astronomy

Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn

Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn is a astronomy 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 Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn rather than just read about it. In short: Nicolaas Govert "Dick" de Bruijn (Dutch: [ˈnikoːlaːs ˈxoːvər də ˈbrœyn]; 9 July 1918 – 17 February 2012) was a Dutch mathematician, noted for his many contributions in the fields of analysis, number theory, combinatorics and logic. Biography De Bruijn was born in The Hague where he attended elementary school between 1924 and 1930 and secondary school until 1934.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Nicolaas Govert "Dick" de Bruijn (Dutch: [ˈnikoːlaːs ˈxoːvər də ˈbrœyn]; 9 July 1918 – 17 February 2012) was a Dutch mathematician, noted for his many contributions in the fields of analysis, number theory, combinatorics and logic.

Biography De Bruijn was born in The Hague where he attended elementary school between 1924 and 1930 and secondary school until 1934. He started studies in mathematics at Leiden University in 1936 but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II in 1939. He became a full-time Assistant in the Department of Mathematics of the Technological University of Delft in September 1939 while continuing his studies. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Leiden in 1941. He received his PhD in 1943 from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam with a thesis entitled "Over modulaire vormen van meer veranderlijken" advised by Jurjen Ferdinand Koksma. From June 1944 he was a Scientific Associate working in Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven. He married Elizabeth de Groot on 30 August 1944. The couple had four children: Jorina Aleida (born 19 January 1947), Frans Willem (born 13 April 1948), Elisabeth (born 24 November 1950), and Judith Elizabeth (born 31 March 1963). De Bruijn started his academic career at the University of Amsterdam, where he was Professor of Mathematics from 1952 to 1960. In 1960 he moved to the Technical University Eindhoven where he was Professor of Mathematics until his retirement in 1984. Among his graduate students were Johannes Runnenburg (1960), Antonius Levelt (1961), S. Ackermans (1964), Jozef Beenakker (1966), W. van der Meiden (1967), Matheus Hautus (1970), Robert Nederpelt Lazarom (1973), Lambert van Benthem Jutting (1977), A. Janssen (1979), Diederik van Daalen (1980), and Harmannus Balsters (1986). In 1957 he was appointed member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was Knighted with the Order of the Netherlands Lion.

Work De Bruijn covered many areas of mathematics. He is especially noted for:

the discovery of the De Bruijn sequence, discovering an algebraic theory of the Penrose tiling and, more generally, discovering the "projection" and "multigrid" methods for constructing quasi-periodic tilings, the De Bruijn–Newman constant, related to the Riemann hypothesis the De Bruijn–Erdős theorem, in graph theory, on coloring an infinite graph a different theorem of the same name: the De Bruijn–Erdős theorem in incidence geometry, on the number of lines determined by n points in a plane the BEST theorem in graph theory, on Eulerian circuits, and De Bruijn indices in the lambda calculus. He wrote one of the standard books in advanced asymptotic analysis (De Bruijn, 1958). In the late sixties, he designed the Automath language for representing mathematical proofs, so that they could be verified automatically (see automated theorem checking). Shortly before his death, he had been working on models for the human brain.

Publications Books, a selection:

1943. Over modulaire vormen van meer veranderlijken 1958. Asymptotic Methods in Analysis, North-Holland, Amsterdam. Articles, a selection:

de Bruijn, Nicolaas Govert. "A combinatorial problem", 1946. In Proceedings of the Section of Sciences, Vol. 49, No. 7, pp. 758–764. Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie v. Wetenschappen. de Bruijn, Nicolaas Govert. "The mathematical language AUTOMATH, its usage, and some of its extensions." Symposium on automatic demonstration. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1970. de Bruijn, Nicolaas Govert. "Lambda calculus notation with nameless dummies, a tool for automatic formula manipulation, with application to the Church-Rosser theorem." Indagationes Mathematicae (Proceedings). Vol. 75. No. 5. North-Holland, 1972.

Notes

References

External links

Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn's obituary Bruijn N.G. de Archived 2012-03-04 at the Wayback Machine at win.tue.nl (in Dutch)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn 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 Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn 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 Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn

In research: Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn appears in astronomy 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 Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn 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: Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1918 births, 2012 deaths, 20th-century Dutch mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn 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 Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn in simple terms?

Why does Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn?

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 Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn.