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I don't think it's reasonable to say that he was the 20th century's greatest geometer. He may have been the greatest in his particular flavor of geometry, but certainly people like Grothendieck and Thurston can be called geometers - it's like saying that Conway was the 20th century's greatest algebraist. 130.238.5.5 22:23, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
Hi. How did Coxeter prohop his name? I'm a native speaker of English and it's not clear even for me. Thanks for your help. 64.48.158.34 16:11, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
The sentence that Coxeter studied philosophy of math under Wittgenstein is overstated. He went to Wittgenstein's seminar for a while, but got bored with it and stopped going. It should be replaced by saying what he really studied, with at most a passing reference to the Wittgenstein seminar. Siobhan Robers' book is a good source but I don't have it here. 76.197.56.242 ( talk) 10:11, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
As it stands, the article doesn't agree with its sources. According to MacTutor History of Mathematics, he received his B.A. in 1929, but the article says 1928 right now. King of Infinite Space doesn't say outright when he got the degree, but says that he completed the Mathematical Tripos in 1928, went to Vienna during the summer and started on his Ph.D. work immediately thereafter. Roberts' sources for this are Trinity College records and the article "Geometry at Cambridge, 1863-1940" by June Barrow-Green and Jeremy J. Gray in Historia Mathematica, June 2006, 42. The article by Barrow-Green and Gray doesn't say anything about Coxeter's B.A., but dates his Ph.D. to 1932, at odds with the Wikipedia article and MacTutor, and also with Roberts, who says that he submitted his dissertation in 1931 (reference: the dissertation itself). There is of course the possibility that Coxeter completed the necessary work for the degrees in 1928 and 1931 but wasn't awarded the degrees until 1929 and 1932, but these sources don't say that outright. // Essin ( talk) 23:50, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
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Mathematicians are human and subject to making mistakes, including Coxeter. One instance is cited at Bilinski dodecahedron. Apparently 48 years transpired before Branko Grünbaum noted the error.
Coxeter also claimed that the Lorentz group is isomorphic to the Möbius group in 1965:
While other sources also assert this isomorphism (as seen in the Möbius group article), the assertion would imply that there are parabolic transformations in the Lorentz group ( Galilean transformations are parabolic but are not in the Lorentz group). The assertion is absurd. Various issues arise: the groups are in fact group actions, one on the plane the other on 4-space, and projective structure underlies the Möbius group but not the Lorentz group. Perpetuation of this error continues not only in this article but also in History of Lorentz transformations and other Encyclopedia articles. — Rgdboer ( talk) 23:24, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
One needs a WP:RS to counter the claim. Rgdboer ( talk)
Is he the namesake of the integral
known as Coxeter's integral? Nerd271 ( talk) 13:55, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
Coxeter was always known professionally as "H.S.M. Coxeter", never "Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter". According to WP naming principles, the article should have the name "H.S.M. Coxeter". Is there an objection to moving it? Zaslav ( talk) 03:22, 6 December 2021 (UTC)
![]() | This ![]() It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I don't think it's reasonable to say that he was the 20th century's greatest geometer. He may have been the greatest in his particular flavor of geometry, but certainly people like Grothendieck and Thurston can be called geometers - it's like saying that Conway was the 20th century's greatest algebraist. 130.238.5.5 22:23, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
Hi. How did Coxeter prohop his name? I'm a native speaker of English and it's not clear even for me. Thanks for your help. 64.48.158.34 16:11, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
The sentence that Coxeter studied philosophy of math under Wittgenstein is overstated. He went to Wittgenstein's seminar for a while, but got bored with it and stopped going. It should be replaced by saying what he really studied, with at most a passing reference to the Wittgenstein seminar. Siobhan Robers' book is a good source but I don't have it here. 76.197.56.242 ( talk) 10:11, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
As it stands, the article doesn't agree with its sources. According to MacTutor History of Mathematics, he received his B.A. in 1929, but the article says 1928 right now. King of Infinite Space doesn't say outright when he got the degree, but says that he completed the Mathematical Tripos in 1928, went to Vienna during the summer and started on his Ph.D. work immediately thereafter. Roberts' sources for this are Trinity College records and the article "Geometry at Cambridge, 1863-1940" by June Barrow-Green and Jeremy J. Gray in Historia Mathematica, June 2006, 42. The article by Barrow-Green and Gray doesn't say anything about Coxeter's B.A., but dates his Ph.D. to 1932, at odds with the Wikipedia article and MacTutor, and also with Roberts, who says that he submitted his dissertation in 1931 (reference: the dissertation itself). There is of course the possibility that Coxeter completed the necessary work for the degrees in 1928 and 1931 but wasn't awarded the degrees until 1929 and 1932, but these sources don't say that outright. // Essin ( talk) 23:50, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
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source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 14:42, 9 December 2017 (UTC)
Mathematicians are human and subject to making mistakes, including Coxeter. One instance is cited at Bilinski dodecahedron. Apparently 48 years transpired before Branko Grünbaum noted the error.
Coxeter also claimed that the Lorentz group is isomorphic to the Möbius group in 1965:
While other sources also assert this isomorphism (as seen in the Möbius group article), the assertion would imply that there are parabolic transformations in the Lorentz group ( Galilean transformations are parabolic but are not in the Lorentz group). The assertion is absurd. Various issues arise: the groups are in fact group actions, one on the plane the other on 4-space, and projective structure underlies the Möbius group but not the Lorentz group. Perpetuation of this error continues not only in this article but also in History of Lorentz transformations and other Encyclopedia articles. — Rgdboer ( talk) 23:24, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
One needs a WP:RS to counter the claim. Rgdboer ( talk)
Is he the namesake of the integral
known as Coxeter's integral? Nerd271 ( talk) 13:55, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
Coxeter was always known professionally as "H.S.M. Coxeter", never "Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter". According to WP naming principles, the article should have the name "H.S.M. Coxeter". Is there an objection to moving it? Zaslav ( talk) 03:22, 6 December 2021 (UTC)