Pafnuty Chebyshev
Russian mathematician (1821–1894)

Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev (Russian: Пафну́тий Льво́вич Чебышёв, IPA: [pɐfˈnutʲɪj ˈlʲvovʲɪtɕ tɕɪbɨˈʂof]) (16 May [O.S. 4 May] 1821 – 8 December [O.S. 26 November] 1894) was a Russian mathematician and considered to be the founding father of Russian mathematics.
Chebyshev is known for his fundamental contributions to the fields of probability, statistics, mechanics, and number theory. A number of important mathematical concepts are named after him, including the Chebyshev inequality (which can be used to prove the weak law of large numbers), the Bertrand–Chebyshev theorem, Chebyshev polynomials, Chebyshev linkage, and Chebyshev bias.
Transcription
The surname Chebyshev has been transliterated in several different ways, including Tchebichef, Tchebychev, Tchebycheff, Tschebyschev, Tschebyschef, Tschebyscheff, Čebyčev, Čebyšev, Chebysheff, Chebychov and Chebyshov (which provides the closest pronunciation in English to the correct pronunciation in old Russian). Chebychev is an erroneous mixture between English and French transliterations. In English, the transliteration Chebyshev has gained widespread acceptance. The correct transliteration according to ISO 9 is Čebyšëv. The American Mathematical Society adopted the transcription Chebyshev in its Mathematical Reviews.
His first name comes from the Greek Paphnutius (Παφνούτιος), which in turn takes its origin in the Coptic Paphnuty (Ⲡⲁⲫⲛⲟⲩϯ), meaning "that who belongs to God" or simply "the man of God".
Biography
Early years
One of nine children, Chebyshev was born in the village of Okatovo in the district of Borovsk, province of Kaluga.
The public source identifies “Pafnuty Chebyshev” as russian mathematician (1821–1894). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pafnuty, Chebyshev and Russian.
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