Document Type
Course Materials
Publication Date
Spring 2016
Abstract
A special construction used in both analysis and topology today is known as the Cantor set. Cantor used this set in a paper in the 1880s. Yet it appeared as early as 1875 in a paper by the Irish mathematician Henry John Stephen Smith (1826 - 1883). Smith, who is best known for the Smith normal form of a matrix, was a professor at Oxford who made great contributions in matrix theory and number theory. In this project, we will explore parts of a paper he wrote titled On the Integration of Discontinuous Functions.
Applicable Math Courses
topology, analysis
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Scoville, Nicholas A., "The Cantor Set Before Cantor" (2016). Topology. 2.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/triumphs_topology/2
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Geometry and Topology Commons, Higher Education Commons, Science and Mathematics Education Commons
