Jørgen Pedersen Gram (June 27, 1850 – April 29, 1916) was a Danish actuary and mathematician who was born in Nustrup, Duchy of Schleswig, Denmark and died in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Important papers of his include On series expansions determined by the methods of least squares, and Investigations of the number of primes less than a given number. The process that bears his name, the Gram–Schmidt process, was first published in the former paper, in 1883.[1]

For number theorists his main fame is the series for the Riemann zeta function (the leading function in Riemann's exact prime-counting function). Instead of using a series of logarithmic integrals, Gram's function uses logarithm powers and the zeta function of positive integers. It has recently been supplanted by a formula of Ramanujan that uses the Bernoulli numbers directly instead of the zeta function.

Gram was the first mathematician to provide a systematic theory of the development of skew frequency curves, showing that the normal symmetric Gaussian error curve was but one special case of a more general class of frequency curves.[2]

He died after being struck by a bicycle.[3]

See also

* Gram matrix
* Logarithmic integral function
* Prime number
* Riemann-Siegel theta function which contain Gram points.

References

1. ^ David Poole (2005). Linear Algebra. Thomson Brooks/Cole. pp. 387. ISBN 0534998453.
2. ^ Helen Mary Walker (1929). Studies in the History of Statistical Method: With Special Reference to Certain Educational Problems. The Williams & Wilkins Company. pp. 77, 81.
3. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Jørgen Pedersen Gram", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Gram.html .

Bibliography

* Gram, J. P. (1884). "Undersøgelser angaaende Maengden af Primtal under en given Graeense.". Det K. Videnskabernes Selskab 2: 183–308.