Reported by: Sandig, Mae Margareth T.

1. Sir Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)

 S i r I s a c c N e w t o
Calender at that time and his birthday
was on Christmas Day 1642.
 D u r i n g h i s s
the Binomial Theorem which is used to
describe the algebraic expansion of
powers of a binomial.
 N e w t o n ’ s w o r k i
a curve whose slope was constantly
varying (the slope of a tangent line to
the curve at any point). He calculated
the derivative in order to find the slope.
He called this the “method of fluxions”
rather than differentiation. That is
because he termed “fluxion” as the
instantaneous rate of change at a point
on the curve and “fluents” as the
changing values of x and y.
 He then established that the opposite of differentiation is integration, which he
called the “method of fluents”. This allowed him to create the First Fundamental
Theorem of Calculus, which states that if a function is integrated and then
differentiated the original function can be obtained because differentiation and
integration are inverse functions.
 Controversy later arose over who developed calculus. Newton didn’t publish
anything about calculus until 1693, but German mathematician Leibniz published
his own version of the theory in 1684. The dispute between Newton and Leibniz
went on until the death of Leibniz. It is now believed that both developed the
theories of Calculus independently, both with very different notations.
 He also contributed to the theory of finite differences, he used fractional
exponents and coordinate geometry to get solutions to Diophantine equations, he
developed a method for finding better approximation to the zeroes or roots of a
function, and he was the first to use infinite power series.
 His a physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and
theologian, Newton is considered by many to be one of the most influential men
 in human history. His work and discoveries were not limited to mathematics; his
greatness is indicated by the huge range of his physics and optics discoveries.

2. Archimedes (288 BC – 212 BC)

 Archimedes was a Greek

mathematician, physicist,
engineer, inventor, and
astronomer. His universally
acknowledged as the greatest of
ancient mathematicians. He
studied at Euclid's school
(probably after Euclid's death),
but his work far surpassed, and
even leapfrogged, the works of
Euclid.
 He reportedly proclaimed
"Eureka! Eureka!" after he found
the answer to his science
experiment.
 Archimedes used the Hellenistic
method of mathematics. Pi is a
Greek symbol which is used in various formulae, and Archimedes was
able to derive the value of Pi by using 96 sided polygons to calculate a
very accurate approximation of pi. Pi’s numerical value is approximately
3.14 which calculated by dividing 22 by 7.
 Infinitesimals in the ancient Greek period were the equivalent of modern-
day calculus. An infinitesimal is a quantity which does not exist but can be
made real using limits it is therefore means an extremely or infinitely small
quantity.
 Archimedes started thinking of parabolas, eclipses, and hyperbolas and
introduced the idea of projectile motion with the help of the parabola.
Different equations depict different concepts, and Archimedes showed us
that the area of a parabola intersected by a straight line is equal to 0.75
times the area of a triangle inscribed in the parabola and the straight line.
 He was able to calculate the surface area as well as the volume of the
sphere by first calculating the surface area of the sphere using 6πr2. The
volume is 2πr3. By the use of these formulas it allowed us to easily
calculate the volume and surface area of celestial bodies.
  He did not only contribute in Mathematics but also into other fields that he
excels like in sciences of mechanics and hydrostatics. (Law of Lever &
Pulleys)
3. Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 – 1855)

 Gauss was a was

scientist, who worked in
various fields including
number theory, statistics,
analysis, differential
geometry and geophysics,
electrostatics, astronomy
and geodesy but he
excelled most in the field
of mathematics.
 Due to his impressive
contributions and portrayal
of pure brilliance in the
subject he is known as the
‘Prince of mathematics’
and the ‘Greatest
Mathematician since
Antiquity’.
 He is also known as a child prodigy because at a young age he was able
to added up the 1 to 100 integers by noticing that the result was 50 pairs
of numbers the answer of each sum was 101.
 In 1796 he solved the major construction problems by proving that Fermat
Prime Polygon can be constructed by a compass and ruler.
 In his teenage he had made some amazing mathematical discoveries and
by the time he was 21, he had already finished with his magnum opus
‘Disquisitiones Arithamaticae’ in 1798. In it he recorded formal proofs of
many of his earlier discoveries. It unified the separate strands of number
theory. It is where modern number theory begins.
 Gauss documented significant breakthroughs, such the law of quadratic
reciprocity, his formulation of modern modular arithmetic, and congruence
– the idea that underpinned his unified approach to number theory.
Admirers said Gauss had done for number theory what Euclid did for
geometry.
 Several important theorems and lemmas bear his name; his proof of
Euclid's Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (Unique Prime Factorization)
 is considered the first rigorous proof; he extended this Theorem to the
Gaussian (complex) integers; and he was first to produce a rigorous proof
of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra (that an n-th degree polynomial
has n complex roots);
 His Theorema Egregium ("Remarkable Theorem") that a surface's
essential curvature derived from its 2-D geometry laid the foundation of
differential geometry.
 He also constructed a heptadecagon. After just six months, Gauss solved
a problem that had stymied mathematicians for 2,000 years – the
construction of a regular 17-sided figure using a straightedge and
compass alone. In fact, Gauss went beyond and discovered a
mathematical formula to find all regular polygons that can be constructed
using only straightedge and compass – and found 31. Following the 17-
sided figure are the 51, 85, 255, 257,….., and 4,294,967,295-sided
figures.

4. Leonhard Euler (1707 - 1783)

 Born on April 15, 1707, in

Basel, Switzerland,
Leonhard Euler was one
of math's most pioneering
thinkers, establishing a
career as an academy
scholar and contributing
greatly to the fields of
geometry, trigonometry
and calculus, among
many others.
 Much of the notation
used by mathematicians
today - including e, i, f(x),
∑, and the use of a, b
and c as constants and x,
y and z as unknowns -
was either created,
popularized or standardized by Euler. His efforts to standardize these and
other symbols (including π and the trigonometric functions) helped to
internationalize mathematics and to encourage collaboration on problems.
  eiπ = -1, sometimes known as Euler’s Identity. This equation combines
arithmetic, calculus, trigonometry and complex analysis into what has
been called "the most remarkable formula in mathematics", "uncanny and
sublime" and "filled with cosmic beauty", among other descriptions.
 Another such discovery, often known simply as Euler’s Formula, is eix =
cosx + isinx which relates the complex exponential to cosine and sine
analysis. This formula is the most important tool in AC analysis.
 The discovery that initially sealed Euler’s reputation was announced in
1735 and concerned the calculation of infinite sums.
 At the same year Euler solved an intransigent mathematical and logical
problem, known as the Seven Bridges of Königsberg Problem, which had
perplexed scholars for many years, and in doing so laid the foundations of
graph theory and presaged the important mathematical idea of topology.
This resulted in a mathematical structure called a “graph”, a pictorial
representation made up of points (vertices) connected by non-intersecting
curves (arcs), which may be distorted in any way without changing the
graph itself.
 He released hundreds of articles and publications during his lifetime, and
continued to publish after losing his sight. He died on September 18,
1783.

5. Bernhard Riemann (1826 - 1866)

 George Friedrich Bernhard Riemann

was born on 17th September 1826,
in the village of Breselenz near
Dannenberg, Germany.
 Riemann made revolutionary
advances in complex analysis, which
he connected to both topology and
number theory. He applied topology
to analysis, and analysis to number
theory, making revolutionary
contributions to all three fields.
 He introduced the Riemann integral
which clarified analysis. He
developed the theory of manifolds, a
term which he invented. Manifolds
underpin topology. By imposing
metrics on manifolds Riemann invented differential geometry and took non-Euclidean
geometry far beyond his predecessors.

 Riemann's other masterpieces include tensor analysis, the theory of functions,

and a key relationship between some differential equation solutions and
hypergeometric series.
 Several important theorems and concepts are named after Riemann, e.g. the
Riemann-Roch Theorem, a key connection among topology, complex analysis
and algebraic geometry.
 He proved Riemann's Rearrangement Theorem, a strong (and paradoxical) result
about conditionally convergent series. He was also first to prove theorems
named after others, e.g. Green's Theorem.
 Like his mathematical peers (Gauss, Archimedes, Newton), Riemann was
intensely interested in physics. His theory unifying electricity, magnetism and
light was supplanted by Maxwell's theory; however modern physics, beginning
with Einstein's relativity, relies on Riemann's curvature tensor and other notions
of the geometry of space.
 Riemann presented a lecture he posed the Hypothesis of Riemann's zeta
function, needed for the missing step in his proof. This Hypothesis is considered
the most important and famous unsolved problem in mathematics. The Riemann
Hypothesis "simply" states that in all solutions of ζ(s = a+bi) = 0, either s has real
part a=1/2 or imaginary part b=0.

6. Henri Poincare (1854-1912)

 French mathematician, one

of the greatest
mathematicians and
mathematical physicists at
the end of 19th century. He
made a series of profound
innovations in geometry, the
theory of differential
equations,
electromagnetism, topology,
and the philosophy of
mathematics.
 Poincaré founded the theory
of algebraic (combinatorial)
 topology, and is sometimes called the "Father of Topology" (a title also
used for Euler and Brouwer). He also did brilliant work in several other
areas of mathematics;
 he was one of the most creative mathematicians ever, and the greatest
mathematician of the Constructivist ("intuitionist") style because of his
contribution in Mathematics Architecture.
 In addition to his topology, Poincaré laid the foundations of homology; he
discovered automorphic functions (a unifying foundation for the
trigonometric and elliptic functions), and essentially founded the theory of
periodic orbits; he made major advances in the theory of differential
equations.
 He is credited with partial solution of Hilbert's 22nd Problem. Several
important results carry his name, for example the famous Poincaré
Recurrence Theorem, which almost seems to contradict the Second Law
of Thermodynamics.
 Poincaré is especially noted for effectively discovering chaos theory which
stating that a very small change may make the system behave completely
differently
 He also propose the Poincaré's Conjecture; The Conjecture is that all
"simply-connected" closed manifolds are topologically equivalent to
"spheres"; it is directly relevant to the possible topology of our universe.
 As were most of the greatest mathematicians, Poincaré was intensely
interested in physics. He made revolutionary advances in fluid dynamics
and celestial motions.

7. Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813)

 Lagrange is a giant in the history

of mathematics. He made major
contributions to the development
of physics, celestial mechanics,
calculus, algebra, number
theory, and group theory.
 Introduced the ∂ notation and
created the first differential
equations that can be used to
describe change in the real
world. They describe the
 relationship between a physical quantity, such as speed, and its rate of
change - in mathematical jargon, partial differential equations describe a
function of several changing variables.
 He began working on the tautochrone, the curve on which a weighted
particle will always arrive at a fixed position in the same independent time
by the end of 1754 he made some discoveries to it and which contribute
substantially to the new subjects of calculus of variations
 He also solved century-old problems in number theory posed by Fermat
that defeated other mathematicians.
 He proved the fundamental Theorem of Group Theory and laid the
foundation of polynomial equation.

7. Euclid of Alexandria (CA 322 - 275 BC)

 Euclid of Alexandria was an

ancient Greek mathematician, who
is regarded as the ‘father of
geometry’.
 He published a book titled
“Elements” and it served as a
prescribed textbook for teaching
mathematics from its publication till
the 20th century.
 Euclid reworked the mathematical
concepts of his predecessors into a
consistent whole, later to become
known as Euclidean geometry,
which is still as valid today as it
was 2,300 years ago, even in
higher mathematics dealing with
higher dimensional spaces.
 His book also includes a series of theorems on the properties of numbers
and integers, marking the first real beginnings of number theory.

Euclid’s five general axioms were:

1. Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.
2. If equals are added to equals, the wholes (sums) are equal.
3. If equals are subtracted from equals, the remainders (differences) are equal.
4. Things that coincide with one another are equal to one another.
 5. The whole is greater than the part.

His five geometrical postulates were:

1. It is possible to draw a straight line from any point to any point.

2. It is possible to extend a finite straight line continuously in a straight line (i.e. a
line segment can be extended past either of its endpoints to form an arbitrarily
large line segment).
3. It is possible to create a circle with any center and distance (radius).
4. All right angles are equal to one another (i.e. "half" of a straight angle).
5. If a straight line crossing two straight lines makes the interior angles on the same
side less than two right angles, the two straight lines, if produced indefinitely,
meet on that side on which the angles are less than the two right angles.

 Euclid proved what has become known as the Fundamental Theorem of

Arithmethic (or the Unique Factorization Theorem), that every positive integer
greater than 1 can be written as a product of prime numbers (or is itself a
prime number).
 He was the first to realize - and prove - that there are infinitely many prime
number, His basis of his proof, often known as Euclid’s Theorem.
 Euclid also identified the first four “perfect numbers”, numbers that are the
sum of all their divisors (excluding the number itself): 6, 28, 496, & 8,128.

9. David Hilbert (1862-1943)

 Considered the greatest mathematician of

the 20th century, was unequaled in many
fields of mathematics, including axiomatic
theory, invariant theory, algebraic number
theory, class field theory and functional
analysis.
 He proved many new theorems, including
the fundamental theorems of algebraic
manifolds, and also discovered simpler
proofs for older theorems.
 His examination of calculus led him to the
invention of Hilbert space, considered one
of the key concepts of functional analysis
and modern mathematical physics.
  His Nullstellensatz Theorem laid the
foundation of algebraic geometry.

 He was a founder of fields like metamathematics and modern logic.

 He was also the founder of the "Formalist" school which opposed the
"Intuitionism" of Kronecker and Brouwer.
 He developed a new system of definitions and axioms for geometry, replacing
the 2200 year-old system of Euclid.
 As a young Professor he proved his Finite Basis Theorem, now regarded as one
of the most important results of general algebra.
 Hilbert provided a famous List of 23 Unsolved Problems, which inspired and
directed the development of 20th-century mathematics.
 Eventually Hilbert turned to physics and made key contributions to classical and
quantum physics and to general relativity by publishing the Einstein Field
Equations independently of Einstein (though his writings make clear he treats this
as strictly Einstein's invention).

References:

https://3010tangents.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/isaac-newton-and-his-contributions-to-
mathematics/

http://www.storyofmathematics.com/17th_newton.html

https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/people/top-contributions-archimedes/,

http://fabpedigree.com/james/mathmen.htm#Archimedes

https://www.famousmathematicians.net/carl-friedrich-gauss/

https://www.biography.com/scientist/leonhard-euler

http://fabpedigree.com/james/mathmen.htm#Riemann

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-Poincare

https://www.famousscientists.org/joseph-louis-lagrange/

https://www.storyofmathematics.com/hellenistic_euclid.html

http://fabpedigree.com/james/mathmen.htm#Hilbert
 Reported by: Santiago, Eipryl Josheen B.

11. GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

 He is a German philosopher and

mathematician.
 He was born in July 1, 1646 in Leizpig,
Germany.
 He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree
in philosophy at University of Leizpig where his father used to teach.
 He died in November 14, 1716 in Hannover, Germany at the age of 70.
 He is known as the last polymath in history.
 He is considered as the most important logician between Aristotle, George Boole
and Augustus De Morgan in 19th century.
 He was a member of the Royal Society in London along with Sir Isaac Newton.
 His contributions in the field of mathematics are:
 Binary numeral system – discovered; it is the base-2 system, which we
find today in computers and related devices. It is a way of writing numbers
using only two digits: 0 and 1.
 Infinitesimal Calculus – discovered; the branch of mathematics that is
concerned with differentiation, integrations, and limits of functions. It is
same with Sir Isaac Newton’s work but they did not work together. His
work about calculus was published in 1684. His way of writing calculus is
 still the one used in
mathematics today.

