7 ms·

Caltech Professor Emeritus, Author Tom M. Apostol, Dies at 92

108 points by tokenadult 10y ago

tokenadult 10y ago
I learned about Apostol's death from a post by a very astute mathematical biologist, Lior Pachter, who was once a student of Apostol's. The post is "The Ice Cream Cone Proof,"[1] which nicely illustrates Apostol's brilliance as a teacher. [1] https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/the-ice-cream-cone-proof/ https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/the-ice-cream-c...
- abecedarius 10y ago
  I'm sad; I had him for the same course Pachter describes. One time he lectured on the prime number theorem, just for entertainment: he didn't prove it, but got deep enough to rather blow me away. Here's a more recent elementary talk of his: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~mamikon/VisualCalc.html http://www.its.caltech.edu/~mamikon/VisualCalc.html
GrumpyYoungMan 10y ago
Tom Apostol was also part of the team that put together "The Mechanical Universe", a highly acclaimed 52 episode series of video lectures that cover a full undergraduate physics course. The creators of the program provide all episodes online at https://www.learner.org/resources/series42.html https://www.learner.org/resources/series42.html I never met the man but I learned a lot from him. May he rest in peace.
- jacobolus 10y ago
  That site says: “After June 30, 2016, we will no longer distribute this series on DVD, and the videos will no longer be available online.” Anyone know why, or if they plan to do anything else with the videos?
  - lstamour 10y ago
    An explanation is given here: http://scaapt.org/archives/1286 http://scaapt.org/archives/1286 > "You may ask why the series is being retired. The original producers (Intelecom) do not have the staff or the information available to locate all the third party rights holders of the additional footage and rights to that footage has expired. Therefore, it must be taken out of distribution." I imagine that unless unknown rights-holders pull them off YouTube (as they apparently haven't yet...) then it will still be available some places. The above page also notes the availability of https://www.learner.org/courses/physics/ https://www.learner.org/courses/physics/ which includes 11 videos.
    - hackuser 10y ago
      Our intellectual property system gets in the way again. Why don't all the limited government, anti-regulatory people complain about this?
graycat 10y ago
There is a film of a way up, over the top lecture in plane geometry by Andrew Gleason with Tom Apostol. I saw it broadcast late one night on a PBS station and intended for recording for playing in high school classrooms. Elegant. Powerful. Nothing like what see in common high school plane geometry texts. I got in a few minutes after the start and recognized a lion by his paw. If you liked plane geometry, then you will be in love with this lecture. I just did a Google search looking for a copy on YouTube and found nothing. Anyone know where that lecture is? One of my favorite books, I worked to buy used long after it was out of print, is Tom M. Apostol, Mathematical Analysis: A Modern Approach to Advanced Calculus, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1957. And that is advanced calculus more like your ugrad physics prof will see it. Great to have when studying Rudin, exterior algebra but having to study material much like physicists did it 100 years ago.
ridgeguy 10y ago
Tom Apostol was my freshman math prof. He made math a useful tool for me. He was a great teacher. Thanks so much, Tom.
- kurthr 10y ago
  I only saw Apostle smile once. It was Gauss' birthday, which he always celebrated in April with a cake. It had the Flux Theorem (Divergence to Surface Integral), and I got the "dx" labeled piece. I complained that he had given me the smallest piece, and saw just the hint of a curl to his lips. Hopefully, the "useful theorem"* didn't die with him... *Apostle always referred to the useful theorem when proving problems in class... if you could figure it out, you were done.
  - ridgeguy 10y ago
    Check out page 212, 1969 Big T (lower photo). Big smile. But yeah, didn't see that very often. Upper photo of him on that page is amusing also. [1] http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechCampusPubs:20111101-153546791 http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechCampusPubs:20111101-15354...
    - kurthr 10y ago
      I am tempted to believe that Lloydies had something to do with that 8^O...
      - CurtHagenlocher 10y ago
        We live for those we love and die.
    - CamperBob2 10y ago
      That's actually a really cool link. Lots of photos of prominent CalTechers like Feynman and Gell-Mann that I haven't seen before (along with some of the former's artwork.) I love the photo on page 219 of the engineering prof with his shiny new Tektronix 453 oscilloscope, which would have been exotic as hell back then. It's hard not to laugh at the idea of lighting up a smoke in a lab today.
jordigh 10y ago
I learned analytic number theory from his text book. Probably unlike most other HN participants, that is where I learned big-oh notation, in its original context: measuring the growth of arithmetic functions. I distilled what I learned into a short little undergrad paper: http://jordi.platinum.linux.pl/dirichlet-primes.pdf http://jordi.platinum.linux.pl/dirichlet-primes.pdf Thank you, Tom Apostol, for writing a book on analytic number theory for me to learn from.
- nhatcher 10y ago
  I also learned the big-oh notation there. Among many, many other things. Absolutely great book.
  - ninguem2 10y ago
    Me three.
    - kkylin 10y ago
      Absolutely, great introduction to analytic number theory for anyone curious about the subject.
WalterBright 10y ago
My freshman & sophomore calc classes used his books 1 and 2. I still have them.
- tzs 10y ago
  ...and, quite remarkably for a calculus textbook that is still in use at many schools ~40 years later, the editions you and I bought at Caltech in the late '70s are the same editions that are used today. Volume I, second edition, 1967, and Volume II, second edition, 1969. I wonder if there are any families where a parent went to such a school and bought these, and then their child went to such a school and used their parent's copies, and then their child did the same?
  - WalterBright 10y ago
    I was amazed to find those 2 books going for about $250 each on Amazon. Pretty good for 50 year old textbooks! I bought mine used for maybe $5 each from some foolish upperclassman who thought he was done with calculus.
    - CurtHagenlocher 10y ago
      I now strongly regret having sold mine; the brief moment of glee and small amount of cash was small potatoes compared to the number of times I've since wanted to re-read them. (Also glee-killing: AMa 95)
      - kkylin 10y ago
        Off-topic, but am curious: was there a "standard" text for AMa 95? I didn't go to Caltech, but heard a bit about the course from a friend who did. These days I sometimes teach our equivalent course, and am always looking for good resources. Thanks!
        abecedarius 10y ago
        They sold the paperbound lecture notes at the Caltech bookstore and presumably nowhere else (at least back in the 80s).
curiousDog 10y ago
Wow! I didn't know he was alive until recently. I used his books in high school extensively when preparing for my IIT entrance exam back in India. May he rest in peace.
- JorgeGT 10y ago
  Same here, didn't know! My father (a maths professor) showed me Apostol's books on calculus, always recommends them very much. May the earth be light on him.
mathheaven 10y ago
If there is a Math's Heaven with the Book in it, I hope he joins the chorus. (*) The Book as the place were the greatest theorems and proofs are located, P. Erdos, exposed in Noga Alon the probabilistic method. By the way, there is a comment by someone nhatcher, is it the famous topology author?
rcpt 10y ago
I picked up his calculus book for the first time almost 15 years ago and still remember so much about it. Integration explained before derivatives, the method of exhaustion at the start, and that early (first?) exercise about "a number less than arbitrary epsilon therefore it's 0" all stuck with me through the end of grad school and to today.
5olidor 10y ago
Apostol's calculus texts were my first experience with 'real' proof-based mathematics, and I also learned real analysis through his Mathematical Analysis book. Good times; his books taught me a lot. He wrote with clarity and conciseness; when I read Apostol it always seemed like not a single word was added unnecessarily. I highly suggest picking up his books, and am sad to see that he passed away.

