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Iranian-born American mathematician
Alexander Abian
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Born
| Alexander (Smbat) Abian
(
1923-01-01
)
January 1, 1923
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Died
| July 24, 1999
(1999-07-24)
(aged 76)
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Other names
| Smbat Abian
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Occupation
| Professor at
Iowa State University
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Alexander
(
Smbat
)
Abian
(January 1, 1923 – July 24, 1999)
[1]
was an Iranian-born
Armenian-American
mathematician
who taught for over 25 years at
Iowa State University
and became notable for his frequent posts to various
Usenet
newsgroups
, and his advocacy for the
destruction of the Moon
.
Life
[
edit
]
Abian was born in
Tabriz, Iran
, and was of
Armenian
ethnicity. After earning an undergraduate degree in Iran, he emigrated to the
United States
in 1950, where he received a master's degree from the
University of Chicago
. Abian then obtained a Ph.D. from the
University of Cincinnati
, where he wrote a dissertation on a topic in
invariant theory
under the direction of Isaac Barnett.
[2]
After teaching posts in
Tennessee
,
New York
,
Pennsylvania
, and
Ohio
, he joined the faculty of Iowa State in 1967. He wrote three books and published more than two hundred papers. He retired in 1993.
[3]
Moonless Earth theory
[
edit
]
Abian gained a degree of international notoriety for his claim that blowing up the
Moon
would end virtually every natural disaster. He made this claim in 1991 in a campus newspaper,
[4]
stating that a Moonless Earth wouldn't wobble, eliminating both the seasons and its associated events like
heat waves
,
snowstorms
and
hurricanes
.
[5]
Abian said that "Those critics who say 'Dismiss Abian's ideas' are very close to those who dismissed
Galileo
."
[6]
The proposed nuclear destruction of the Moon has been rejected by astronomers on several grounds: the nuclear arsenal of mankind would fail to do more than crack the Moon's crust; if successful, the heating of Earth's atmosphere by a hail of falling lunar debris would be destructive to all life; and an increase, not decrease, in the Earth's wobble without a stabilizing Moon, leading to an Earth
axial tilt
of 45 degrees and more drastic
seasons
would occur.
[7]
[8]
Books
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Iowa Obituaries ? Alexander Abian Obituary ? Ames, Iowa"
.
tributes.com
. Tributes, Inc
. Retrieved
18 November
2017
.
Alexander was born on January 1, 1923 and passed away on Saturday, July 24, 1999. ... The information in this obituary is based on data from the US Government's Social Security Death Index.
- ^
Alexander Abian
at the
Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^
Anderson, Rebecca (July 1999),
"ISU professor Abian dies at 76"
, Mid-Iowa News,
Ames Tribune
, archived from
the original
on December 4, 2000
.
- ^
"YIKES!: GOODNIGHT, MOON Shoot the moon? Hell, says Prof. Alexander Abian, why not just blow it up?;"
. People. 1991-06-24
. Retrieved
2022-04-12
.
- ^
Valente, Judith. "Hate Winter? Here's A Scientist's Answer: Blow Up the Moon." The Wall Street Journal. April 22, 1991.
- ^
Morin, Richard (2006-05-30).
"Drunks + Kids = Profits"
.
The Washington Post
. Retrieved
2006-10-18
.
- ^
Myburgh, Tim (2018-03-01). "What would happen if we blew up the Moon?".
Very Interesting Magazine
. No. 40.
- ^
"What would happen if we blew up the Moon?".
Skyways Magazine
. No. May, 2018. Johannesburg: Airlink (Pty) Ltd. 2018-05-01.
- ^
Fehr, Howard F. (1966-02-11).
"Review of
Mathematics: The Theory of Sets and Transfinite Arithmetic
by Alexander Abian"
.
Science
.
151
(3711). American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): 680.
doi
:
10.1126/science.151.3711.680.a
.
ISSN
0036-8075
.
S2CID
239553235
.
External links
[
edit
]
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