 Law of Continuity and Transcendental law of Homogeneity – developed;

these were not used in mathematics until the 20 th century.
 Leibniz wheel – It is consisted of a cylinder with a set of teeth of increasing
lengths. It was used in automatic mechanical calculators until the
development of the electronic calculator in the mid-1970s. This is the first
calculating machine that could add, subtract, multiply and divide.

 He was the first person to provide a description of pinwheel calculator.

 Matrix – re-discovered; a method of arranging linear equations into an
array which could then be manipulated to find a solution.
 12. ALEXANDRE GROTHENDIECK

 He is a German-French Mathematician.
 He was born on March 28, 1928 at Berlin,
Germany.
 He completed his doctorate in 1953 in
University of Nancy in France.
 He died in November 13, 2014 in France at the age of 86.
 He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 for his work in algebraic geometry at
the International Congress of mathematics which was held in Moscow.
 He was one of the great mathematicians to be known from the 20 th century.
 He brought forward many new concepts in algebraic geometry such as
commutative algebra, homological algebra,
sheaf theory, category theory, and theory of
schemes.
 He abruptly moved away from his passion and
fame and started taking interest in politics.

13. PIERRE DE FERMAT

 He is a French mathematician.
 He was born in August 17, 1601 in Beaumont-
de-Lomagne, France.
 He earned his degree in civil law at the University of Orlèans.
 He died in January 12, 1665 in Castres, France at the age of 63.
 Fermat was fascinating because he is a well-known and brilliant mathematician
who studied mathematics only as a hobby.
 His contributions in the field of mathematics are:
 Probability Theory
 Analytic Geometry
 Fermat’s principle – field of optics, the path between two points taken by a
ray of light leaves the optical length stationary under variations in a family
of nearby paths
 Infinitesimal Calculus
 Modern Number Theory – he invented it
and this as where a lot of his work was
concentrated.
 He is best known for his two theorems:
Fermat’s Little Theorem and Fermat’s
Last Theorem.

14. ÉVARISTE GALOIS

 He is a French mathematician.
 He was born in October 25, 1811 in Bourg-la-
Reine, France.
 He died in May 31, 1832 in Paris, France at the age of 20 because of a duel.
 His contributions in the field of mathematics are:
 Abstract Algebra – this is fundamental to computer science, physics,
coding theory and cryptography.
 Group Theory
 Galois connection – a way of solving challenging mathematical problems
by translating them into different mathematical domains, creating a new
 solution paradigm by making the original
problem amenable to a number of
mathematical techniques.

15. JOHN VON NEUMANN

 He is an American mathematician.
 His birth name is Jάnos Lajos (John Lewis)
Neumann.
 He was born in December 28, 1903 in
Budapest, Hungary.
 He died in February 8, 1957 in Washington
D.C., United States at the age of 53.
 He was one of the conceptual inventors of the stored-program digital computer.
 His contribution in the field of mathematics are:
 Functional analysis
 Topology
 Foundation of mathematics
 Geometry
 Game Theory

16. RÉNE DESCARTES

 He is a French mathematician and philosopher.

 He was born in March 31, 1596 in La Haye,
France.
 He earned his law degree at the University of
Poitiers in 1616 at 20 years old.
 He died in February 11, 1650 in Stockholm,
Sweden in the age of 53.
 He is known as the Father of Modern Philosophy.
 He is famous for “I think therefore I am” (Cogito ergo sum)
 His contributions in the field of mathematics are:
 Bridging the gap between algebra and geometry that is why many people
call him as the father of analytic geometry.
 Cartesian plane (Cartesian coordinate system) – It is made up of x and y
axis. You can plot any two-dimensional point on this plane.

17. KARL THEODOR WILHELM WEIERSTRASS

 He is a German mathematician.
 He was born in October 31, 1815 in Ostenfelde,
Germany.
 In 1854, The University of Königsberg conferred upon
him an honorary doctor’s degree.
 He died in February 19, 1897 in Berlin, Germany at
the age of 81.
 In 1856, he had a position in the Royal Polytechnic
School in Berlin.
 He is known as the father of modern analysis.
 His contributions in the field of mathematics are:
  He is one of the founders of modern theory of functions.
 Theory of periodic functions
 Functions of real variables
 Elliptic functions
 Abelian functions
 Converging infinite products
 Calculus of variations

18. SRINIVASA AIYANGAR RAMANUJAN

 He is an Indian mathematician.
 He was born in December 22, 1887 in Erode,
India.
 He died in April 26, 1920 in Kumbakonam, India at
the age of 32.
 He earned scholarships and eventually lost it
because of neglecting all other studies in order to
focus in mathematics.
 His contributions in the field of mathematics are:
 Contributed in the theory of numbers
 Properties of partition function

19. HERMANN K.H. WEYL

 He is an American mathematician.
 He was born in November 9, 1885 in Elmshorn,
Germany.
 He died in December 8, 1955 in Zürich,
Switzerland at the age of 70.
 He was keenly interested in aesthetic that he
once said “My work has always tried to unite the
 truth with the beautiful, but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually
chose the beautiful.”
 His contribution in the field of mathematics are:
 Quantum mechanics
 Theory of relativity

References:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hermann-Weyl

http://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Ramanujan.html

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Weierstrass

https://study.com/academy/lesson/rene-descartes-math-contributions-lesson-for-kids-
biography-facts.html

https://www.famousmathematicians.net/john-von-neumann/

https://galois.com/team/evariste-galois/

https://study.com/academy/lesson/pierre-de-fermat-contributions-to-math-
accomplishments.html

https://www.famousmathematicians.net/alexandre-grothendieck/

https://www.famousscientists.org/gottfried-leibniz/

https://www.storyofmathematics.com/17th_leibniz.html

https://study.com/academy/lesson/gottfried-leibniz-biography-contributions-to-math.html
Reported by: James Daniel D. Swinton

20. Peter Gustav Dirichlet

 Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet was born in Düren, Germany on February 13,
1805. From an early age, he was fascinated by mathematics and spent his
allowance on mathematics texts. Dirichlet’s parents, recognizing his extraordinary
intelligence and hoping to steer him toward a career in law, sent him to excellent
schools in Bonn and Cologne where he obtained a classical education.
 After completing his Abitur examination at the age of sixteen—well before his
contemporaries—Dirichlet left Germany for Paris. Dirichlet attended lectures at the
Faculté des Sciences and the Collége de France. In June 1825, at the age of twenty,
Dirichlet presented his first mathematical paper to the French Academy of Sciences.
Entitled Mémoire sur l’impossibilité de quelques équations indéterminées du
cinquième degré, the paper addressed problems in number theory devised by the
ancient Greek mathematician Diophantus in about 250 a.d.
 Following General Fay’s death in 1825, Dirichlet returned to Germany, married,
and obtained a post as professor of mathematics at the University of Berlin. His
lectures, delivered during his twenty-seven years at the University of Berlin, and his
many scientific papers had considerable impact on the development of mathematics
in Germany. Dirichlet’s proof that certain specific types of functions are the sums of
 their Fourier series elevated work in this field from a simple manipulation of formulas
to genuine mathematics, as we understand the term today.
 Among his most influential works were memoirs published in 1837 and 1839,
wherein he applied analysis to the theory of numbers, with spectacular results.
Dirichlet’s understanding of the nature of a function, that is, that for each value of x
there is a unique value of y, was another important contribution to modern
mathematics.
 In 1855, Dirichlet left the University of Berlin for the University of Göttingen,
where a prestigious position had been left vacant by the death of Carl Gauss.
Dirichlet taught at Göttingen for three years, until suffering a heart attack in
Switzerland. He had traveled to Switzerland in the summer of 1858 to speak in
tribute to Gauss, but barely survived the journey back to Germany. He died at
Göttingen in May 1859, at the age of 54.

21. Niels Henrik Abel

 Niels Henrik Abel was born August 5th, 1802 in Finnoy Norway. He like many
other famous mathematicians was dirt poor all his life. Abel was discovered to have
a great knowledge of mathematics by his teacher Bernt Holmboe. After his father's
death, Abel was able to attend the University of Christiania in 1821. This could have
only happened due to Hobbies help in obtaining a scholarship. One year after he
started his studies he graduated from the University, but he had already
accomplished so much.
 Niels Henrik Abel had many great contributions to the evolution of mathematics.
Even though Abel only lived 27 short years he had many new discoveries. At the
 age of 16, Abel gave a proof of the Binomial Theorem valid for all numbers not only
Rationals, extending Euler's result.
 At age 19 he showed that there was not an algebraic equation for any general
Polynomial of degree greater than four. To do this, he invented an important part of
mathematics known as Group Theory, which is invaluable for many areas of
mathematics, and physics as well.
 In 1823 at the age of 21, Abel published papers on functional equations and
integrals. In this paper, Abel gives the first solution of an integral equation. He then
proved one year later, the impossibility of solving the general equation of the fifth
degree algebraically and published it at his own expense hoping to obtain
recognition for his work.
 After returning to Norway heavily in debt, he became very ill and was informed
he had tuberculosis. Despite his bad health and poverty, he continued writing papers
on equation theory and elliptic functions. This continued work had major importance
in the development of the whole theory of elliptic functions. Abel revolutionized the
understanding of elliptic functions by studying the inverse of these functions.

22. Georg Cantor

 Georg Cantor is a German mathematician who founded set theory and

introduced the mathematically meaningful concept of transfinite numbers, indefinitely
large but distinct from one another.
 Cantor’s mathematical talents emerged prior to his 15th birthday while he was
studying in private schools. eventually, After briefly attending the University of
Zürich, Cantor in 1863 transferred to the University of Berlin to specialize in
 physics, philosophy, and mathematics. There he was taught by the
mathematician Karl Weierstrass, whose specialization of analysis probably had the
greatest influence on him.
 An important exchange of letters with Richard Dedekind, mathematician at the
Brunswick Technical Institute, who was his lifelong friend and colleague, marked the
beginning of Cantor’s ideas on the theory of sets. Both agreed that a set,
whether finite or infinite, is a collection of objects (e.g., the integers, {0, ±1, ±2,…})
that share a particular property while each object retains its own individuality. But
when Cantor applied the device of the one-to-one correspondence (e.g., {a, b, c} to
{1, 2, 3}) to study the characteristics of sets, he quickly saw that they differed in the
extent of their membership, even among infinite sets. (A set is infinite if one of its
parts, or subsets, has as many objects as itself.) His method soon produced
surprising results.
 In 1895–97 Cantor fully propounded his view of continuity and the infinite,
including infinite ordinals and cardinals in his best-known work,  Contributions to the
Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers. This work contains his conception of
transfinite numbers, to which he was led by his demonstration that an infinite set
may be placed in a one-to-one correspondence with one of its subsets.

23. Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi

 Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi was a German mathematician who co-founded

the theory of elliptic functions. A child prodigy, Jacobi developed an affinity for
mathematics from a young age. He received his early education in mathematics
from his uncle Lehman who home schooled him. His remarkable abilities and
excellence at the subject reflected at an early age—at twelve, he was ready for
 university level of studies. However, due to age restrictions, he entered Berlin
University, at the age of 16, in 1821.
 Attaining his doctorate degree, Jacobi took up the profile of a university
professor, a position which he served for the better part of his life. It was while
serving as a mathematics professor that he made fundamental contributions to
elliptic functions, dynamics, differential equations and number theory.
 In 1823, he was qualified as a secondary school teacher for the subjects,
mathematics, Greek and Latin. Subsequently, he was offered a position at the
Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin but he declined it to pursue a university
position. In 1825, he secured a doctorate degree in philosophy. His thesis
provided an analytical discussion on the theory of fractions.
 Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi died due to small pox on February 18, 1851. He
was buried in Berlin. Due to his eminence as a great German mathematician, his
grave has been preserved at a cemetery in the Kreuzberg section of Berlin, the
Friedhof I der Dreifaltigkeits-Kirchengemeinde (61 Baruther Street).

24. Bhramagupta

 Brahmagupta was a highly accomplished ancient Indian astronomer and

mathematician who was the first to give rules to compute with zero.
 He is best remembered as the author of the theoretical treatise
‘Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta. His ‘Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta’ is the first book that
mentions zero as a number and also gives rules for using zero with negative and
positive numbers.
 He also wrote the book Khaṇḍakhādyaka. In this book, he described what a
cyclic quadrilateral is and gave its area.
25. Augustin Cauchy

 Augustin-Louis Cauchy was a French mathematician. He was famous for the

countless contributions he made to the domain of mathematics. He made special
contribution to mathematical analysis and the theory of substitution groups.
 For a brief period, he served as a military engineer for Napoleon’s English
invasion fleet. He wrote many books that cover a wide area of mathematics and
mathematical physics. His paper on definite integrals acted as the basis of the
theory of complex functions. Due to his praiseworthy contribution to wave
propagation, which is an important part of hydrodynamics, he received the
prestigious grand prix from the Institute of France.
 Cauchy was the first mathematician who developed definitions and rules for
mathematics. He introduced the definitions of the integral and rules for series
convergence.
26. Arthur Cayley

 Arthur Cayley, born on August 16, 1821 is an English mathematician and leader
of the British school of pure mathematics that emerged in the 19th century.
 Although Cayley was born in England, his first seven years were spent in St.
Petersburg, Russia, where his parents lived in a trading community affiliated with
the Muscovy Company. On the family’s permanent return to England in 1828 he was
educated at a small private school in Blackheath, followed by the three-year course
at King’s College, London. Cayley entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1838 and
emerged as the champion student of 1842, the “Senior Wrangler” of his year.
 Cayley practiced law in London from 1849 until 1863, while writing more than
300 mathematical papers in his spare time. In recognition of his mathematical work,
he was elected to the Royal Society in 1852 and presented with its Royal Medal
seven years later.
 Cayley made important contributions to the algebraic theory of curves and
surfaces, group theory, linear algebra, graph theory, combinatorics, and elliptic
functions. He formalized the theory of matrices. Among Cayley’s most important
papers were his series of 10 “Memoirs on Quantics” (1854–78). A quantic, known
today as an algebraic form, is a polynomial with the same total degree for each term
27. Emmy Noether

 Emmy Noether , born on March 23, 1882 is German mathematician

whose innovations in higher algebra gained her recognition as the most creative
abstract algebraist of modern times.
 Noether was certified to teach English and French in schools for girls in 1900,
but she instead chose to study mathematics at the University of Erlangen. At that
time, women were only allowed to audit classes with the permission of the instructor.
She returned to Erlangen in 1904 when women were allowed to be full students
there. She received a Ph.D. degree from Erlangen in 1907, with a dissertation on
algebraic invariants. She remained at Erlangen, where she worked without pay on
her own research and assisting her father, mathematician Max Noether.
 In addition to research and teaching, Noether helped edit the Mathematische
Annalen. From 1930 to 1933 she was the center of the strongest mathematical
activity at Göttingen. The extent and significance of her work cannot be accurately
judged from her papers. Much of her work appeared in the publications of students
and colleagues; many times, a suggestion or even a casual remark revealed her
great insight and stimulated another to complete and perfect some idea.
 When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Noether and many other
Jewish professors at Göttingen were dismissed. In October she left for the United
States to become a visiting professor of mathematics at Bryn Mawr College and to
 lecture and conduct research at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New
Jersey.
 She died suddenly of complications from an operation on an ovarian cyst.
Einstein wrote shortly after her death that “Noether was the most significant creative
mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began.”

