RePoSS #11: The Mathematics of Niels Henrik Abel: Continuation ...

20 Chapter 2. Biography of NIELS HENRIK ABEL
Figure 2.3: BERNT MICHAEL HOLMBOE (1795–1850)
a replacement in 1818. 6 HOLMBOE, who was ABEL’S senior by only 7 years, had been
educated at the cathedral school himself and had attended mathematics courses un-
der S. RASMUSSEN (1768–1850) at the university. HOLMBOE soon noticed a special
talent for mathematics in ABEL and they began reading extra-curricular mathematics
together.
2.2 “Study the masters”
Soon, HOLMBOE began to realize what mathematical talent he had at hand and by
the autumn of 1818, HOLMBOE urged ABEL to study the important works in mathe-
matics on his own. In one of his notebooks, ABEL pursued calculations inspired by
P.-S., MARQUIS DE LAPLACE’S (1749–1827) use of generating functions. Between all
the calculations, he noted in the margin:
“If one wants to know what one should do to obtain a result in more conformity
with Nature one should consult the works of the famous Laplace where this
theory is exposed with the most clarity and to an extent in accordance with the
importance of the subject. It is also easy to see that a theory written by M. Laplace
must be much superior to any other written by less bright mathematicians. By the
way it seems to me that if one wants to progress in mathematics one should study
the masters and not the pupils.” 7
6 For details, see (Stubhaug, 1996, 172–174).