BOLYAI. bul'yO-6, FARKAS (German, \Voir GANG) 1 A Hungarian mathemati cian. lle was born in Bolya, spent his early years of study in Enged• Klausenbnrg, and Jena, and later studied three years (1796-99) in Got tingen. Here he formed an enduring friendship with Gauss, who was attracted to him by his pro found thinking and excellent character. In 1804 he was made professor of mathematics in the Reformed College of Maros-Viisiirhely, where he remained forty-seven years. in common with his friend Gauss, with Sacchrei, Lambert, and nu merous other mathematicians, Bolyai made many efforts to prove Euclid's postulate of parallelism. But it was reserved for his son, -limos (John), to declare the science absolute of space, which as signs Euclidean geometry to a particular kind of space. The chief work of the older Bolyai, known as the Tentanitn. contains an appendix of twenty six pages to Volume 1., entitled Scientiam Spatii .1 bsolat e Icram Ex/pi/pans. This little monograph, now so famous, is the work of Janos.
BolAm, J.ixos (1802-60), was born in Klan senburg. Ile was a spirited boy; and, partaking of his father's mathematical genius. his progress was marvelous. lle finished the Latin school at the age of twelve. passed the philosophic cur riculum in two years, and entered the Academy of Engineers in Vienna. In 1823 he was ap pointed lieutenant at Teniesvfir, from which place, November 3, 15:23, be wrote to his father in positive terms of his conception of parallels: "From nothing I have created another wholly new world." This conception. as formulated by him, became the appendix of the Tentamcn. llis later works, mostly unfinished, as the Principle Doctrine' Norte Ouautitatum, add little to his fame. Consult: Baltzer, Element(' der Mathe matik (Dresden, 1566) ; Schmidt, in Abliand lungcn zur Gusehichte der Mathematik, Vol. V 111. (Leipzig. 1895) ; Halsted, Rol yai—N on Euclidean Geometry (Austin, 1896).