28. Pythagoras of Samos

 Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 - 490 B.C.) was an early Greek Pre-

Socratic philosopher and mathematician from the Greek island of Samos.
 He was the founder of the influential philosophical and religious movement or
cult called Pythagoreanism, and he was probably the first man to actually call
himself a philosopher (or lover of wisdom). Pythagoras (or in a broader sense
the Pythagoreans), allegedly exercised an important influence on the work of Plato.
 Unfortunately, little is known for sure about him, (none of his original writings
have survived, and his followers usually published their own works in his name) and
he remains something of a mysterious figure. His secret society or brotherhood had a
great effect on later esoteric traditions such as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry.
 In mathematics, Pythagoras is commonly given credit for discovering what is
now known as the Pythagorean Theorem (or Pythagoras' Theorem), a theorem in
geometry that states that, in a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse (the
side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two
sides. Although this had been known and utilized previously by
the Babylonians and Indians, he (or perhaps one of his students) is thought to have
constructed the first proof.
 He also believed that the number system (and therefore the universe system)
was based on the sum of the numbers one to four (i.e. ten), and that odd
numbers were masculine and even numbers were feminine.
 He discovered the theory of mathematical proportions, constructed from three to
five geometrical solids, and also discovered square numbers and square roots. The
discovery of the golden ratio (referring to the ratio of two quantities such that the sum
of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger one
and the smaller, approximately 1.618) is also usually attributed to Pythagoras, or
possibly to his student, Theano.

References:

http://www.larsoncalculus.com/etf6/content/biographies/dirichlet-peter-gustav/

http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/Men/abel.html

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/carl-gustav-jacob-jacobi-6029.php

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/brahmagupta-6842.php

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/augustin-cauchy-588.php

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-Cayley

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emmy-Noether

https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_pythagoras.html

Reported by: Sy, Kris Anthony P.

29. Aryabhata (476-550) (India)

● Indian mathematicians excelled for thousands of years, and eventually
even developed advanced techniques like Taylor series before Europeans
did, but they are denied credit because of Western ascendancy. Among
the Hindu mathematicians, Aryabhata (called Arjehir by Arabs) may be
most famous.
● While Europe was in its early "Dark Age," Aryabhata advanced arithmetic,
algebra, elementary analysis, and especially plane and spherical
trigonometry, using the decimal system. Aryabhata is sometimes called
the "Father of Algebra" instead of al-Khowârizmi (who himself cites the
work of Aryabhata). His most famous accomplishment in mathematics was
the Aryabhata Algorithm (connected to continued fractions) for solving
Diophantine equations.
● Aryabhata made several important discoveries in astronomy, e.g. the
nature of moonlight, and concept of sidereal year; his estimate of the
Earth's circumference was more accurate than any achieved in ancient
Greece.
● He was among the very few ancient scholars who realized the Earth
rotated daily on an axis; claims that he also espoused heliocentric orbits
are controversial, but may be confirmed by the writings of al-Biruni.
Aryabhata is said to have introduced the constant e. He used π ≈ 3.1416;
it is unclear whether he discovered this independently or borrowed it from
Liu Hui of China. Although it was first discovered by Nicomachus three
centuries earlier, Aryabhata is famous for the identity
Σ (k3) = (Σ k)2
● Some of Aryabhata's achievements, e.g. an excellent approximation to the
sine function, are known only from the writings of Bhaskara I, who wrote:
"Aryabhata is the master who, after reaching the furthest shores and
plumbing the inmost depths of the sea of ultimate knowledge of
 mathematics, kinematics and spherics, handed over the three sciences to
the learned world."
● In Ganita Aryabhata names the first 10 decimal places and gives
algorithms for obtaining square and cubic roots, using the decimal number
system. Then he treats geometric measurements—employing
62,832/20,000 (= 3.1416) for π—and develops properties of similar right-
angled triangles and of two intersecting circles. Using the Pythagorean
theorem, he obtained one of the two methods for constructing his table of
sines. He also realized that second-order sine difference is proportional to
sine.
● Mathematical series, quadratic equations, compound interest (involving a
quadratic equation), proportions (ratios), and the solution of various linear
equations are among the arithmetic and algebraic topics included.
Aryabhata’s general solution for linear indeterminate equations, which
Bhaskara I called kuttakara (“pulverizer”), consisted of breaking the
problem down into new problems with successively smaller coefficients—
essentially the Euclidean algorithm and related to the method of continued
fractions.

30. Leonardo `Bigollo' Pisano (Fibonacci) (ca 1170-1245) Italy

● Leonardo (known today as Fibonacci) introduced the decimal system and other
new methods of arithmetic to Europe, and relayed the mathematics of the
Hindus, Persians, and Arabs. Others, especially Gherard of Cremona, had
translated Islamic mathematics, e.g. the works of al-Khowârizmi, into Latin, but
Leonardo was the influential teacher. (Two centuries earlier, the mathematician-
Pope, Gerbert of Aurillac, had tried unsuccessfully to introduce the decimal
system to Europe.)
● Leonardo also re-introduced older Greek ideas like Mersenne numbers and
Diophantine equations. His writings cover a very broad range including new
theorems of geometry, methods to construct and convert Egyptian fractions
(which were still in wide use), irrational numbers, the Chinese Remainder
Theorem, theorems about Pythagorean triplets, and the series 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13,
.... which is now linked with the name Fibonacci.
● In addition to his great historic importance and fame (he was a favorite of
Emperor Frederick II), Leonardo `Fibonacci' is called "the greatest number
theorist between Diophantus and Fermat" and "the most talented mathematician
of the Middle Ages."
● Leonardo is most famous for his book Liber Abaci, but his Liber Quadratorum
provides the best demonstration of his skill.
● He defined congruums and proved theorems about them, including a theorem
establishing the conditions for three square numbers to be in consecutive
arithmetic series; this has been called the finest work in number theory prior to
Fermat (although a similar statement was made about one of Bhaskara II's
theorems).
● Although often overlooked, this work includes a proof of the n = 4 case of
Fermat's Last Theorem. (Leonardo's proof of FLT4 is widely ignored or
considered incomplete. I'm preparing a page to consider that question. Al-Farisi
was another ancient mathematician who noted FLT4, although attempting no
proof.) Another of Leonardo's noteworthy achievements was proving that the
roots of a certain cubic equation could not have any of the constructible forms
Euclid had outlined in Book 10 of his Elements. He also wrote on, but didn't
prove, Wilson's Theorem.
● Leonardo provided Europe with the decimal system, algebra and the 'lattice'
method of multiplication, all far superior to the methods then in use. He
introduced notation like 3/5; his clever extension of this for quantities like 5 yards,
2 feet, and 3 inches is more efficient than today's notation. It seems hard to
believe but before the decimal system, mathematicians had no notation for zero.
Referring to this system, Gauss was later to exclaim "To what heights would
science now be raised if Archimedes had made that discovery!"
● In particular, in 1202, he wrote a hugely influential book called “Liber Abaci”
("Book of Calculation"), in which he promoted the use of the Hindu-Arabic
numeral system, describing its many benefits for merchants and mathematicians
alike over the clumsy system of Roman numerals then in use in Europe. Despite
its obvious advantages, uptake of the system in Europe was slow (this was after
all during the time of the Crusades against Islam, a time in which anything Arabic
was viewed with great suspicion), and Arabic numerals were even banned in the
city of Florence in 1299 on the pretext that they were easier to falsify than Roman
numerals. However, common sense eventually prevailed and the new system
 was adopted throughout Europe by the 15th century, making the Roman system
obsolete. The horizontal bar notation for fractions was also first used in this work
(although following the Arabic practice of placing the fraction to the left of the
integer).

31. William Rowan (Sir) Hamilton (1805-1865) Ireland

● Hamilton was a childhood prodigy. Home-schooled and self-taught, he started as

a student of languages and literature, was influenced by an arithmetic prodigy his
own age, read Euclid, Newton and Lagrange, found an error by Laplace, and
made new discoveries in optics; all this before the age of seventeen when he first
attended school.
● At college he enjoyed unprecedented success in all fields, but his undergraduate
days were cut short abruptly by his appointment as Royal Astronomer of Ireland
at the age of 22.
● He soon began publishing his revolutionary treatises on optics, in which he
developed Hamilton's Principle of Stationary Action. This Principle refined and
corrected the earlier principles of least action developed by Maupertuis, Fermat,
and Euler; it (and related principles) are key to much of modern physics.
 ● His early writing also predicted that some crystals would have an hitherto
unknown "conical" refraction mode; this was soon confirmed experimentally.
● Hamilton's Principle of Least Action, and its associated equations and concept of
configuration space, led to a revolution in mathematical physics.
● Since Maupertuis had named this Principle a century earlier, it is possible to
underestimate Hamilton's contribution. However Maupertuis, along with others
credited with anticipating the idea (Fermat, Leibniz, Euler and Lagrange) failed to
state the full Principle correctly. Rather than minimizing action, physical systems
sometimes achieve a non-minimal but stationary action in configuration space.
(Poisson and d' Alembert had noticed exceptions to Euler-Lagrange least action,
but failed to find Hamilton's solution. Jacobi also deserves some credit for the
Principle, but his work came after reading Hamilton.) Because of this Principle,
as well as his wave-particle duality (which would be further developed by Planck
and Einstein), Hamilton can be considered a major early influence on quantum
theory.
● Hamilton also made revolutionary contributions to dynamics, differential
equations, the theory of equations, numerical analysis, fluctuating functions, and
graph theory (he marketed a puzzle based on his Hamiltonian paths). He
invented the ingenious hodograph. He coined several mathematical terms
including vector, scalar, associative, and tensor. In addition to his brilliance and
creativity, Hamilton was renowned for thoroughness and produced voluminous
writings on several subjects.
● Hamilton himself considered his greatest accomplishment to be the development
of quaternions, a non-Abelian field to handle 3-D rotations. While there is no 3-D
analog to the Gaussian complex-number plane (based on the equation i2 =
-1 ), quaternions derive from a 4-D analog based on i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = -jik = -1.
Although matrix and tensor methods may seem more general, quaternions are
still in wide engineering use because of practical advantages, e.g. avoidance of
"gimbal lock."
● Hamilton once wrote: "On earth there is nothing great but man; in man there is
nothing great but mind."

32. Apollonius of Perga (262-190 BC) Greek domain

● Apollonius Pergaeus, called "The Great Geometer," is sometimes
considered the second greatest of ancient Greek mathematicians. (Euclid,
Eudoxus and Archytas are other candidates for this honor.)
● His writings on conic sections have been studied until modern times; he
developed methods for normals and curvature. (He is often credited with
inventing the names for parabola, hyperbola and ellipse; but these shapes
were previously described by Menaechmus, and their names may also
predate Apollonius.)
● Although astronomers eventually concluded it was not physically correct,
Apollonius developed the "epicycle and deferent" model of planetary
orbits, and proved important theorems in this area.
● He deliberately emphasized the beauty of pure, rather than applied,
mathematics, saying his theorems were "worthy of acceptance for the
sake of the demonstrations themselves." The following generalization of
the Pythagorean Theorem, where M is the midpoint of BC, is called
Apollonius' Theorem: AB 2 + AC 2 = 2(AM 2 + BM 2).
● Many of his works have survived only in a fragmentary form, and the
proofs were completely lost. Most famous was the Problem of Apollonius,
which is to find a circle tangent to three objects, with the objects being
points, lines, or circles, in any combination. Constructing the eight circles
each tangent to three other circles is especially challenging, but just
finding the two circles containing two given points and tangent to a given
line is a serious challenge. Vieta was renowned for discovering methods
for all ten cases of this Problem. Other great mathematicians who have
enjoyed reconstructing Apollonius' lost theorems include Fermat, Pascal,
Newton, Euler, Poncelet and Gauss.
● In evaluating the genius of the ancient Greeks, it is well to remember that
their achievements were made without the convenience of modern
 notation. It is clear from his writing that Apollonius almost developed the
analytic geometry of Descartes, but failed due to the lack of such
elementary concepts as negative numbers. Leibniz wrote "He who
understands Archimedes and Apollonius will admire less the
achievements of the foremost men of later times."

33. Charles Hermite (1822-1901) France

● Hermite studied the works of Lagrange and Gauss from an early age and
soon developed an alternate proof of Abel's famous quintic impossibility
result.
● He attended the same college as Galois and also had trouble passing
their examinations, but soon became highly respected by Europe's best
mathematicians for his significant advances in analytic number theory,
elliptic functions, and quadratic forms.
● Along with Cayley and Sylvester, he founded the important theory of
invariants. Hermite's theory of transformation allowed him to connect
analysis, algebra and number theory in novel ways.
● He was a kindly modest man and an inspirational teacher. Among his
students was Poincaré, who said of Hermite, "He never evokes a concrete
image, yet you soon perceive that the more abstract entities are to him like
living creatures.... Methods always seemed to be born in his mind in some
mysterious way."
● Hermite's other famous students included Darboux, Borel, and Hadamard
who wrote of "how magnificent Hermite's teaching was, overflowing with
enthusiasm for science, which seemed to come to life in his voice and
whose beauty he never failed to communicate to us, since he felt it so
much himself to the very depth of his being."
● Although he and Abel had proved that the general quintic lacked algebraic
solutions, Hermite introduced an elliptic analog to the circular
 trigonometric functions and used these to provide a general solution for
the quintic equation.
● He developed the concept of complex conjugate which is now ubiquitous
in mathematical physics and matrix theory. He was first to prove that the
Stirling and Euler generalizations of the factorial function are equivalent.
He was first to note remarkable facts about Heegner numbers, e.g.
eπ√163 = 262537412640768743.9999999999992...
 (Without computers he was able to calculate this number, including the twelve 9's
to the right of the decimal point.) Very many elegant concepts and theorems are
named after Hermite. Hermite's most famous result may be his intricate proof that
e (along with a broad class of related numbers) is transcendental. (Extending the
proof to π was left to Lindemann, a matter of regret for historians, some of whom
who regard Hermite as the greatest mathematician of his era.)
 Hermite was a major figure in the development of the theory of algebraic forms,
the arithmetical theory of quadratic forms, and the theories of elliptic and Abelian
functions. He first studied the representation of integers in what are now called
Hermitian forms. His famous solution of the general quintic equation appeared in
Sur la résolution de l’équation du cinquième degré (1858; “On the Solution of the
Equation of the Fifth Degree”). Many late 19th-century mathematicians first
gained recognition for their work largely through the encouragement and publicity
supplied by Hermite.

