János Bolyai

János Bolyai (pronounced ) (December 15, 1802 ? January 27, 1860) was a Hungarian mathematician, known for his work in non-Euclidean geometry.

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Bolyai was born in Kolozsvár, Transylvania, Habsburg Empire (today Cluj-Napoca, Romania), the son of the well-known mathematician Farkas Bolyai.

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By the age of 13, he had mastered calculus and other forms of analytical mechanics, receiving instruction from his father. He studied at the Royal Engineering College in Vienna from 1818 to 1822.

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He became so obsessed with Euclid's parallel postulate that his father wrote to him: "For God's sake, I beseech you, give it up. Fear it no less than sensual passions because it too may take all your time and deprive you of your health, peace of mind and happiness in life".

Hungarian: Hungarian may refer to:...

Mathematician: A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics....

Non-Euclidean geometry: The term non-Euclidean geometry (also spelled: non-Euclidian geometry) describes both hyperbolic and elliptic geometry, which are contrasted with Euclidean geometry. The essential difference between Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry is the nature of parallel lines. In Euclidean geometry, if we st...