Person: Rychlik, Karel
Karel Rychlik was a Czech mathematician who worked in the fields of algebra, number theory, mathematical analysis and the history of mathematics.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- It was in Vlasim, which is only about 18 km south east of Benesov, that Karel began his primary education.
- After graduating from the Gymnasium, Rychlik entered the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague in October 1904.
- Already before his doctorate had been conferred, Rychlik was appointed as an assistant at the Charles University in Prague although for the first year he was unpaid.
- In this role Rychlik gave lectures on the Theory of Algebraic Fields and on the Theory of Algebraic Functions.
- For Rychlik, having a position at the Charles University of Prague was a good thing in terms of status but it did not provide a sufficient income for him to live.
- Rychlik took over his lecture courses at the Technical University.
- Rychlik's contributions cover a number of different areas.
- It is easy to see why Rychlik did not receive as much credit for this work as one might expect for many of his papers were written in Czech and therefore not read outside his country.
- Rychlik is best known, however, for his contributions to the history of mathematics, particularly his work on Bernard Bolzano.
- Rychlik was one of eight members of this Committee and it was he who edited and provided notes for the first of the Committee's publications 'Bernard Bolzano, Spisy Bernarda Bolzano - Bernard Bolzano's Schriften Vol.
- 1, Functionenlehre, Edited and with notes by K Rychlik (Královská Ceská Spolecnost Nauk, Prague, 1930).' This publication comprised an edited version of Functionenlehre Ⓣ(The law of functions) which was written by Bolzano before 1834.
- Rychlik also edited and provided notes for the second of the Committee's publications 'Bernard Bolzano, Spisy Bernarda Bolzano - Bernard Bolzano's Schriften Vol.
- 2, Zahlentheorie, Edited and with notes by K Rychlik (Královská Ceská Spolecnost Nauk, Prague, 1931).' It contains part of Bolzano's manuscript entitled Zahlentheorie Ⓣ(Number theory) , namely the part in which he presented the integers and their elementary properties.
- By the time that the war ended in 1945 Rychlik was sixty years old and at that stage he thought he should retire; he formally retired from his university positions in 1948.
- Other works by Rychlik on Bolzano from this later period of his research career include Theory of real numbers in the manuscripts left by Bolzano (Czech) (1956), Theorie der reellen Zahlen im Bolzano's handschriftlichen Nachlasse Ⓣ(Theory of real numbers in Bolzano's handwritten notes) (1957), Betrachtungen aus der Logik im Bolzano's handschriftlichen Nachlasse Ⓣ(Consideration of logic in Bolzano's handwritten notes) (Czech) (1958), Betrachtungen aus der Logik in Bolzanos handschriftlichem Nachlasse Ⓣ(Reflections on logic in Bolzano handwritten notes) (1958), La théorie des nombres réels de Bolzano d'après ses manuscrits inédits Ⓣ(The theory of real numbers from the unpublished manuscripts of Bolzano) (Russian) (1958), and Theorie der reellen Zahlen in Bolzanos handschriftlichem Nachlasse Ⓣ(Theory of real numbers in Bolzano handwritten notes) (1962).
- Other works by Rychlik on the history of mathematics include A Cauchy manuscript in the archives of the Czechoslovakian academy of sciences (Czech) (1957), Un manuscrit de Cauchy aux archives de l'académie tchécoslovaque des Sciences Ⓣ(A Cauchy manuscript in the archives of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences) (1957), Cauchys Schrift "Mémoire sur la dispersion de la lumière" herausgegeben während seines Aufenthaltes in Prag durch die Königliche böhmische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften Ⓣ(Cauchy's manuscript 'Memoir on the dispersion of light' published during his stay in Prague by the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences) (1958), and Berechnung der Grundzahl e der natürlichen Logarithmen Ⓣ(Calculation of the base number e of natural logarithms) (Czech) (1960).
- In this last mentioned paper Rychlik looked at the calculation of eee to 225 decimal places carried out by the Czech mathematician Bohumir Tichánek in 1890 using a continued fraction method.
- The Cauchy manuscript which Rychlik discussed in the above mentioned papers was Memoire sur l'intégration des équations differentielles Ⓣ(Memoir on the integration of differential equations) which was dated 'Prague 1835' in Cauchy's own hand.
- Almost the whole of his life Rychlik lectured in the Union and his lectures were very closely related to his scientific research.
Born 16 April 1885, Benesov near Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic). Died 28 May 1968, Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic).
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Origin Czech Republic
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