34. Pierre-Simon (Marquis de) Laplace (1749-1827) France

● Laplace was the preeminent mathematical astronomer, and is often called

the "French Newton." His masterpiece was Mécanique Céleste which
 redeveloped and improved Newton's work on planetary motions using
calculus.
● While Newton had shown that the two-body gravitation problem led to
orbits which were ellipses (or other conic sections), Laplace was more
interested in the much more difficult problems involving three or more
bodies. (Would Jupiter's pull on Saturn eventually propel Saturn into a
closer orbit, or was Saturn's orbit stable for eternity?) Laplace's equations
had the optimistic outcome that the solar system was stable.
● Laplace advanced the nebular hypothesis of solar system origin, and was
first to conceive of black holes. (He also conceived of multiple galaxies,
but this was Lambert's idea first.) He explained the so-called secular
acceleration of the Moon. (Today we know Laplace's theories do not fully
explain the Moon's path, nor guarantee orbit stability.) His other
accomplishments in physics include theories about the speed of sound
and surface tension.
● He worked closely with Lavoisier, helping to discover the elemental
composition of water, and the natures of combustion, respiration and heat
itself. Laplace may have been first to note that the laws of mechanics are
the same with time's arrow reversed.
● He was noted for his strong belief in determinism, famously replying to
Napoleon's question about God with: "I have no need of that hypothesis."
● Laplace viewed mathematics as just a tool for developing his physical
theories. Nevertheless, he made many important mathematical
discoveries and inventions (although the Laplace Transform itself was
already known to Lagrange). He was the premier expert at differential and
difference equations, and definite integrals. He developed spherical
harmonics, potential theory, and the theory of determinants; anticipated
Fourier's series; and advanced Euler's technique of generating functions.
In the fields of probability and statistics he made key advances: he proved
the Law of Least Squares, and introduced the controversial ("Bayesian")
rule of succession. In the theory of equations, he was first to prove that
any polynomial of even degree must have a real quadratic factor.
● Others might place Laplace higher on the List, but he proved no
fundamental theorems of pure mathematics (though his partial differential
equation for fluid dynamics is one of the most famous in physics), founded
no major branch of pure mathematics, and wasn't particularly concerned
with rigorous proof. (He is famous for skipping difficult proof steps with the
phrase "It is easy to see".) Nevertheless he was surely one of the greatest
applied mathematicians ever.

35. Carl Ludwig Siegel (1896-1981) Germany

● Carl Siegel became famous when his doctoral dissertation established a
key result in Diophantine approximations. He continued with contributions
to several branches of analytic and algebraic number theory, including
arithmetic geometry and quadratic forms. He also did seminal work with
Riemann's zeta function, Dedekind's zeta functions, transcendental
number theory, discontinuous groups, the 3-body problem in celestial
mechanics, and symplectic geometry.
● In complex analysis he developed Siegel modular forms, which have wide
application in math and physics. He may share credit with Alexander
Gelfond for the solution to Hilbert's 7th Problem. Siegel admired the
"simplicity and honesty" of masters like Gauss, Lagrange and Hardy and
lamented the modern "trend for senseless abstraction." He and Israel
Gelfand were the first two winners of the Wolf Prize in Mathematics. Atle
Selberg called him a "devastatingly impressive" mathematician who did
things that "seemed impossible." André Weil declared that Siegel was the
greatest mathematician of the first half of the 20th century.
● During his time at the psychiatric institute, Siegel came in contact with
Edmund Georg Hermann Landau, a professor of University of Göttingen,
working in the fields of number theory and complex analysis. Siegel had
later said that he could withstand his experience at the institute only
because of Landau.
● In 1929, he published an important paper concerning linear equations.
Known as ‘Siegel’s lemma’, it is pure existence theorem, referring to the
bounds on the solutions of the said equations obtained by the construction
of auxiliary functions.
● Also in the same year, he proved ‘Bourget's hypothesis’. Carl Ludwig
Siegel is best known for his contributions to the ‘Thue–Siegel–Roth
 theorem’ in Diophantine approximation. Originally established by Roth, it
stated that “a given algebraic number (alpha) may not have too many
rational number approximations, that are very good”.
● In 1921, working closely on the theorem, Siegel refined the meaning of
‘very good’. In 1978, Carl Ludwig Siegel received the first Wolf Prize in
Mathematics jointly with Israel Gelfand of Soviet Russia. Siegel was
awarded this prestigious prize “for his contributions to the theory of
numbers, theory of several complex variables, and celestial mechanics”.

36. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) Germany

● Kepler was interested in astronomy from an early age, studied to become

a Lutheran minister, became a professor of mathematics instead, then
Tycho Brahe's understudy, and, on Brahe's death, was appointed Imperial
Mathematician at the age of twenty-nine.
 ● His observations of the planets with Brahe, along with his study of
Apollonius' 1800-year old work, led to Kepler's three Laws of Planetary
Motion, which in turn led directly to Newton's Laws of Motion. Beyond his
discovery of these Laws (one of the most important achievements in all of
science), Kepler is also sometimes called the "Founder of Modern Optics."
● He furthered the theory of the camera obscura, telescopes built from two
convex lenses, and atmospheric refraction.
● The question of human vision had been considered by many great
scientists including Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Galen, Alkindus, Alhazen,
and Leonardo da Vinci, but it was Kepler who was first to explain the
operation of the human eye correctly and to note that retinal images will
be upside-down.
● Kepler developed a rudimentary notion of universal gravitation, and used it
to produce the best explanation for tides before Newton; however he
seems not to have noticed that his empirical laws implied inverse-square
gravitation. Kepler noticed Olbers' Paradox before Olbers' time and used it
to conclude that the Universe is finite.
● Kepler ranks #75 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential
Persons in History. This rank, much lower than that of Copernicus, Galileo
or Newton, seems to me to underestimate Kepler's importance, since it
was Kepler's Laws, rather than just heliocentrism, which were essential to
the early development of mathematical physics.

● "I give myself up to divine ecstasy ... My book is written. It will be read either by
my contemporaries or by posterity — I care not which. It may well wait a hundred
years for a reader, as God has waited 6,000 years for someone to understand
His work."
● Kepler also once wrote "Mathematics is the archetype of the beautiful."
● Besides the trigonometric results needed to discover his Laws, Kepler made
other contributions to mathematics. He generalized Alhazen's Billiard Problem,
developing the notion of curvature. He was first to notice that the set of Platonic
regular solids was incomplete if concave solids are admitted, and first to prove
that there were only 13 Archimedean solids.
● He proved theorems of solid geometry later discovered on the famous palimpsest
of Archimedes. He rediscovered the Fibonacci series, applied it to botany, and
noted that the ratio of Fibonacci numbers converges to the Golden Mean. He
was a key early pioneer in calculus, and embraced the concept of continuity
(which others avoided due to Zeno's paradoxes); his work was a direct inspiration
for Cavalieri and others.
● He developed the theory of logarithms and improved on Napier's tables. He
developed mensuration methods and anticipated Fermat's theorem on stationary
 points. Kepler once had an opportunity to buy wine, which merchants measured
using a shortcut; with the famous Kepler's Wine Barrel Problem, he used his
rudimentary calculus to deduce which barrel shape would be the best bargain.
● Kepler reasoned that the structure of snowflakes was evidence for the then-novel
atomic theory of matter. He noted that the obvious packing of cannonballs gave
maximum density (this became known as Kepler's Conjecture; optimality was
proved among regular packings by Gauss, but it wasn't until 1998 that the
possibility of denser irregular packings was disproven).
● In addition to his physics and mathematics, Kepler wrote a science fiction novel,
and was an astrologer and mystic. He had ideas similar to Pythagoras about
numbers ruling the cosmos (writing that the purpose of studying the world
"should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed
on it by God and which He revealed to us in the language of mathematics").
Kepler's mystic beliefs even led to his own mother being imprisoned for
witchcraft.
● Johannes Kepler (along with Galileo, Fermat, Huygens, Wallis, Vieta and
Descartes) is among the giants on whose shoulders Newton was proud to stand.
Some historians place him ahead of Galileo and Copernicus as the single most
important contributor to the early Scientific Revolution. Chasles includes Kepler
on a list of the six responsible for conceiving and perfecting infinitesimal calculus
(the other five are Archimedes, Cavalieri, Fermat, Leibniz and Newton).
(www.keplersdiscovery.com is a wonderful website devoted to Johannes Kepler's
discoveries.)

37. Diophantus of Alexandria (ca 250) Greece, Egypt

● Diophantus was one of the most influential mathematicians of antiquity; he
wrote several books on arithmetic and algebra, and explored number
theory further than anyone earlier.
● He advanced a rudimentary arithmetic and algebraic notation, allowed
rational-number solutions to his problems rather than just integers, and
was aware of results like the Brahmagupta-Fibonacci Identity; for these
reasons he is often called the "Father of Algebra."
● His work, however, may seem quite limited to a modern eye: his methods
were not generalized, he knew nothing of negative numbers, and, though
he often dealt with quadratic equations, never seems to have commented
on their second solution. His notation, clumsy as it was, was used for
many centuries. (The shorthand x3 for "x cubed" was not invented until
Descartes.)
● Very little is known about Diophantus (he might even have come from
Babylonia, whose algebraic ideas he borrowed). Many of his works have
been lost, including proofs for lemmas cited in the surviving work, some of
which are so difficult it would almost stagger the imagination to believe
Diophantus really had proofs. Among these are Fermat's conjecture
(Lagrange's theorem) that every integer is the sum of four squares, and
the following: "Given any positive rationals a, b with a>b, there exist
positive rationals c, d such that a3-b3 = c3+d3." (This latter "lemma" was
investigated by Vieta and Fermat and finally solved, with some difficulty, in
the 19th century. It seems unlikely that Diophantus actually had proofs for
such "lemmas.")
● Diophantus applied himself to some quite complex algebraic problems,
particularly what has since become known as Diophantine Analysis, which
deals with finding integer solutions to kinds of problems that lead to
equations in several unknowns. Diophantine equations can be defined as
polynomial equations with integer coefficients to which only integer
solutions are sought.
● For example, he would explore problems such as: two integers such that
the sum of their squares is a square (x2 + y2 = z2, examples being x = 3
and y = 4 giving z = 5, or x = 5 and y =12 giving z = 13); or two integers
such that the sum of their cubes is a square (x3 + y3 = z2, a trivial
example being x = 1 and y = 2, giving z = 3); or three integers such that
their squares are in arithmetic progression (x2 + z2 = 2y2, an example
being x = 1, z = 7 and y = 5). His general approach was to determine if a
problem has infinitely many, or a finite number of solutions, or none at all.
● Diophantus’ major work (and the most prominent work on algebra in all
Greek mathematics) was his “Arithmetica”, a collection of problems giving
numerical solutions of both determinate and indeterminate equations. Of
 the original thirteen books of the “Arithmetica”, only six have survived,
although some Diophantine problems from “Arithmetica” have also been
found in later Arabic sources. His problems exercised the minds of many
of the world's best mathematicians for much of the next two millennia, with
some particularly celebrated solutions provided by Brahmagupta, Pierre
de Fermat, Joseph Louis Lagrange and Leonhard Euler, among others. In
recognition of their depth, David Hilbert proposed the solvability of all
Diophantine problems as the tenth of his celebrated problems in 1900, a
definitive solution to which only emerged with the work of Robinson and
Matiyasevich in the mid-20th Century.

References:
https://www.storyofmathematics.com/medieval_fibonacci.html
https://fabpedigree.com/james/mathmen.htm?
fbclid=IwAR2txzg8MyRVMMk7WaXN08KDjqNisEq7NMLGvNEdor_UoRAyLFhR1g0nI5
4#Fibonacci
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aryabhata-I
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Apollonius-of-Perga
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/carl-ludwig-siegel-540.php

Reported by: Tan, Juliah Elyz A.

37. Muhammed `Abu Jafar' ibn Musâ al-Khowârizmi

Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a Persian mathematician,

astronomer, astrologer geographer and a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
Born in Persia, around 780 to 850 CE (or AD). Al-Khwarizmi flourished while working as
a member of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad under the leadership of Kalif al-Mamun,
the son of the Khalif Harun al-Rashid, who was made famous in the Arabian Nights. The
House of Wisdom was a scientific research and teaching center. This group was
interested in re-engaging with the brilliant work of the ancient Greeks, which had been
lost and almost forgotten about, for centuries. Apart from translating the classic Greek
texts, they published their own research on algebra, geometry and astronomy. The
scholars weren't simply producing academic works. They were trying to solve the
problems of the day involving lawsuits, trade, measurement and inheritance.
He was one of the first to write about algebra (using words, not letters). Al-
Khwarizmi’s algebra is regarded as the foundation and cornerstone of the sciences.
Around 825 he wrote the book called “Al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-
muqabala” (“The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing”). "
from which "al-jabr” (means "completion") is the Latinization of “algebra” (meaning
'restoration of broken parts') and "al-muqabala" means "balancing” . The book, which
was twice translated into Latin, by both Gerard of Cremona and Robert of Chester in the
12th century, works out several hundred simple quadratic equations by analysis as well
as by geometrical example. It also has substantial sections on methods of dividing up
inheritances and surveying plots of land. It is largely concerned with methods for solving
practical computational problems rather than algebra as the term is now understood.
His aim was to solve linear or quadratic equations by removing negatives using a
process of balancing both sides of an equation. This is the same as what we do in
algebra today.
His book is considered the foundational text of modern algebra, although he did
not employ the kind of algebraic notation used today (he used words to explain the
problem, and diagrams to solve it). But the book provided an exhaustive account of
solving polynomial equations up to the second degree, and introduced for the first time
the fundamental algebraic methods of “reduction” (rewriting an expression in a simpler
form), “completion” (moving a negative quantity from one side of the equation to the
other side and changing its sign) and “balancing” (subtraction of the same quantity from
both sides of an equation, and the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides).
In particular, Al-Khwarizmi developed a formula for systematically solving
quadratic equations (equations involving unknown numbers to the power of 2, or x2) by
using the methods of completion and balancing to reduce any equation to one of six
standard forms, which were then solvable. He described the standard forms in terms of
"squares" (what would today be "x2"), "roots" (what would today be "x") and "numbers"
(regular constants, like 42), and identified the six types as: squares equal roots (ax2 =
bx), squares equal number (ax2 = c), roots equal number (bx = c), squares and roots
equal number (ax2 + bx = c), squares and number equal roots (ax2 + c = bx), and roots
and number equal squares (bx + c = ax2).
Al-Khwarizmi developed the concept of the algorithm in mathematics (which is a
reason for his being called the grandfather of computer science by some people). In the
12th century a second work by al-Khwārizmī introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and
their arithmetic to the West. It is preserved only in a Latin translation, Algoritmi de
numero Indorum (“Al-Khwārizmī Concerning the Hindu Art of Reckoning”). From the
name of the author, rendered in Latin as Algoritmi, originated the term algorithm. The
modern meaning of the word relates to a specific practice for solving a particular
problem. Today, people use algorithms to do addition and long division, principles that
are found in Al-Khwarizmi’s text written about 1200 years ago. Al-Khwarizmi was also
responsible for introducing the Arabic numbers to the West, setting in motion a process
that led to the use of the nine Arabic numerals, together with the zero sign.
Al-Khwarizmi is usually credited with the development of lattice (or sieve)
multiplication method of multiplying large numbers, a method algorithmically equivalent
to long multiplication. His lattice method was later introduced into Europe by Fibonacci.
He also coined the word cipher, which became English zero (although this was just a
translation from the Sanskrit word for zero introduced by Aryabhata).
In addition to his work in mathematics, Al-Khwarizmi made important
contributions to astronomy, also largely based on methods from India, and he
developed the first quadrant (an instrument used to determine time by observations of
the Sun or stars), the second most widely used astronomical instrument during the
Middle Ages after the astrolabe. He also produced a revised and completed version of
Ptolemy's “Geography”, consisting of a list of 2,402 coordinates of cities throughout the
known world.
Al-Khwarizmi confined his discussion to equations of the first and second
degrees. He also wrote an important work on astronomy, covering calendars,
calculating true positions of the sun, moon and planets, tables of sines and tangents,
spherical astronomy, astrological tables, parallax and eclipse calculations, and visibility
of the moon. His astronomical work, Zij al-sindhind, is also based on the work of other
scientists. This work included a table of sines, evidently for a circle of radius 150 units.
Like his treatises on algebra and Hindu-Arabic numerals, this astronomical work (or an
Andalusian revision thereof) was translated into Latin. As with the Algebra, its chief
interest is as the earliest Arab work still in existence in Arabic.
Of great importance also was al-Khwarizmi’s contribution to medieval geography.
He systematized and corrected Ptolemy’s research in geography, using his own original
findings that are entitled as Surat al-Ard (The Shape of the Earth). The text exists in a
manuscript; the maps have unfortunately not been preserved, although modern
scholars have been able to reconstruct them from al-Khwarizmi’s descriptions. He
supervised the work of 70 geographers to create a map of the then “known world”.
When his work became known in Europe through Latin translations, his influence made
a permanent mark on the development of science in the West.
Al-Khwarizmi made several important improvements to the theory and
construction of sundials, which he inherited from his Indian and Hellenistic
predecessors. He made tables for these instruments which considerably shortened the
time needed to make specific calculations. His sundial was universal and could be
observed from anywhere on the Earth. From then on, sundials were frequently placed
on mosques to determine the time of prayer. The shadow square, an instrument used to
determine the linear height of an object, in conjunction with the alidade for angular
observations, was also invented by al-Khwarizmi in ninth-century Baghdad.
While his major contributions were the result of original research, he also did
much to synthesize the existing knowledge in these fields from Greek, Indian, and other
sources. A number of minor works were written by al-Khwarizmi on topics such as the
astrolabe, on which he wrote on the Jewish calendar. He also wrote a political history
containing horoscopes of prominent persons.
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi died in c. 850 being remembered as one of
the most seminal scientific minds of early Islamic culture.

