Re: Bourbaki?

In article <GD5yh.87766$vT5.1292771@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, David
Bernier <david250@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

*** T. Winter wrote:
In article <xQ0yh.17855$j7.345701@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> *** T. Winter wrote:
> > Bourbaki is adopted as name by a group of French mathematicians.
> > It was also the name of a real person (a particularly unsuccesful
> > French
> > general). Originally it was a joking adaption, but became more serious
> > in the course of times. The family of the real general was not amused.
>
> But it was an extraordinary choice.
> Has any explanation ever been given?

It is not altogether clear. There is some explanation in:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbaki_group> and more complete in:
<http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Bourbaki_1.html>.

Below is a link to a text by a "Professeur Robert Mainard", unknown
to me.

< http://www.academie-stanislas.org/Mainard01.pdf >

On page 12 of the PDF file (page 152 according to the page
numbers of the original), a section "Choix du nom" explains
that "Bourbaki's Theorem" was a well-known joke that had
been played on first year students of "Ecole Normale Superieure"
by a third year student (un troisieme, or "un cube").

The name of the joker was Raoul Husson. Mainard's text
says that, according to Cartan, Raoul Husson would quite
likely have learnt of the career of General Bourbaki through
military instruction classes. The joke dates back to 1923,
according to Mainard.

NPR has a report on this story
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6503411)
although right now I can't get the Windows Media Player to connect to
it to play it.

--
Ron Bruck
.

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