mathematics

Peter M. Neumann

Peter M. Neumann 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 Peter M. Neumann rather than just read about it. In short: Peter Michael Neumann OBE (28 December 1940 – 18 December 2020) was a British mathematician. His fields of interest included the history of mathematics and Galois theory.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Peter Michael Neumann OBE (28 December 1940 – 18 December 2020) was a British mathematician. His fields of interest included the history of mathematics and Galois theory.

Biography Born in December 1940, Neumann was a son of the German-born mathematicians Bernhard Neumann and Hanna Neumann. He gained a BA degree from The Queen's College, Oxford in 1963, and a DPhil degree from the University of Oxford in 1966. On completing his doctorate, Neumann was named a Tutorial Fellow at the Queen's College, Oxford, and in 1967 he became a lecturer at the University of Oxford. His research work was in the field of group theory. In 1987, Neumann won the Lester R. Ford Award of the Mathematical Association of America for his review of Harold Edwards' book Galois Theory. He was the first Chairman of the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust, from October 1996 to April 2004, succeeded by Bernard Silverman. Neumann showed in 1997 that Alhazen's problem (reflecting a light ray off a spherical mirror to hit a target) cannot be solved with a straightedge and compass construction. Although the solution is a straightforward application of Galois theory it settles the constructibility of one of the last remaining geometric construction problems posed in antiquity. In 2003, the London Mathematical Society awarded him the Senior Whitehead Prize. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours. After retiring in 2008, he became an Emeritus Fellow at the Queen's College. Neumann's work in the history of mathematics includes his 2011 publication The Mathematical Writings of Évariste Galois, an English language book on the work of French mathematician Évariste Galois (1811–1832). Neumann was a long-standing supporter of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, whose Neumann Prize is named in his honour. Neumann was the president of the Mathematical Association from 2015 to 2016. Neumann died from COVID-19 on 18 December 2020, ten days before his 80th birthday, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.

Personal life Neumann married Sylvia Bull in 1962. She was a fellow mathematics undergraduate at Oxford, where they met.

References

External links

Home page at The Queen's College, Oxford Peter M. Neumann at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter M. Neumann

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter M. Neumann 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 Peter M. Neumann 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 Peter M. Neumann 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 Peter M. Neumann

In research: Peter M. Neumann 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 Peter M. Neumann 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: Peter M. Neumann is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1940 births, 2020 deaths, 20th-century English mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter M. Neumann 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 Peter M. Neumann in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter M. Neumann in simple terms?

Peter Michael Neumann OBE (28 December 1940 – 18 December 2020) was a British mathematician. His fields of interest included the history of mathematics and Galois theory.

Why does Peter M. Neumann 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 Peter M. Neumann?

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 Peter M. Neumann.