38. Kurt Friedrich Gödel

Kurt Friedrich Gödel, Gödel also spelled Goedel, (born April 28, 1906, Brünn,
Austria-Hungary [now Brno, Czech Rep.]—died Jan. 14, 1978, Princeton, N.J., U.S.),
Austrian-born mathematician, logician, and philosopher who obtained what may be the
most important mathematical result of the 20th century: his famous incompleteness
theorem, which states that within any axiomatic mathematical system there are
propositions that cannot be proved or disproved on the basis of the axioms within that
system; thus, such a system cannot be simultaneously complete and consistent. This
proof established Gödel as one of the greatest logicians since Aristotle, and its
repercussions continue to be felt and debated today.
Gödel, who had the nickname Herr Warum ("Mr. Why") as a child, was perhaps
the foremost logic theorist ever, clarifying the relationships between various modes of
logic. He partially resolved both Hilbert's 1st and 2nd Problems, the latter with a proof so
remarkable that it was connected to the drawings of Escher and music of Bach in the
title of a famous book. He was a close friend of Albert Einstein, and was first to discover
"paradoxical" solutions (e.g. time travel) to Einstein's equations. About his friend,
Einstein later said that he had remained at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study
merely "to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel." (Like a few of the other
greatest 20th-century mathematicians, Gödel was very eccentric.)
Two of the major questions confronting mathematics are: (1) are its axioms
consistent (its theorems all being true statements)?, and (2) are its axioms complete (its
true statements all being theorems)? Gödel turned his attention to these fundamental
questions. He proved that first-order logic was indeed complete, but that the more
powerful axiom systems needed for arithmetic (constructible set theory) were
necessarily incomplete. He also proved that the Axioms of Choice (AC) and the
Generalized Continuum Hypothesis (GCH) were consistent with set theory, but that set
theory's own consistency could not be proven. He may have established that the truths
of AC and GCH were independent of the usual set theory axioms, but the proof was left
to Paul Cohen.
In Gödel's famous proof of Incompleteness, he exhibits a true statement (G)
which cannot be proven, to wit "G (this statement itself) cannot be proven." If G could be
proven it would be a contradictory true statement, so consistency dictates that it indeed
cannot be proven. But that's what G says, so G is true! This sounds like mere word play,
but building from ordinary logic and arithmetic Gödel was able to construct statement G
rigorously.

Gödel published his two incompleteness theorems in 1931 when he was 25

years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. The first
incompleteness theorem states that for any self-consistent recursive axiomatic system
powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example Peano
arithmetic), there are true propositions about the naturals that cannot be proved from
the axioms. To prove this theorem, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel
numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers
He also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis
can be disproved from the accepted axioms of set theory, assuming these axioms are
consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom
of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by
clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.
To simplify, the first incompleteness theorem states that no consistent system of
axioms whose theorems can be listed by an effective procedure (i.e., an algorithm) is
capable of proving all truths about the arithmetic of natural numbers. For any such
consistent formal system, there will always be statements about natural numbers that
are true, but that are unprovable within the system. The second incompleteness
theorem, an extension of the first, shows that the system cannot demonstrate its own
consistency.

39. Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind

 Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind (6 October 1831 – 12 February 1916)
was a German mathematician who made important contributions to abstract algebra
(particularly ring theory), axiomatic foundation for the natural numbers, algebraic
number theory and the definition of the real numbers. During the course of his illustrious
career he wrote a paper in which he described ‘what numbers actually are and what
they should be’. He suggested an analysis of the number theory and defined an infinite
set of numbers. Most of his life was spent in Braunschweig where he taught
mathematics. Along with his own mathematical works such as formulating the
‘Dedekind’s Theorem’ he also edited the various works of Bernhard Riemann, Carl
Gauss and Peter Dirichlet. One of his most notable contributions to the field of
mathematics was editing the collection of works carried out by Riemann, Dirichlet and
Gauss and publishing them in a single volume. Dedekind was brilliant in not only
creating concepts and formulating theories but he was also able to express his ideas
concisely and clearly which led to their easy acceptance. His analysis of infinite and real
numbers was not given full recognition while he was still alive but became one of the
major influences on the field of modern mathematics after his death.
He was one of the first to pursue Galois Theory, making major advances
there and pioneering in the application of group theory to other branches of
mathematics. Dedekind also invented a system of fundamental axioms for arithmetic,
worked in probability theory and complex analysis, and invented prime partitions and
modular lattices. Dedekind may be most famous for his theory of ideals and rings;
Kronecker and Kummer had begun this, but Dedekind gave it a more abstract and
productive basis, which was developed further by Hilbert, Noether and Weil. Though the
term ring itself was coined by Hilbert, Dedekind introduced the terms module, field, and
ideal. Dedekind was far ahead of his time, so Noether became famous as the creator of
modern algebra; but she acknowledged her great predecessor, frequently saying "It is
all already in Dedekind."
Dedekind was concerned with rigor, writing "nothing capable of proof
ought to be accepted without proof." Before him, the real numbers, continuity, and
infinity all lacked rigorous definitions. The axioms Dedekind invented allow the integers
and rational numbers to be built and his Dedekind Cut then led to a rigorous and useful
definition of the real numbers. Dedekind was a key mentor for Georg Cantor: he
introduced the notion that a bijection implied equinumerosity, used this to define
infinitude (a set is infinite if equinumerous with its proper subset), and was first to prove
the Cantor-Bernstein-Schröder Theorem, though he didn't publish his proof. (Because
he spent his career at a minor university, and neglected to publish some of his work,
Dedekind's contributions may be underestimated.)

While teaching calculus for the first time at the Polytechnic school, Dedekind

developed the notion now known as a Dedekind cut (German: Schnitt), now a standard
definition of the real numbers. The idea of a cut is that an irrational number divides
the rational numbers into two classes (sets), with all the numbers of one class (greater)
being strictly greater than all the numbers of the other (lesser) class. For example,
the square root of 2 defines all the nonnegative numbers whose squares are less than 2
and the negative numbers into the lesser class, and the positive numbers whose
squares are greater than 2 into the greater class. Every location on the number line
continuum contains either a rational or an irrational number. Thus there are no empty
locations, gaps, or discontinuities. Dedekind published his thoughts on irrational
numbers and Dedekind cuts in his pamphlet "Stetigkeit und irrationale Zahlen"
("Continuity and irrational numbers"); in modern
terminology, Vollständigkeit, completeness.
Dedekind's theorem states that if there existed a one-to-one
correspondence between two sets, then the two sets were "similar". He invoked
similarity to give the first precise definition of an infinite set: a set is infinite when it is
"similar to a proper part of itself," in modern terminology, is equinumerous to one of
its proper subsets. Thus the set N of natural numbers can be shown to be similar to the
subset of N whose members are the squares of every member of N, (N → N2):

N    1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 ...
            ↓          
N2   1  4  9 16 25 36 49 64 81 100 ...

In 1872 he developed the analysis of irrational numbers and even

published a book on his findings. He also met Georg Cantor, a fellow mathematician, in
the city of Interlaken while holidaying in the Black Forest in Germany. They shared their
ideas and agreed to start working together on the set theory which helped Cantor to
resolve the disputes he had with Leopold Kronecker who was an opponent of ‘transfinite
numbers’ suggested by Cantor. Dedekind and Cantor maintained ties with each other
for a long time afterwards.
In 1882 he collaborated with Heinrich Martin Weber to put forward an
algebraic proof of the ‘Riemann-Roch Theorem’. He came out with the short essay ‘Was
sind und was sollen die Zahlen’ or ‘What are numbers and what should they be?’ in
1888 which described what an ‘infinite set’ means. In this monograph he suggested that
natural numbers had their foundation on axioms, which was verified by Giuseppe Peano
who created a set of simpler but equivalent axioms the next year.
Richard Dedekind published the book ‘’ Vorlesungen über Zahlentheorie’
or ‘Lectures on Number Theory’ in German in 1863 which contained the lectures given
by Dirichlet earlier on the subject. The third and fourth editions of this book were
published in 1879 and 1894 respectively in which supplements written by Dedekind
introduced a notion of groups for arithmetic and algebra which became fundamental to
the ring theory. Though the word ‘ring’ was not originally mentioned by Dedekind, it was
included later by Hilbert.
He wrote the book ‘Stetigkeit und Irrationale Zahlen’ or ‘Continuity and
Irrational Numbers’ in 1872 which made him quite famous in the world of mathematics.
In 1882 he published a paper which he had prepared jointly with Heinrich Weber in
which he analyzed the ‘theory of Riemann surfaces’ which proved the ‘Riemann-Roch
Theorem’ algebraically. He died of natural causes at the age of 84 on February 12,
1916 in his home town Braunschweig, Germany.
40. Christian Felix Klein

Christian Felix Klein (German: [klaɪn]; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was
a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work with group
theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the associations between
geometry and group theory. His 1872 Erlangen Program, classifying geometries by their
basic symmetry groups, was an influential synthesis of much of the mathematics of the
time.
Klein's key contribution was an application of invariant theory to unify
geometry with group theory. This radical new view of geometry inspired Sophus Lie's
Lie groups, and also led to the remarkable unification of Euclidean and non-Euclidean
geometries which is probably Klein's most famous result. Klein did other work in function
theory, providing links between several areas of mathematics including number theory,
group theory, hyperbolic geometry, and abstract algebra. His Klein's Quartic curve and
popularly-famous Klein's bottle were among several useful results from his new
approaches to groups and higher-dimensional geometries and equations. Klein did
significant work in mathematical physics, e.g. writing about gyroscopes. He facilitated
David Hilbert's early career, publishing his controversial Finite Basis Theorem and
declaring it "without doubt the most important work on general algebra [the leading
German journal] ever published."
Klein connected geometric and algebraic results in order to develop the
theory of automorphic functions, which he published in his book on icosahedron, in
1884. It also consists of reasoning from its symmetries to develop the elliptic modular
and automorphic functions which he used to solve the general quintic equation. He
formulated a "grand uniformization theorem" about automorphic functions but suffered a
health collapse before completing the proof. His focus then changed to teaching; he
devised a mathematics curriculum for secondary schools which had world-wide
influence. Klein once wrote "... mathematics has been most advanced by those who
distinguished themselves by intuition rather than by rigorous proofs."
Felix Christian Klein is best remembered for his creation of ‘Erlanger
Program’. Although non-Euclidean geometries had been evolved by then, there was no
way to determine their hierarchy and relationships. Erlanger Program created in 1872,
was an important step in that direction, characterizing geometries based on group
theory and projective geometry.
Klein devised the "Klein bottle" named after him, a one-sided closed
surface which cannot be embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space, but it may be
immersed as a cylinder looped back through itself to join with its other end from the
"inside". It may be embedded in the Euclidean space of dimensions 4 and higher. The
concept of a Klein Bottle was devised as a 3-Dimensional Möbius strip, with one method
of construction being the attachment of the edges of two Möbius strips.

His other major contribution to mathematics was his work on functional

theory. In 1882, he presented a paper on the basis of treating functional theory in the
geometric way by connecting conformal mappings and potential theory. Using fluid
dynamics, he was able to incorporate physical ideas into his work.
Klein worked on solving general equations of the fifth degree by using
transcendental methods. He applied views of Charles Hermite and Leopold Kronecker
into his methods and solved the problems with the icosahedron (a polyhedron with 20
faces) group. This research led him to work on elliptic modular functions.
Klein died on 22 June 1925 in Göttingen, at the age of 76. Concepts like
Klein bottle and Beltrami–Klein model continue to carry his legacy.

