The mathematician who never existed

Introduction

The aim of this report is to give a short review of the history of Nicolai Bourbaki. First of all, it is important to say that he did not exist. However, he was one of the most influential mathematicians in the twentieth century. The information used in this report was taken from several sources and is provided in the references below.

The real Bourbaki

Charles Denis Sauter Bourbaki was a very unsuccessful general.  When he was caught running away from France he tried to commit suicide but he failed. The name of this general was taken by a group of mathematician for creating an imaginary extraordinary character.

Dr. Bourbaki from the Royal Poldavian Academy

The first appearance of Nicolai Bourbaki was in a conference at the Ecole Normale Superieur in Paris. He had a huge resume including honorific membership of the Royal Poldavian Academy and a lot of papers published by the Institut Mathématique de l'Université de Nancago. At the end of the conference, he received no questions and was congratulated by all the attenders even though nobody understood anything. However, that was his last conference.

In fact, Dr. Bourbaky never existed. He was created by a group of the best mathematicians of the twentieth century. They were the authors of a collection of books, signed with the name Bourbaki, which aimed to comprise the whole field of mathematics. Furthermore, their style was very hard and strict. Because of that, their influence was substantial.

Nowadays a lot of Bourbaki's notions are used. The very common expression “modern math” refers to the style imposed by Bourbaki. Also, the use of “structures,” like “algebraic structures,” in a more abstract sense, is essential in his work. Among the more common structures studied by Bourbaki are: groups, rings, fields, topological vector spaces, measure spaces and differentiable manifolds. Moreover, at a lower level, terms like “injective,” surjective” and “bijective,” and the symbol Ø for denoting the empty set, are all belong to Bourbaki.

Conclusion

Even though Bourbaki never existed, his work has revolutioned mathematics in a very productive and funny way.

References

• L. Moledo, Curiosidades de la ciencia.
• P. Halmos, Nicolas Bourbaki.
• F. Bombal, Nicolas Bourbaki.