108 points by tokenadult 10y ago

I learned about Apostol's death from a post by a very astute mathematical biologist, Lior Pachter, who was once a student of Apostol's. The post is "The Ice Cream Cone Proof,"[1] which nicely illustrates Apostol's brilliance as a teacher. [1] https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/the-ice-cream-cone-proof/ https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/the-ice-cream-c...

abecedarius 10y ago
I'm sad; I had him for the same course Pachter describes. One time he lectured on the prime number theorem, just for entertainment: he didn't prove it, but got deep enough to rather blow me away. Here's a more recent elementary talk of his: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~mamikon/VisualCalc.html http://www.its.caltech.edu/~mamikon/VisualCalc.html

GrumpyYoungMan 10y ago

Tom Apostol was also part of the team that put together "The Mechanical Universe", a highly acclaimed 52 episode series of video lectures that cover a full undergraduate physics course. The creators of the program provide all episodes online at https://www.learner.org/resources/series42.html https://www.learner.org/resources/series42.html I never met the man but I learned a lot from him. May he rest in peace.

jacobolus 10y ago
That site says: “After June 30, 2016, we will no longer distribute this series on DVD, and the videos will no longer be available online.” Anyone know why, or if they plan to do anything else with the videos?
- lstamour 10y ago
  An explanation is given here: http://scaapt.org/archives/1286 http://scaapt.org/archives/1286 > "You may ask why the series is being retired. The original producers (Intelecom) do not have the staff or the information available to locate all the third party rights holders of the additional footage and rights to that footage has expired. Therefore, it must be taken out of distribution." I imagine that unless unknown rights-holders pull them off YouTube (as they apparently haven't yet...) then it will still be available some places. The above page also notes the availability of https://www.learner.org/courses/physics/ https://www.learner.org/courses/physics/ which includes 11 videos.
  - hackuser 10y ago
    Our intellectual property system gets in the way again. Why don't all the limited government, anti-regulatory people complain about this?

graycat 10y ago

There is a film of a way up, over the top lecture in plane geometry by Andrew Gleason with Tom Apostol. I saw it broadcast late one night on a PBS station and intended for recording for playing in high school classrooms. Elegant. Powerful. Nothing like what see in common high school plane geometry texts. I got in a few minutes after the start and recognized a lion by his paw. If you liked plane geometry, then you will be in love with this lecture. I just did a Google search looking for a copy on YouTube and found nothing. Anyone know where that lecture is? One of my favorite books, I worked to buy used long after it was out of print, is Tom M. Apostol, Mathematical Analysis: A Modern Approach to Advanced Calculus, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1957. And that is advanced calculus more like your ugrad physics prof will see it. Great to have when studying Rudin, exterior algebra but having to study material much like physicists did it 100 years ago.

