Events

February 18, 2010

Steven H. Weintraub, Lehigh University

On Legendre’s Work on the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity

Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics, Villanova University | Visit site »

Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Room 103, Mendel Science Center, Villanova University

Abstract.  As is well-known, Legendre was the first to state the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity in the form that we now know it (though an equivalent result had earlier been conjectured by Euler), and he was able to prove it in some but not all cases, with the first complete proof being given by Gauss. In this talk we trace the evolution of Legendre’s work on quadratic reciprocity in his four great works on on number theory, from 1785, 1797, 1808, and 1830.