayback Machine, sur IRIS. Encyclopédie des sciences mathématiques pures et appliquées Tome 2, Premier volume, sur Gallica. Encyclopédie des sciences mathématiques pures et appliquées Tome 2, Deuxième volume, sur Gallica. Encyclopédie des sciences mathématiques pures et appliquées Tome 4, Cinquième volume, sur Gallica. Encyclopédie des sciences mathématiques pures et appliquées Tome 4, Sixième volume, sur Gallica.

References

Hélène Gispert (1999) "Les débuts de l'histoire des mathématiques sur les scènes internationales et le cas de l'entreprise encyclopédique de Felix Klein et Jules Molk", Historia Mathematica 26(4):344–60. Jules Molk at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jules Molk

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jules Molk claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jules Molk before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jules Molk ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jules Molk

In research: Jules Molk appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jules Molk in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jules Molk is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1857 births, 1914 deaths, Academic staff of Nancy-Université, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jules Molk outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jules Molk in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jules Molk means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jules Molk out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jules Molk in simple terms?

Why does Jules Molk matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jules Molk?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jules Molk.