Mamikon A. Mnatsakanian | |
|---|---|
Մամիկոն Մնացականյան | |
| Born | 17 April 1942 |
| Died | 12 April 2021 (aged 78) Yerevan, Armenia |
| Nationality | Armenian |
| Education | Yerevan State University Ph.D. |
| Occupation | physicist |
| Known for | visual calculus |
| Notable work | new proof of the Pythagorean theorem |
Mamikon A. Mnatsakanian (17 April 1942 – 12 April 2021[1]) (Armenian: Մամիկոն Մնացականյան) was an Armenian physicist. In 1959, he discovered a new proof of the Pythagorean theorem.[2]
He received a Ph.D. in physics in 1969 from Yerevan State University, where he became professor of astrophysics. As an undergraduate he specialized in the development of geometric methods for solving calculus problems by a visual approach that makes no use of formulas, which he later developed into his system of visual calculus.
He was a Project Associate at Project Mathematics! at the California Institute of Technology.
With co-author Tom Apostol, he won the Paul R. Halmos – Lester R. Ford Award given by the Mathematical Association of America for author excellence, in 2005, 2008, and 2010.
When Apostol met Mamikon he wrote, "As a teacher of calculus for more than 50 years and as an author of a couple of textbooks on the subject, I was stunned to learn that many standard problems in calculus can be easily solved by an innovative visual approach that makes no use of formulas."[3]
In 2010, he was nominated by Caltech for the Ambartsumians International Prize, awarded annually by the President of Armenia, for his contributions in the field of theoretical astrophysics.[4]
The book, New Horizons in Geometry,[5] the result of 15 years of collaboration between Tom Apostol and Mamikon, has been praised for its originality and clarity.[5]