ridgeguy 10y ago

Tom Apostol was my freshman math prof. He made math a useful tool for me. He was a great teacher. Thanks so much, Tom.

kurthr 10y ago
I only saw Apostle smile once. It was Gauss' birthday, which he always celebrated in April with a cake. It had the Flux Theorem (Divergence to Surface Integral), and I got the "dx" labeled piece. I complained that he had given me the smallest piece, and saw just the hint of a curl to his lips. Hopefully, the "useful theorem"* didn't die with him... *Apostle always referred to the useful theorem when proving problems in class... if you could figure it out, you were done.
- ridgeguy 10y ago
  Check out page 212, 1969 Big T (lower photo). Big smile. But yeah, didn't see that very often. Upper photo of him on that page is amusing also. [1] http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechCampusPubs:20111101-153546791 http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechCampusPubs:20111101-15354...
  - kurthr 10y ago
    I am tempted to believe that Lloydies had something to do with that 8^O...
    - CurtHagenlocher 10y ago
      We live for those we love and die.
  - CamperBob2 10y ago
    That's actually a really cool link. Lots of photos of prominent CalTechers like Feynman and Gell-Mann that I haven't seen before (along with some of the former's artwork.) I love the photo on page 219 of the engineering prof with his shiny new Tektronix 453 oscilloscope, which would have been exotic as hell back then. It's hard not to laugh at the idea of lighting up a smoke in a lab today.

jordigh 10y ago

I learned analytic number theory from his text book. Probably unlike most other HN participants, that is where I learned big-oh notation, in its original context: measuring the growth of arithmetic functions. I distilled what I learned into a short little undergrad paper: http://jordi.platinum.linux.pl/dirichlet-primes.pdf http://jordi.platinum.linux.pl/dirichlet-primes.pdf Thank you, Tom Apostol, for writing a book on analytic number theory for me to learn from.

nhatcher 10y ago
I also learned the big-oh notation there. Among many, many other things. Absolutely great book.
- ninguem2 10y ago
  Me three.
  - kkylin 10y ago
    Absolutely, great introduction to analytic number theory for anyone curious about the subject.

WalterBright 10y ago

My freshman & sophomore calc classes used his books 1 and 2. I still have them.

tzs 10y ago
...and, quite remarkably for a calculus textbook that is still in use at many schools ~40 years later, the editions you and I bought at Caltech in the late '70s are the same editions that are used today. Volume I, second edition, 1967, and Volume II, second edition, 1969. I wonder if there are any families where a parent went to such a school and bought these, and then their child went to such a school and used their parent's copies, and then their child did the same?
- WalterBright 10y ago
  I was amazed to find those 2 books going for about $250 each on Amazon. Pretty good for 50 year old textbooks! I bought mine used for maybe $5 each from some foolish upperclassman who thought he was done with calculus.
  - CurtHagenlocher 10y ago
    I now strongly regret having sold mine; the brief moment of glee and small amount of cash was small potatoes compared to the number of times I've since wanted to re-read them. (Also glee-killing: AMa 95)
    - kkylin 10y ago
      Off-topic, but am curious: was there a "standard" text for AMa 95? I didn't go to Caltech, but heard a bit about the course from a friend who did. These days I sometimes teach our equivalent course, and am always looking for good resources. Thanks!
      - abecedarius 10y ago
        They sold the paperbound lecture notes at the Caltech bookstore and presumably nowhere else (at least back in the 80s).

curiousDog 10y ago

Wow! I didn't know he was alive until recently. I used his books in high school extensively when preparing for my IIT entrance exam back in India. May he rest in peace.

JorgeGT 10y ago
Same here, didn't know! My father (a maths professor) showed me Apostol's books on calculus, always recommends them very much. May the earth be light on him.

mathheaven 10y ago

If there is a Math's Heaven with the Book in it, I hope he joins the chorus. (*) The Book as the place were the greatest theorems and proofs are located, P. Erdos, exposed in Noga Alon the probabilistic method. By the way, there is a comment by someone nhatcher, is it the famous topology author?

rcpt 10y ago

I picked up his calculus book for the first time almost 15 years ago and still remember so much about it. Integration explained before derivatives, the method of exhaustion at the start, and that early (first?) exercise about "a number less than arbitrary epsilon therefore it's 0" all stuck with me through the end of grad school and to today.

5olidor 10y ago

Apostol's calculus texts were my first experience with 'real' proof-based mathematics, and I also learned real analysis through his Mathematical Analysis book. Good times; his books taught me a lot. He wrote with clarity and conciseness; when I read Apostol it always seemed like not a single word was added unnecessarily. I highly suggest picking up his books, and am sad to see that he passed away.