41. Bháscara (II) Áchárya

Bhāskara (1114–1185) also known as Bhāskarāchārya ("Bhāskara, the

teacher"), and as Bhaskara II to avoid confusion with Bhāskara I, was an Indian
mathematician and astronomer. He was born in Bijapur in Karnataka.
Bhāskara and his works represent a significant contribution to
mathematical and astronomical knowledge in the 12th century. He has been called the
greatest mathematician of medieval India. His main work Siddhānta Shiromani,
(Sanskrit for "Crown of Treatises") is divided into four parts called Lilāvatī, Bījagaṇita,
Grahagaṇita and Golādhyāya, which are also sometimes considered four independent
works.These four sections deal with arithmetic, algebra, mathematics of the planets,
and spheres respectively. He also wrote another treatise named Karaṇaa Kautūhala.
Bhāskara's work on calculus predates Newton and Leibniz by over half a
millennium. He is particularly known in the discovery of the principles of differential
calculus and its application to astronomical problems and computations. While Newton
and Leibniz have been credited with differential and integral calculus, there is strong
evidence to suggest that Bhāskara was a pioneer in some of the principles of differential
calculus. He was perhaps the first to conceive the differential coefficient and differential
calculus.
 On 20 November 1981 the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
launched the Bhaskara II satellite honouring the mathematician and astronomer.
Bhaskaracharya learnt mathematics from his father. After being introduced to the
works of a previous famous mathematician, Brahmagupta, Bhaskaracharya was so
inspired that he devoted himself to mathematics for the rest of his life. After his
daughter, Lilavati, was widowed at the age of six, he even influenced her to study
mathematics—it is not known, however, how great of a mathematician she became.
When it came to algebra, Bhaskaracharya followed Brahmagupta’s work closely as his
guru, and went about extending Brahmagupta’s works.
As a mathematician, Bhaskara represents the peak of mathematical and
astronomical knowledge in the twelfth century. As J. J. O’Connor and E. F. Robertson
stated in their article for the School of Mathematics and Statistics, “[Bhaskaracharya]
reached an understanding of the number systems and solving equations which was not
to be achieved in Europe for several centuries.” Bhaskaracharya was the first
mathematician to write a work with full and systematic use of the decimal number
system. His main work, written when he was only 30, includes the Siddhanta Siroman
(written in 1150), which was segmented into four—these were the Lilavati (dealing
with arithmetic), Bijaganita(Algebra), “Goladhyaya” (sphere), and “Grahaganita”
(mathematics of the planets). There are also “Karanakutuhala” or “Brahmatulya,” a
simplified version of the “Siddhanta Shiromani” and the “Vivarana,” a commentary on
the “Shishyadhividdhidatantra.”
The books written by Bhaskaracharya were essentially textbooks, and had been
simplified to help and stimulate student’s interests. The book became so well-known
that even four or five centuries after it was written, it was translated into Persian.
Bhaskaracharya was known as an original thinker. Dilip M. Salwi of Our
Scientists stated, “He was the first mathematician to declare confidently that any term
divided by zero is infinity and the sum of any term and infinity is infinity” (though we now
know that any term divided by zero is undefined). Still, he has made several major
contributions to the world of mathematics. He is the first to introduce Chakrawal, a cyclic
method of solving algebraic equations. In fact, it took six centuries after his finding for
European mathematicians such as Galois, Euler, and Lagrange to rediscover this
method and call it “inverse cyclic” method of solution.
Any trace of calculus first appeared in Bhaskaracharya’s works—Salwi stated,
“Determination of the area and volume of a sphere in a rough integral calculus manner
was also mentioned for the first time in his book. It contained important formulas and
theorems in trigonometry and permutation and combination.” Though unknown by most,
Bhaskaracharya can be considered the founder of differential calculus, for it was he who
founded such methods centuries before Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz came about
it. At his time, no one took note of his great achievements. In astronomy,
Bhaskaracharya is renowned for his concept of Tatkalikagati, instantaneous motion in
physical terms. This advance allows astronomers to accurately measure planetary
movements.
He wrote his second book, “Karanakutuhala,” at the age of 69. This consists of
various astronomical calculations and remains, to this day, a reference book in the
making the calendars based on astronomical happenings (analogical to horoscopes and
numerology based systems).
Legends
Lilavati, his book on arithmetic, is the source of interesting legends that assert
that it was written for his daughter, Lilavati. In one of these stories, found in a Persian
translation of Lilavati, Bhaskaracharya studied Lilavati's horoscope and predicted that
her husband would die soon after the marriage if the marriage did not take place at a
particular time. To prevent that, he placed a cup with a small hole at the bottom of a
vessel filled with water, arranged so that the cup would sink at the beginning of the
propitious hour. He put the device in a room with a warning to Lilavati to not go near it.
In her curiosity though, she went to look at the device and a pearl from her nose ring
accidentally dropped into it, thus upsetting it. The marriage took place at wrong time and
she was soon widowed.
Mathematics
Some of Bhaskara's contributions to mathematics include the following:
 A proof of the Pythagorean theorem by calculating the same area in two
different ways and then canceling out terms to get a2 + b2 = c2.
 In Lilavati, solutions of quadratic, cubic and quartic indeterminate equations.
 Solutions of indeterminate quadratic equations (of the type ax2 + b = y2).
 Integer solutions of linear and quadratic indeterminate equations (Kuttaka).
The rules he gives are (in effect) the same as those given by
the renaissance European mathematicians of the seventeenth century.
 A cyclic, Chakravala method for solving indeterminate equations of the
form ax2 + bx + c = y. The solution to this equation was traditionally attributed to
William Brouncker in 1657, though his method was more difficult than
the chakravala method.
 His method for finding the solutions of the problem x2 − ny2 = 1 (so-called
"Pell's equation") is of considerable interest and importance.
 Solutions of Diophantine equations of the second order, such as 61x2 + 1 = y2.
This very equation was posed as a problem in 1657 by the French mathematician
Pierre de Fermat, but its solution was unknown in Europe until the time of Euler in
the eighteenth century.
 Solved quadratic equations with more than one unknown, and found negative
and irrational solutions.
 Preliminary concept of mathematical analysis.
 Preliminary concept of infinitesimal calculus, along with notable contributions
towards integral calculus.
 He conceived differential calculus, after discovering the derivative and
differential coefficient.
 Stated Rolle's theorem, a special case of one of the most important theorems
in analysis, the mean value theorem. Traces of the general mean value theorem
are also found in his works.
 Calculated the derivatives of trigonometric functions and formulae. (See
Calculus section below.)
 In Siddhanta Shiromani, Bhaskara developed spherical trigonometry along
with a number of other trigonometrical results. (See Trigonometry section below.)
Arithmetic
Bhaskara's arithmetic text Lilavati covers the topics of definitions, arithmetical
terms, interest computation, arithmetical and geometrical progressions, plane geometry,
solid geometry, the shadow of the gnomon, methods to solve indeterminate equations,
and combinations.
Lilavati is divided into 13 chapters and covers many branches of mathematics,
arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and a little trigonometry and mensuration. More
specifically the contents include:
 Definitions.
 Properties of zero (including division, and rules of operations with zero).
 Further extensive numerical work, including use of negative numbers and
surds.
 Estimation of π.
 Arithmetical terms, methods of multiplication, and squaring.
 Inverse rule of three, and rules of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11.
 Problems involving interest and interest computation.
 Arithmetical and geometrical progressions.
 Plane geometry.
 Solid geometry.
 Permutations and combinations.
 Indeterminate equations (Kuttaka), integer solutions (first and second order).
His contributions to this topic are particularly important, since the rules he gives
are (in effect) the same as those given by the renaissance European
mathematicians of the seventeenth century, yet his work was of the twelfth
century. Bhaskara's method of solving was an improvement of the methods found
in the work of Aryabhata and subsequent mathematicians.
His work is outstanding for its systemization, improved methods and the new topics
that he has introduced. Furthermore the Lilavaticontained excellent recreative problems
and it is thought that Bhaskara's intention may have been that a student of 'Lilavati'
should concern himself with the mechanical application of the method.
Algebra
His Bijaganita ("Algebra") was a work in twelve chapters. It was the first text to
recognize that a positive number has two square roots (a positive and negative square
root). His work Bijaganita is effectively a treatise on algebra and contains the following
topics:
 Positive and negative numbers.
 Zero.
 The 'unknown' (includes determining unknown quantities).
 Determining unknown quantities.
 Surds (includes evaluating surds).
 Kuttaka (for solving indeterminate equations and Diophantine equations).
 Simple equations (indeterminate of second, third and fourth degree).
 Simple equations with more than one unknown.
 Indeterminate quadratic equations (of the type ax 2 + b = y2).
 Solutions of indeterminate equations of the second, third and fourth degree.
 Quadratic equations.
 Quadratic equations with more than one unknown.
 Operations with products of several unknowns.

Bhaskara derived a cyclic, chakravala method for solving indeterminate quadratic

equations of the form ax2 + bx + c = y. Bhaskara's method for finding the solutions of the
problem Nx2 + 1 = y2 (the so-called "Pell's equation") is of considerable importance.
He gave the general solutions of:
 Pell's equation using the chakravala method.
 The indeterminate quadratic equation using the chakravala method.
He also solved:
 Cubic equations.
 Quartic equations.
 Indeterminate cubic equations.
 Indeterminate quartic equations.
 Indeterminate higher-order polynomial equations.
Trigonometry
The Siddhanta Shiromani (written in 1150) demonstrates Bhaskara's knowledge of
trigonometry, including the sine table and relationships between different trigonometric
functions. He also discovered spherical trigonometry, along with other
interesting trigonometrical results. In particular Bhaskara seemed more interested in
trigonometry for its own sake than his predecessors who saw it only as a tool for
calculation. Among the many interesting results given by Bhaskara, discoveries first
found in his works include the now well known results for   and  :



Calculus
His work, the Siddhanta Shiromani, is an astronomical treatise and contains
many theories not found in earlier works. Preliminary concepts of infinitesimal calculus
and mathematical analysis, along with a number of results in trigonometry, differential
calculus and integral calculus that are found in the work are of particular interest.
 Evidence suggests Bhaskara was acquainted with some ideas of differential calculus.
It seems, however, that he did not understand the utility of his researches, and thus
historians of mathematics generally neglect his outstanding achievement. Bhaskara
also goes deeper into the 'differential calculus' and suggests the differential coefficient
vanishes at an extremum value of the function, indicating knowledge of the concept of
'infinitesimals'.[1]
 There is evidence of an early form of Rolle's theorem in his work:
o If   then   for some   with 
 He gave the result that if   then  ,
thereby finding the derivative of sine, although he never developed the general
concept of differentiation.[2]
o Bhaskara uses this result to work out the position angle of
the ecliptic, a quantity required for accurately predicting the time of an
eclipse.
 In computing the instantaneous motion of a planet, the time interval between
successive positions of the planets was no greater than a truti, or a fraction of a
second, and his measure of velocity was expressed in this infinitesimal unit of
time.
 He was aware that when a variable attains the maximum value, its differential
vanishes.
 He also showed that when a planet is at its farthest from the earth, or at its
closest, the equation of the center (measure of how far a planet is from the
position in which it is predicted to be, by assuming it is to move uniformly)
vanishes. He therefore concluded that for some intermediate position the
differential of the equation of the center is equal to zero. In this result, there are
traces of the general mean value theorem, one of the most important theorems in
analysis, which today is usually derived from Rolle's theorem. The mean value
theorem was later found by Parameshvara in the fifteenth century in the Lilavati
Bhasya, a commentary on Bhaskara's Lilavati.
Madhava (1340-1425) and the Kerala School mathematicians (including
Parameshvara) from the fourteenth century to the sixteenth century expanded on
Bhaskara's work and further advanced the development of calculus in India.
Astronomy
The study of astronomy in Bhaskara's works is based on the heliocentric solar
system of gravitation earlier propunded by Aryabhata in 499, where the planets follow
an elliptical orbit around the Sun, and the law of gravity described by Brahmagupta in
the seventh century. Bhaskara's contributions to astronomy include accurate
calculations of many astronomical results based on this heliocentric solar system of
gravitation. One of these contributions is his accurate calculation of the sidereal year,
the time taken for the Earth to orbit the Sun, as 365.2588 days. The modern accepted
measurement is 365.2596 days, a difference of just one minute (analyzed by naked
eyes and this accuracy is achieved in the absence of any sophisticated instrument).
 His mathematical astronomy text Siddhanta Shiromani is written in two parts: the
first part on mathematical astronomy and the second part on the sphere.
The twelve chapters of the first part cover topics such as:
 Mean longitudes of the planets.
 True longitudes of the planets.
 The three problems of diurnal rotation.
 Syzygies.
 Lunar eclipses.
 Solar eclipses.
 Latitudes of the planets.
 Risings and settings.
 The Moon's crescent.
 Conjunctions of the planets with each other.
 Conjunctions of the planets with the fixed stars.
 The patas of the Sun and Moon.
The second part contains thirteen chapters on the sphere. It covers topics such as:
 Praise of study of the sphere.
 Nature of the sphere.
 Cosmography and geography.
 Planetary mean motion.
 Eccentric epicyclic model of the planets.
 The armillary sphere.
 Spherical trigonometry.
 Ellipse calculations.
 First visibilities of the planets.
 Calculating the lunar crescent.
 Astronomical instruments.
 The seasons.
 Problems of astronomical calculations.
He also showed that when a planet is at its furthest from the Earth, or at its closest, the
equation of the centre (measure of how far a planet is from the position it is to be
predicted to be in by assuming it to movie uniformly) vanishes. He therefore concluded
that for some intermediate position the differential of the equation of the centre is equal
to zero.
Final Days
Bhaskara was a natural born teacher and mathematician. As is common at his time,
generations of a family would be mathematicians, with each father passing on
knowledge to their sons. Bhaskara himself passed on his knowledge to his son,
Loksamudra. Bhaskaracharya passed away in 1185 C.E. at Ujjain.

42. Blaise Pascal

 Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher,
who laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities.
Mathematician Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623, in Clermont-Ferrand,
France. In the 1640s he invented the Pascaline, an early calculator, and further
validated Evangelista Torricelli's theory concerning the cause of barometrical variations.
In the 1650s, Pascal laid the foundation of probability theory with Pierre de Fermat and
published the theological work Les Provinciales, a groundbreaking series of letters that
defended his Jansenist faith. Pascal is also widely known for his body of notes
posthumously released as the Pensées. He died in Paris on August 19, 1662.
In 1642, inspired by the idea of making his father's job of calculating taxes easier,
Blaise Pascal started work on a calculator dubbed the Pascaline. (German polymath
William Schickard had developed and manufactured an earlier version of the calculator
in 1623.) The Pascaline was a numerical wheel calculator with movable dials, each
representing a numerical digit. The invention, however, was not without its glitches:
There was a discrepancy between the calculator's design and the structure of French
currency at the time. Pascal continued to work on improving the device, with 50
prototypes produced by 1652, but the Pascaline was never a big seller.
In 1648, Pascal starting writing more of his theorems in The Generation of Conic
Sections, but he pushed the work aside until the following decade.
At the end of the 1640s, Pascal temporarily focused his experiments on the
physical sciences. Following in Evangelista Torricelli’s footsteps, Pascal experimented
with how atmospheric pressure could be estimated in terms of weight. In 1648, by
having his brother-in-law take readings of the barometric pressure at various altitudes
on a mountain (Pascal was too poor of health to make the trek himself), he validated
Torricelli's theory concerning the cause of barometrical variations.
In the 1650s, Pascal set about trying to create a perpetual motion machine, the
purpose of which was to produce more energy than it used. In the process, he stumbled
upon an accidental invention and in 1655 Pascal's roulette machine was born. Aptly, he
derived its name from the French word for "little wheel."
Overlapping his work on the roulette machine was Pascal's correspondence with
mathematical theorist Pierre de Fermat, which began in 1654. Through their letters
discussing gambling and Pascal's own experiments, he found that there is a fixed
likelihood of a particular outcome when it comes to the roll of the dice. This discovery
was the basis of the mathematical theory of probability, with Pascal's writings on the
subject published posthumously.
Although the specific dates are uncertain, Pascal also reportedly invented a
primitive form of the wristwatch. It was an informal invention to say the least: The
mathematician was known to strap his pocket watch to his wrist with a piece of string,
presumably for the sake of convenience while tinkering with other inventions.
Antoine Arnauld was a Sorbonne theologian who defended Jansenist beliefs, and
thus found his position under fire from papal doctrine and university faculty. Pascal
wrote a series of pseudonymous open letters from 1656-57 that ultimately came to be
known as Les Provinciales. The writings defended Arnauld and critiqued Jesuit beliefs
while exhibiting a groundbreaking style, relying on relatively tight, sharp prose with irony
and satire.
Starting in 1657, Pascal had also begun to write notes that would be
posthumously organized and published as the Pensées, going into great detail about
the contours of the thinker's position on his faith. The Pensées is an extensive work with
assertions that might be considered controversial to some in contemporary times. The
most oft cited portion of the collection is Pascal's famed "Wager," in which he states that
it is more advantageous for religious skeptics to embrace a belief in God as they
ultimately have more to lose if a higher power is revealed after death.
Pascal, a complex personality, was described by biographer Donald Adamson as
"precocious, stubbornly persevering, a perfectionist, pugnacious to the point of bullying
ruthlessness yet seeking to be meek and humble." Pascal had struggled with insomnia
and a digestive disorder from the time he was a teen, and as such he was known to
have suffered greatly from pain throughout his life. Over the years, Pascal’s constant
work took a further toll on his already fragile health.
Pascal died of a malignant stomach tumor at his sister Gilberte's home in Paris
on August 19, 1662. By then, the tumor had metastasized in his brain. He was 39 years
old.

