Charles Lutwidge Dodgson By: Shakayla Lambert Algebra II P.10

Charles Dodgson’s Background He’s also known as Lewis Carroll Born: January 27, 1832 Died: January 14, 1898 Birthplace: Cheshire, England, UK Dodgson was the eldest son and third child in a family of seven girls and four boys. His dad was a Reverend in a church. The Dodgson lived in a isolated country village. He mostly played with his brothers and sisters and created games for his whole family to play. He was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England. He is best known for writing “Alice in Wonderland.” Nonetheless, many don’t‘ realize that he was an accomplished mathematician.

Education When he was in elementary and middle school he was bullied. He didn’t have many friends because he was shy. Dodgson endured several illness as a child, one of which left him deaf in one year. Dodgson attended at Church Christ College in Oxford, England. He excelled in his mathematical and classical studies while he was in college. Dodgson was nominated to a studentship, which is a scholarship that rewards you for getting good grades in school. While at Church Christ College, he was appointed as a lecturer in mathematics.

Mathematical Contributions Dodgson worked in the fields of geometry, matrix algebra and mathematical logic. Dodgson published many math books, which include: A Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry (1860), The Formulae of Plane Trigonometry (1861), and Examples in Arithmetic (1874). He also wrote a popular mathematics book known as the “Pillow Problems”- was a workbook and people would have to think about the problems as they were sleeping. Dodgson developed new ideas in the study of elections and committees. Charles Dodgson published pamphlets on voting theory.

Equations and Examples These are examples from the “Pillow Problems”: Prove to be the sum of 2 different squares, multiplied by the sum of 2 different squares, gives the sum of squares in 2 different ways (x^2+y^2)(u^2+v^2)=(xu ± yv)^2+(xu ± yv)^2. If a, b be to two numbers prime to each, a value may be found for n which all make (a-1) a multiple of b. If an infinite number of rods be broken: find the chance that at least one of them is broken in the middle.

How Dodgson’s accomplishments are used today in the real world? In the world of today Dodgson’s contributions in the field of voting theory are used by people who study elections. Even though Dodgson wrote a lot of books about elections, his most important ones are “Parliamentary Elections” and “The Principles of Parliamentary Representation.” The principles in these books are used in Europe and other places that have parliamentary systems of government.

Was Charles Dodgson a great mathematician or is he overrated? I believe that Charles Dodgson was a great mathematician because he made a lot of contributions of mathematics and politics. Dodgson was not only a mathematician but he was a photographer and novelist, which I think is pretty awesome. He created a whole book of problems that I haven’t learned to solve yet.

Trivia Name another mathematician that lives in Cheshire, England. Alan Turing was an English mathematician and computer scientist.

Sources "Lewis Carroll." Encyclopædia Britannica Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 04 Sep “Lewis Carroll.” Wikipedia Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. 04 Sep “Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.” School of Mathematics and Statistics. November September