Hugo Steinhaus in the context of "Coastline paradox"

Play Trivia Questions online!

or

Skip to study material about Hugo Steinhaus in the context of "Coastline paradox"

Ad spacer

⭐ Core Definition: Hugo Steinhaus

Hugo Dyonizy Steinhaus (English: /ˈhjɡ ˈstnˌhs/ HYOO-goh STYNE-howss, Polish: [ˈxuɡɔ ˈʂtajnxaws]; 14 January 1887 – 25 February 1972) was a Polish mathematician and educator. Steinhaus obtained his PhD under David Hilbert at Göttingen University in 1911 and later became a professor at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), where he helped establish what later became known as the Lwów School of Mathematics. He is credited with "discovering" mathematician Stefan Banach, with whom he gave a notable contribution to functional analysis through the Banach–Steinhaus theorem. After World War II Steinhaus played an important part in the establishment of the mathematics department at Wrocław University and in the revival of Polish mathematics from the destruction of the war.

Author of around 170 scientific articles and books, Steinhaus has left his legacy and contribution in many branches of mathematics, such as functional analysis, geometry, mathematical logic, and trigonometry. Notably he is regarded as one of the early founders of game theory and probability theory, which led to later development of more comprehensive approaches by other scholars.

↓ Menu

>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<

👉 Hugo Steinhaus in the context of Coastline paradox

The coastline paradox is the counterintuitive observation that the coastline of a landmass does not have a well-defined length or perimeter. This results from the fractal curve–like properties of coastlines; i.e., the fact that a coastline typically has a fractal dimension. Although the "paradox of length" was previously noted by Hugo Steinhaus, the first systematic study of this phenomenon was by Lewis Fry Richardson, and it was expanded upon by Benoit Mandelbrot.

The measured length of the coastline depends on the method used to measure it and the degree of cartographic generalization. Since a landmass has features at all scales, from hundreds of kilometers in size to tiny fractions of a millimeter and below, there is no obvious size of the smallest feature that should be taken into consideration when measuring, and hence no single well-defined perimeter to the landmass. Various approximations exist when specific assumptions are made about minimum feature size.

↓ Explore More Topics
In this Dossier

Hugo Steinhaus in the context of Stefan Banach

Stefan Banach (Polish: [ˈstɛfan ˈbanax] ; 30 March 1892 – 31 August 1945) was a Polish mathematician who is generally considered one of the 20th century's most important and influential mathematicians. He was the founder of modern functional analysis, and an original member of the Lwów School of Mathematics. His major work was the 1932 book, Théorie des opérations linéaires (Theory of Linear Operations), the first monograph on the general theory of functional analysis.

Born in Kraków to a family of Goral descent, Banach showed a keen interest in mathematics and engaged in solving mathematical problems during school recess. After completing his secondary education, he befriended Hugo Steinhaus, with whom he established the Polish Mathematical Society in 1919 and later published the scientific journal Studia Mathematica. In 1920, he received an assistantship at the Lwów Polytechnic, subsequently becoming a professor in 1922 and a member of the Polish Academy of Learning in 1924. Banach was also a co-founder of the Lwów School of Mathematics, a school of thought comprising some of the most renowned Polish mathematicians of the interwar period (1918–1939).

↑ Return to Menu

Hugo Steinhaus in the context of Planty Park (Kraków)

Planty is a historic urban park around the Old Town in Kraków, Poland. It was built on the site of the destroyed the Medieval defensive walls of the city.

The park has an area of 21 ha (52 acres) and a length of 4 km (2.5 mi). It consists of a chain of thirty smaller gardens designed in varied styles and adorned with numerous monuments and fountains. There are over twenty statues of noble historical figures in the park including monuments to Nicolaus Copernicus, Jan Matejko, Queen Jadwiga and King Wladyslaw II Jagiello. There are also several plaques in the park commemorating, among others, Jan Dlugosz and Stanislaw Wyspianski. And of famous Polish Mathematician Hugo Steinhaus, Stefan Banach and Otto Nikodym.

↑ Return to Menu