Henry John Stephen Smith (2 November 1826 to 9 February 1883) was an Irish mathematician and amateur astronomer remembered for his work in elementary divisors, quadratic forms and the Smith-Minkowski-Siegel mass formula in number theory. In matrix theory his name survives in the Smith normal form of a matrix. Born in Dublin, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1849 with high honours in both mathematics and classics, remained there as a mathematics tutor and was promoted to the Savilian Chair of Geometry at the University of Oxford in 1861. Smith was also first to discover the Cantor set.
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Source Cantor Set (Wikipedia)
Source E8 Lattice (Wikipedia)
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1. Wikipedia: Henry John Stephen Smith
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In matrix theory he is visible today in having his name on the Smith normal form of a matrix.
Cantor Set (Wikipedia)
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It was discovered in 1874 by Henry John Stephen Smith and mentioned by German mathematician Georg Cantor in 1883.
E8 Lattice (Wikipedia)
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The existence of such a form was first shown by H. J. S. Smith in 1867, and the first explicit construction of this quadratic form was given by Korkin and Zolotarev in 1873.
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