David Hilbert (1862 - 1943) Mathematician Algebraist Topologist Geometrist Number Theorist Physicist Analyst Philosopher Genius And modest too...

"Physics is much too hard for physicists." - Hilbert, 1912

This site is dedicated to David Hilbert, the funkiest mathematician alive.
(Well, at least the funkiest when he was alive. He's dead now, but he's still pretty funky. I don't mean funky like he smells funky, but I'm sure he does since he's been dead for over half a century. Of course, he was German, so the term probably wouldn't be applied to him. It would probably be more like funkisch. Hey, there's five years of German classes well spent. And he was born way before disco was king, so the term funky or funkisch probably wasn't used at all back then. I'm not saying that Davey wouldn't like disco. He was known to be a very good dancer in his time. That was mostly big band music hall stuff, but I'm sure he could manage to do the Hustle. And that's pretty hip for a mathematician. Not that all mathematicians aren't hip, mind you. I know one that even had a beer party recently. Of course, he did take that opportunity to gather beer tasting data in the form a block design using random permutations of 4-subsets of a 6-set. I'll stop now.)

"Every boy in the streets of Gottingen understands more about four-dimensional geometry than Einstein. Yet, in spite of that, Einstein did the work and not the mathematicians." - Hilbert, 1915

Hilbert Stuff (This was my paper for a number theory class.)

Biography

Paris Problems

Bibliography

"How can a man who was a mathematician write novels? He did not have enough imagination for mathematics, but he had enough for novels." - Hilbert, 1917

Hilbert Links

A Hilbert Biography

Another Hilbert Bio

Yet Another Hilbert Bio

Yet Another Hilbert Bio - This time in German!

Julia Sawaki Tanaka's Hilbert Transform Home Page

Research on Hilbert Space - Check out the grant amount!

Peano-Hilbert Space-Filling Curves Java Applet - Psychedelic!

Hilbert Space-Filling Curves Screen Saver - For Windows.

How To Find Primes - Hilbert's 10th Problem!

Number Theory Web

Math Research Newsgroup

David Hilbert Lives!

"The conviction of the solvability of every mathematical problem is a powerful incentive to the worker. We hear within us the perpetual call: There is the problem. Seek its solution. You can find it by pure reason, for in mathematics there is no ignorabimus." - Hilbert, 1900

Created by Todd Wittman / wittman@math..umn.edu