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Eric Cantor - Biography

Cantor (1845-1918) is a name that is associated with the revolution in mathematics and the creation of set theory. This eminent mathematician, philosopher and logician left an indelible mark on world science, revised the fundamental principles of mathematics, and became one of the most important scientists in history.

Eric was born on March 19, 1845 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire (now St. Petersburg, Russia). He was the son of Daniel Cantor, an artist and painter. Eric developed an early interest in mathematics and philosophy, and his education began at the University of Dorpat (now Tartu), where he studied mathematics and philosophy.

The most important achievement of Eric Cantor is the development of set theory. He began work in this area in the 1870s and quickly came to revolutionary results. formulated ideas that made it possible to more strictly define sets and their properties. His work "On Infinite Sets" (1874) and the monograph "On Infinite Numbers" (1884) became the foundation for a new field of mathematics.

One of the most important concepts introduced by Eric Cantor was the idea of counting infinity. He showed that there is an infinite set whose elements can be ordered into a sequence corresponding to natural numbers. This discovery became a key element of his set theory and proved fundamental to infinity analysis in mathematics.

Another of Kantor's famous works was the Kantor-Bernstein theorem, which reads: "If there are injections from one set to another and back, then the sets are equal." This theorem has become one of the key elements of set theory and has found wide application in various fields of mathematics.

The work of Eric Cantor was not always met with approval. His innovative ideas and work with infinities were resisted by some contemporaries. In addition, he faced serious mental problems and depression, which greatly affected his life and work.