Chebyshev, Pafnuty

Pafnuty Chebyshev, in full Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev, (born May 4 [May 16, New Style], 1821, Okatovo, Russia—died November 26 [December 8], 1894, St. Petersburg), founder of the St. Petersburg mathematical school (sometimes called the Chebyshev school), who is remembered primarily for his work on the theory of prime numbers and on the approximation of functions.

Chebyshev became assistant professor of mathematics at the University of St. Petersburg (now St. Petersburg State University) in 1847. In 1860 he became a correspondent and in 1874 a foreign associate of the Institut de France. He developed a basic inequality of probability theory called Chebyshev’s inequality, a generalized form of the Bienaymé-Chebyshev inequality, and used the latter inequality to give a very simple and precise demonstration of the generalized law of large numbers—i.e., the average value for a large sample of identically distributed random variables converges to the average for individual variables. (See probability theory: The law of large numbers.)

Chebyshev proved Joseph Bertrand’s conjecture that for any n > 3 there must exist a prime between n and 2n. He also contributed to the proof of the prime number theorem, a formula for determining the number of primes below a given number. He studied theoretical mechanics and devoted much attention to the problem of obtaining rectilinear motion from rotary motion by mechanical linkage. The Chebyshev parallel motion is a three-bar linkage that gives a very close approximation to exact rectilinear motion. His mathematical writings covered a wide range of subjects, including the theory of probabilities, quadratic forms, orthogonal functions, the theory of integrals, gearings, the construction of geographic maps, and formulas for the computation of volumes. His important work on the approximation of functions by means of Chebyshev polynomials advanced applied mathematics. His Teoria sravneny (1849; “Theory of Congruences”) made him widely known in the mathematical world and was used as a textbook in Russian universities for many years.