43. Élie Joseph Cartan

 Élie Joseph Cartan (French: [kaʁtɑ̃]; 9 April 1869 – 6 May 1951) was an
influential French mathematician who did fundamental work in the theory of Lie groups
and their geometric applications. He also made significant contributions to mathematical
physics, differential geometry, and group theory. He was widely regarded as one of the
greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century. In addition, he was the father of
another influential mathematician, Henri Cartan, and the composer Jean Cartan.

In 1894 Cartan became a lecturer at the University of Montpellier, where he

studied the structure of continuous groups introduced by the noted Norwegian
mathematician Sophus Lie. He later examined theories of equivalence and their relation
to the theory of integral invariants, mechanics, and the general theory of relativity. After
he moved to the University of Lyon in 1896, he worked on linear associative algebra,
developing general theorems based on the work of Benjamin Peirce of Harvard and
exhibiting a subalgebra of the German mathematician Ferdinand Georg Frobenius. In
1912 Cartan became a professor at the Sorbonne, and a year later he discovered the
spinors, complex vectors that are used to transform three-dimensional rotations into
two-dimensional representations.

Although a profound theorist, Cartan was also able to explain difficult concepts to
the ordinary student. Recognition of his work did not come until late in his life. He was
made a member of the Academy of Sciences in France in 1931 and a fellow of the
Royal Society of London in 1947. His works include La Géométrie des espaces de
Riemann (1925; “The Geometry of Riemann Spaces”) and La Théorie des groupes
continus et des espaces généralisés (1935; “The Theory of Continuous Groups and
Generalized Spaces”).
By his own account, in his Notice sur les travaux scientifiques, the main theme of
his works (numbering 186 and published throughout the period 1893–1947) was the
theory of Lie groups. He began by working over the foundational material on the
complex simple Lie algebras, tidying up the previous work by Friedrich Engel and
Wilhelm Killing. This proved definitive, as far as the classification went, with the
identification of the four main families and the five exceptional cases. He also
introduced the algebraic group concept, which was not to be developed seriously before
1950.
 He defined the general notion of anti-symmetric differential form, in the style now
used; his approach to Lie groups through the Maurer–Cartan equations required 2-
forms for their statement. At that time what were called Pfaffian systems (i.e. first-order
differential equations given as 1-forms) were in general use; by the introduction of fresh
variables for derivatives, and extra forms, they allowed for the formulation of quite
general PDE systems. Cartan added the exterior derivative, as an entirely geometric
and coordinate-independent operation. It naturally leads to the need to discuss p-forms,
of general degree p. Cartan writes of the influence on him of Charles Riquier’s general
PDE theory.
With these basics — Lie groups and differential forms — he went on to produce a
very large body of work, and also some general techniques such as moving frames, that
were gradually incorporated into the mathematical mainstream.
In the Travaux, he breaks down his work into 15 areas. Using modern terminology,
they are these:

1. Lie theory
2. Representations of Lie groups
3. Hypercomplex numbers, division algebras
4. Systems of PDEs, Cartan–Kähler theorem
5. Theory of equivalence
6. Integrable systems, theory of prolongation and systems in involution
7. Infinite-dimensional groups and pseudogroups
8. Differential geometry and moving frames
9. Generalised spaces with structure groups and connections, Cartan connection,
holonomy, Weyl tensor
10. Geometry and topology of Lie groups
11. Riemannian geometry
12. Symmetric spaces
13. Topology of compact groups and their homogeneous spaces
14. Integral invariants and classical mechanics
15. Relativity, spinors

44. Archytas of Tarentum

 Archytas (/ˈɑːrkɪtəs/; Greek: Ἀρχύτας; 428–347 BC) was an Ancient
Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and strategist. He was a
scientist of the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed founder of
mathematical mechanics, as well as a good friend of Plato.
A member of the second generation of followers of Pythagoras, the Greek
philosopher who stressed the significance of numbers in explaining all phenomena,
Archytas sought to combine empirical observation with Pythagorean theory. In
geometry, he solved the problem of doubling the cube by an ingenious construction in
solid geometry using the intersection of a cone, a sphere, and a cylinder. (Earlier,
Hippocrates of Chios showed that if a cube of side a is given and b and c are line
segments such that a:b = b:c = c:2a, then a cube of side b has twice the volume, as
required. Archytas’s construction showed how, given a, to construct the segments b and
c with the proper proportions.)
Archytas also applied the theory of proportions to musical harmony. Thus, he
showed that if n and n + 1 are any two consecutive whole numbers, then there is no
rational number b such that n:b = b:(n + 1); he was thus able to define intervals of pitch
in the enharmonic scale in addition to those already known in the chromatic and diatonic
scales. Rejecting earlier views that the pitch of notes sounded on a stringed instrument
is related to the length or tension of the strings, he correctly showed instead that pitch is
related to the movement of vibrating air. However, he incorrectly asserted that the
speed at which the vibrations travel to the ear is a factor in determining pitch.
Archytas’s reputation as a scientist and mathematician rests on his achievements
in geometry, acoustics, and music theory, rather than on his extremely idealistic
explanations of human relations and the nature of society according to Pythagorean
number theory. Nonmathematical writings usually attributed to him, including a fragment
on legal justice, are most likely the work of other authors.
The Archytas curve is created by placing a semicircle (with a diameter of d) on
the diameter of one of the two circles of a cylinder (which also has a diameter of d) such
that the plane of the semicircle is at right angles to the plane of the circle and then
rotating the semicircle about one of its ends in the plane of the cylinder's diameter. This
rotation will cut out a portion of the cylinder forming the Archytas curve.
 Another way of thinking of this construction is that the Archytas curve is basically
the result of cutting out a torus formed by rotating a hemisphere of diameter d out of a
cylinder also of diameter d. A cone can go through the same procedures also producing
the Archytas curve. Archytas used his curve to determine the construction of a cube
with a volume of one third of that of a given cube.
One of Archytas' most notable accomplishments comes in the form of a
mathematical solution to The Delian Problem, more informally known as doubling the
cube. The problem is as follows: given a cube that a side is known, construct a cube
with double the original volume. The proof of his model comes from Eudemus, who in
the late 4th century wrote a history of geometry, including solutions to this problem from
multiple mathematicians and philosophers before him- namely Eudoxus and
Menaechmus. Although Eudemus' work did not survive to current day, a transmission of
his geometric solution does survive in the form of Eutocius' commentary on Archimedes'
De Sphaera et Cylindro. Archytas' solution begins with the concept of mean
proportionality and the construction of four similar triangles. Each triangle's hypotenuse
and long leg are proportionally similar as the triangle increase in size, which is
essentially today's version of similarity of triangles. Archytas then applied the mean
proportionals for a given length of a cube. If the volume of the original cube is written as
V1 = x3, where x represents the length of a side, we let k1 and k2 represent the
proportionality constants, and the cube is then doubled so that a side length is now 2x,
a mean proportional between the two can be written as . With the proportionals finished,
Archytas completed the solution to his similar triangles as follows: If you cube the
proportion of the original length of the side and solve using the mean proportional set,
the solution comes to After using light algebra, where the k1 variable represents the
edge of the newly doubled cube.
By the time of his analysis, it was known from the Pythagorean diatonic scale
that whole numbers alone accounted for musical intervals on a scale. Archytas's work
on musical scales included a thorough proof that no mean proportional numbers, like
the ones used in his solving of the double cube problem, exist between basic music
intervals (the difference in pitch between two sounds). This is to say that the basic
interval, does not include any mean proportional number, and cannot then be divided in
half. The octave can be doubled without violating this rule, as multiplying a whole
number by 2 will always result in a whole number, and can therefore be equated by two
mean proportional ratios.
Due to the severe scarcity of resources for Archytas' direct work, it is difficult to
pinpoint his exact thoughts on the universe. Through Eudemus and later Simplicius'
commentary, however, his thought experiment in regards to the size of the universe
remain intact to current day. The experiment is credited as being an influential spark
though the early ages, even though Plato nor Aristotle bought the argument. In his
experiment for others to participate and decide for themselves, Archytas tells of a
scenario in which he is at the effective edge of the fixed stars. He says that if he
outreaches his arm, or his stick (staff), that his hand will push the limit of what the edge
is. He is then free to move into the newly created space and outstretch his staff once
more, thus increasing the limit of space. With his argument, he attested that space, the
region of the fixed stars, is infinite. This thought persisted even through modern day,
although it is important to note that his model has a defined edge, whereas some
current models do not account for a defined edge of space.

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2','ezslot_3',106,'0','0']));Bhāskara II. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bhāskara_II.
 Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.famousscientists.org/muhammad-ibn-
musa-al-khwarizmi/.
 PeoplePill. (n.d.). Élie Cartan: French mathematician (1869-1951) - Biography,
Life, Family, Career, Facts, Information. Retrieved from
https://peoplepill.com/people/elie-cartan/.
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2017, February 1). Archytas of
Tarentum. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Archytas-of-
Tarentum.
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019, May 2). Élie-Joseph Cartan.
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elie-Joseph-Cartan.
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019, August 16). Al-Khwārizmī.
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Khwarizmi.
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019, October 2). Richard Dedekind.
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Dedekind.
 Who was Felix Christian Klein? Everything You Need to Know. (n.d.). Retrieved
from https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/felix-christian-klein-506.php.
 Who was Richard Dedekind? Everything You Need to Know. (n.d.). Retrieved
from https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/richard-dedekind-501.php.
Reported by: Toledana, Philip Gabriel S.

45. Godfrey Harold Hardy (1877-1947) England

 Hardy was an extremely prolific research

mathematician who did important work in
analysis (especially the theory of integration),
number theory, global analysis, and analytic
number theory. He proved several important
theorems about numbers, for example that
Riemann's zeta function has infinitely many
zeros with real part 1/2.
 He was also an excellent teacher and wrote
several excellent textbooks, as well as a famous
treatise on the mathematical mind. He abhorred
applied mathematics, treating mathematics as a
creative art; yet his work has found application in
population genetics, cryptography,
thermodynamics and particle physics.
 Hardy is especially famous (and important) for his encouragement of and
collaboration with Ramanujan. Hardy provided rigorous proofs for several of
Ramanujan's conjectures, including Ramanujan's "Master Theorem" of analysis.
 Among other results of this collaboration was the Hardy-Ramanujan Formula for
partition enumeration, which Hardy later used as a model to develop the Hardy-
Littlewood Circle Method; Hardy then used this method to prove stronger
versions of the Hilbert-Waring Theorem, and in prime number theory; the method
has continued to be a very productive tool in analytic number theory. Hardy was
also a mentor to Norbert Wiener, another famous prodigy.
 Hardy once wrote "A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns.
If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with
ideas." He also wrote "Beauty is the first test; there is no permanent place in the
world for ugly mathematics."

46. Mohammed ibn al-Hasn (Alhazen) `Abu Ali' ibn al-Haytham al-Basra (965-
1039) Iraq, Egypt
 Al-Hassan ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) made contributions to math, optics, and
astronomy which eventually influenced Roger Bacon, Regiomontanus, da Vinci,
Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Huygens, Descartes and Wallis, thus affecting
Europe's Scientific Revolution.
  While Aristotle thought vision arose from rays sent
from the eye to the viewed object, and Ptolemy
thought light rays originated from objects, Alhazen
understand that an object's light is reflected
sunlight. He's been called the best scientist of the
Middle Ages; his Book of Optics has been called
the most important physics text prior to Newton; his writings
in physics anticipate the Principle of Least Action, Newton's
First Law of Motion, and the notion that white light is
composed of the color spectrum. (Like Newton,
he favored a particle theory of light over the
wave theory of Aristotle.)
 His other achievements in optics include improved lens design, an analysis of the
camera obscura, Snell's Law, an early explanation for the rainbow, a correct
deduction from refraction of atmospheric thickness, and experiments on visual
perception. He studied optical illusions and was first to explain psychologically
why the Moon appears to be larger when near the horizon. He also did work in
human anatomy and medicine.
 Alhazen has been called the "Father of Modern Optics," the "Founder of
Experimental Psychology" (mainly for his work with optical illusions), and,
because he emphasized hypotheses and experiments, "The First Scientist."
 In number theory, Alhazen worked with perfect numbers, Mersenne primes, and
the Chinese Remainder Theorem. He stated Wilson's Theorem (which is
sometimes called Al-Haytham's Theorem). Alhazen introduced the Power Series
Theorem (later attributed to Jacob Bernoulli).
 His best mathematical work was with plane and solid geometry, especially conic
sections; he calculated the areas of lunes, volumes of paraboloids, and
constructed a regular heptagon using intersecting parabolas. He solved
Alhazen's Billiard Problem (originally posed as a problem in mirror design), a
difficult construction which continued to intrigue several great mathematicians
including Huygens. To solve it, Alhazen needed to anticipate Descartes' analytic
geometry, anticipate Bézout's Theorem, tackle quartic equations and develop a
rudimentary integral calculus. Alhazen's attempts to prove the Parallel Postulate
make him (along with Thabit ibn Qurra) one of the earliest mathematicians to
investigate non-Euclidean geometry.

47. Jean-Baptiste le Rond d' Alembert (1717-1783) France

 During the century after Newton, the Laws of Motion needed to be clarified and
augmented with mathematical techniques. Jean le Rond, named after the
Parisian church where he was abandoned as a baby, played a very key role in
that development.
  His D'Alembert's Principle clarified Newton's Third
Law and allowed problems in dynamics to be
expressed with simple partial differential equations;
his Method of Characteristics then reduced those
equations to ordinary differential equations; to solve
the resultant linear systems, he effectively invented
the method of eigenvalues; he also anticipated the
Cauchy-Riemann Equations.
 These are the same techniques in use for many
problems in physics to this day. D'Alembert was also
a forerunner in functions of a complex variable, and
the notions of infinitesimals and limits. With his treatises on dynamics, elastic
collisions, hydrodynamics, cause of winds, vibrating strings, celestial motions,
refraction, etc., the young Jean le Rond easily surpassed the efforts of his older
rival, Daniel Bernoulli. He may have been first to speak of time as a "fourth
dimension." (Rivalry with the Swiss mathematicians led to d'Alembert's
sometimes being unfairly ridiculed, although it does seem true that d'Alembert
had very incorrect notions of probability.)
 D'Alembert was first to prove that every polynomial has a complex root; this is
now called the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. (In France this Theorem is
called the D'Alembert-Gauss Theorem. Although Gauss was first to provide a
fully rigorous proof, d'Alembert's proof preceded, and was more nearly complete
than, the attempted proof by Euler-Lagrange.)
 He also did creative work in geometry (e.g. anticipating Monge's Three Circle
Theorem), and was principal creator of the major encyclopedia of his day.
D'Alembert wrote "The imagination in a mathematician who creates makes no
less difference than in a poet who invents."

48. Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel (1871-1956) France

 Borel exhibited great talent while still in his teens,
soon practically founded modern measure theory,
and received several honors and prizes. Among his
famous theorems is the Heine-Borel Covering
Theorem.
 He also did important work in several other fields of
mathematics, including divergent series, quasi-
analytic functions, differential equations, number
theory, complex analysis, theory of functions,
geometry, probability theory, and game theory.
 Relating measure theory to probabilities, he
introduced concepts like normal numbers and the
Borel-Kolmogorov paradox. He also did work in
 relativity and the philosophy of science. He anticipated the concept of chaos,
inspiring Poincaré. Borel combined great creativity with strong analytic power;
however he was especially interested in applications, philosophy, and education,
so didn't pursue the tedium of rigorous development and proof; for this reason his
great importance as a theorist is often underestimated.
 Borel was decorated for valor in World War I, entered politics between the Wars,
and joined the French Resistance during World War II.

49. Julius Plücker (1801-1868) Germany

 Plücker was one of the most innovative geometers,
inventing line geometry (extending the atoms of
geometry beyond just points), enumerative geometry
(which considered such questions as the number of
loops in an algebraic curve), geometries of more than
three dimensions, and generalizations of projective
geometry.
 He also gave an improved theoretic basis for the
Principle of Duality. His novel methods and notations
were important to the development of modern analytic
geometry, and inspired Cayley, Klein and Lie. He
resolved the famous Cramer-Euler Paradox and the
related Poncelet Paradox by studying the singularities of curves; Cayley
described this work as "most important ... beyond all comparison in the entire
subject of modern geometry."
 In part due to conflict with his more famous rival, Jakob Steiner, Plücker was
under-appreciated in his native Germany, but achieved fame in France and
England. In addition to his mathematical work in algebraic and analytic geometry,
Plücker did significant work in physics, e.g. his work with cathode rays. Although
less brilliant as a theorem prover than Steiner, Plücker's work, taking full
advantage of analysis and seeking physical applications, was far more influential.

49. Hipparchus of Nicaea and Rhodes (ca 190-127 BC) Greek domain
 Ptolemy may be the most famous astronomer
before Copernicus, but he borrowed heavily from
Hipparchus, who should thus be considered (along
with Galileo and Edwin Hubble) to be one of the
three greatest astronomers ever.
 Careful study of the errors in the catalogs of
Ptolemy and Hipparchus reveal both that Ptolemy
 borrowed his data from Hipparchus, and that Hipparchus used principles of
spherical trig to simplify his work.
 Classical Hindu astronomers, including the 6th-century genius Aryabhata, borrow
much from Ptolemy and Hipparchus.
 Hipparchus is called the "Father of Trigonometry"; he developed spherical
trigonometry, produced trig tables, and more. He produced at least fourteen texts
of physics and mathematics nearly all of which have been lost, but which seem to
have had great teachings, including much of Newton's Laws of Motion.
 In one obscure surviving work he demonstrates familiarity with the combinatorial
enumeration method now called Schröder's Numbers. He invented the circle-
conformal stereographic and orthographic map projections which carry his name.
 As an astronomer, Hipparchus is credited with the discovery of equinox
precession, length of the year, thorough star catalogs, and invention of the
armillary sphere and perhaps the astrolabe. He had great historical influence in
Europe, India and Persia, at least if credited also with Ptolemy's influence.
(Hipparchus himself was influenced by Babylonian astronomers.) Hipparchus'
work implies a better approximation to π than that of Apollonius, perhaps it was π
≈ 377/120 as Ptolemy used.
 The Antikythera mechanism is an astronomical clock considered amazing for its
time. It may have been built about the time of Hipparchus' death, but lost after a
few decades (remaining at the bottom of the sea for 2000 years). The
mechanism implemented the complex orbits which Hipparchus had developed to
explain irregular planetary motions; it's not unlikely the great genius helped
design this intricate analog computer, which may have been built in Rhodes
where Hipparchus spent his final decades.

51. Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903-1987) Russia

 Kolmogorov had a powerful intellect and excelled in

many fields. As a youth he dazzled his teachers by
constructing toys that appeared to be "Perpetual
Motion Machines."
 At the age of 19, he achieved fame by finding a
Fourier series that diverges almost everywhere,
and decided to devote himself to mathematics. He
is considered the founder of the fields of
intuitionistic logic, algorithmic complexity theory,
and (by applying measure theory) modern
probability theory. He also excelled in topology, set theory, trigonometric series,
and random processes.
 He and his student Vladimir Arnold proved the surprising Superposition Theorem,
which not only solved Hilbert's 13th Problem, but went far beyond it. He and
 Arnold also developed the "magnificent" Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM)
Theorem, which quantifies how strong a perturbation must be to upset a
quasiperiodic dynamical system. Kolmogorov's axioms of probability are
considered a partial solution of Hilbert's 6th Problem.
 He made important contributions to the constructivist ideas of Kronecker and
Brouwer. While Kolmogorov's work in probability theory had direct applications to
physics, Kolmogorov also did work in physics directly, especially the study of
turbulence.
 There are dozens of notions named after Kolmogorov, such as the Kolmogorov
Backward Equation, the Chapman-Kolmogorov equations, the Borel-Kolmogorov
Paradox, and the intriguing Zero-One Law of "tail events" among random
variables.

52. Joseph Liouville (1809-1882) France

 Liouville did expert research in several areas
including number theory, differential geometry,
complex analysis (especially Sturm-Liouville
theory, boundary value problems and dynamical
analysis), harmonic functions, topology and
mathematical physics.
 Several theorems bear his name, including the
key result that any bounded entire function must
be constant; important results in differential
equations, differential algebra, differential
geometry; a key result about conformal mappings;
and an invariance law about trajectories in phase
space which leads to the Second Law of
Thermodynamics and is key to Hamilton's work in physics. He was first to prove
the existence of transcendental numbers.
 He invented Liouville integrability and fractional calculus; he found a new proof of
the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity. In addition to multiple Liouville Theorems, there
are two "Liouville Principles": a fundamental result in differential algebra, and a
fruitful theorem in number theory. Liouville was hugely prolific in number theory
but this work is largely overlooked, e.g. the following remarkable generalization of
Aryabhata's identity: for all N, Σ (da3) = (Σ da)2
where da is the number of divisors of a, and the sums are taken over all divisors a of
N.
 Liouville established an important journal; influenced Catalan, Jordan,
Chebyshev, Hermite; and helped promote other mathematicians' work, especially
that of Évariste Galois, whose important results were almost unknown until
 Liouville clarified them. In 1851 Augustin Cauchy was bypassed to give a
prestigious professorship to Liouville instead.

53. Eudoxus of Cnidus (408-355 BC) Greek domain

 Eudoxus journeyed widely for his education,
despite that he was not wealthy, studying
mathematics with Archytas in Tarentum, medicine
with Philiston in Sicily, philosophy with Plato in
Athens, continuing his mathematics study in
Egypt, touring the Eastern Mediterranean with his
own students and finally returned to Cnidus
where he established himself as astronomer,
physician, and ethicist.
 What is known of him is second-hand, through
the writings of Euclid and others, but he was one
of the most creative mathematicians of the
ancient world.
 Many of the theorems in Euclid's Elements were first proved by Eudoxus. While
Pythagoras had been horrified by the discovery of irrational numbers, Eudoxus is
famous for incorporating them into arithmetic. He also developed the earliest
techniques of the infinitesimal calculus; Archimedes credits Eudoxus with
inventing a principle eventually called the Axiom of Archimedes: it avoids Zeno's
paradoxes by, in effect, forbidding infinities and infinitesimals. Eudoxus' work with
irrational numbers, infinitesimals and limits eventually inspired masters like
Dedekind.
 Eudoxus also introduced an Axiom of Continuity; he was a pioneer in solid
geometry; and he developed his own solution to the Delian cube-doubling
problem. Eudoxus was the first great mathematical astronomer; he developed
the complicated ancient theory of planetary orbits; and may have invented the
astrolabe.
 He may have invented the 365.25-day calendar based on leap years, though it
remained for Julius Caesar to popularize it. (It is sometimes said that he knew
that the Earth rotates around the Sun, but that appears to be false; it is instead
Aristarchus of Samos, as cited by Archimedes, who is often called the first
"heliocentrist.") One of Eudoxus' students was Menaechmus, who was first to
describe the conic sections and used them to devise a non-Platonic solution to
the cube-doubling problem (and perhaps the circle-squaring problem as well).
 Four of Eudoxus' most famous discoveries were the volume of a cone, extension
of arithmetic to the irrationals, summing formula for geometric series, and viewing
π as the limit of polygonal perimeters. None of these seems difficult today, but it
does seem remarkable that they were all first achieved by the same man.
  Eudoxus has been quoted as saying "Willingly would I burn to death like
Phaeton, were this the price for reaching the sun and learning its shape, its size
and its substance."

Reported by: Trono, Kobe Dylan Y.

54. F. Gotthold Max Eisenstein

 F. Gotthold Max Eisenstein is a German mathematician who made important

contributions to number theory. Eisenstein’s family converted to Protestantism
from Judaism just before his birth.
 He was the oldest of six children and the only one of them to survive childhood
meningitis.
 Eisenstein enrolled at the Friedrich Wilhelm University (now the Humboldt
University of Berlin) in 1843 and the following year published 25 papers in August
Leopold Crelle’s prestigious mathematical journal.
 Crelle presented him to the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who became his
lifelong mentor and sponsor.
 Humboldt in turn encouraged an exchange of correspondence with
mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss, who wrote a preface to the
first edition of Eisenstein’s Mathematische Abhandlungen (1847; “Mathematical
Treatises”).
  Eisenstein became a professor of mathematics at Berlin in 1847 and was elected
to the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (now the Berlin-
Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities) shortly before his death.\

55. Jacob Bernoulli

 Jacob Bernoulli is the first of the Bernoulli family of Swiss mathematicians.

 He introduced the first principles of the calculus of variation. Bernoulli numbers, a
concept that he developed, were named for him.
 In 1690 Bernoulli became the first to use the term integral in examining a curve of
descent.
 His 1691 study of the catenary, or the curve formed by a chain suspended
between its two extremities, was soon applied in the building of suspension
bridges.
 In 1695 he also applied calculus to the design of bridges. During these years, he
often engaged in disputes with his brother Johann Bernoulli over mathematical
issues.

56. Stefan Banach

  Stefan Banach is a Polish mathematician who founded modern functional
analysis and helped develop the theory of topological vector spaces.
 Banach apparently worked his way through the engineering school at the Lvov
Technical University from 1910 to 1914.
 At the end of the war several mathematical papers that Banach had worked on in
his spare time were published and resulted in his being offered an assistantship
at Lvov Technical University in 1920.
 Awarded a doctorate by the University of Lvov in 1922, Banach began his lifelong
affiliation with the university, building a school of mathematics and founding an
important new mathematics journal, Studia Mathematica, in 1929.
 Of his published works, his Théorie des opérations linéaires (1932; “Theory of
Linear Operations”) is the most important.
 Banach himself introduced the concept of normed linear spaces, which are now
known as Banach spaces.

57. Jacques Hadamard

  Jacques Hadamard is a French mathematician who proved the prime number
theorem.
 He chose to study mathematics at the École Normale Supérieure, receiving a
bachelor’s degree in 1888 and a doctorate in 1892.
 He was awarded the Grand Prix des Sciences Mathématiques for his paper
“Determination of the Number of Primes Less than a Given Number”.
 Hadamard’s early work contained many important contributions to the theory of
functions of a complex variable, in particular to the general theory of integral
functions and to the theory of the singularities of functions represented by
Taylor’s series.

58. Giuseppe Peano

  Giuseppe Peano is an Italian mathematician and a founder of symbolic logic
whose interests centred on the foundations of mathematics and on the
development of a formal logical language.
 Peano became a lecturer of infinitesimal calculus at the University of Turin in
1884 and a professor in 1890.
 He also held the post of professor at the Accademia Militare in Turin from 1886 to
1901.
 His Formulaire de mathématiques (Italian Formulario mathematico,
“Mathematical Formulary”), published from 1894 to 1908 with collaborators, was
intended to develop mathematics in its entirety from its fundamental postulates
 Peano’s Calcolo differenziale e principii di calcolo integrale (1884; “Differential
Calculus and Principles of Integral Calculus”) and Lezioni di analisi infinitesimale,
2 vol. (1893; “Lessons of Infinitesimal Analysis”), are two of the most important
works on the development of the general theory of functions since the work of the
French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy.

59. Panini of Shalatula

 Panini's great accomplishment was his study of the Sanskrit language, especially
in his text Ashtadhyayi.
  Although this work might be considered the very first study of linguistics or
grammar, it used a non-obvious elegance that would not be equalled in the West
until the 20th century.
 Linguistics may seem an unlikely qualification for a "great mathematician," but
language theory is a field of mathematics.
 Panini's systematic study of Sanskrit may have inspired the development of
Indian science and algebra.
 Panini has been called "the Indian Euclid" since the rigor of his grammar is
comparable to Euclid's geometry.
 He was the very last Vedic Sanskrit scholar by definition: his text formed the
transition to the Classic Sanskrit period. Panini has been called "one of the most
innovative people in the whole development of knowledge."

60. Andre Weil

 Andre Weil is a French mathematician who was one of the most influential
figures in mathematics during the 20th century, particularly in number theory and
algebraic geometry.
  Weil and Jean Dieudonné were chiefly responsible for Bourbaki’s interest in the
history of mathematics, and Weil wrote on it extensively toward the end of his
career.
 Weil made fundamental contributions to algebraic geometry—at that time a
subject mostly contributed to by members of the “Italian school” but being
reformulated along algebraic lines by Bartel van der Waerden and Oscar Zariski
—and algebraic topology.
 The Weil conjectures generated many new ideas in algebraic topology. Their
importance can be gauged by the fact that the Belgian mathematician Pierre
Deligne was awarded a Fields Medal in 1978 in part for having proved one of the
conjectures.

61. Jean-Pierre Serre

 Jean-Pierre Serre is a French mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal
in 1954 for his work in algebraic topology.
 Serre was awarded the Fields Medal at the International Congress of
Mathematicians in Amsterdam in 1954.
  Serre’s mathematical contributions leading up to the Fields Medal were largely in
the field of algebraic topology, but his later work ranged widely—in algebraic
geometry, group theory, and especially number theory.
 An elegant writer of mathematics, Serre published Groupes algébriques et corps
de classes (1959; Algebraic Groups and Class Fields); Corps locaux (1962;
Local Fields); Lie Algebras and Lie Groups (1965); Abelian l-adic
Representations and Elliptic Curves (1968), etc.

62. Jakob Steiner

 Jakob Steiner is a Swiss mathematician who was one of the founders of modern
synthetic and projective geometry.
 During his lifetime some considered Steiner the greatest geometer since
Apollonius of Perga (c. 262–190 BCE), and his works on synthetic geometry
were considered authoritative.
 Steiner contributed many basic concepts and results in projective geometry.
 Steiner never published these and other findings concerning the surface. A
colleague, Karl Weierstrass, first published a paper on the surface and Steiner’s
results in 1863, the year of Steiner’s death.
 Steiner’s other work was primarily on the properties of algebraic curves and
surfaces and on the solution of isoperimetric problems. His collected writings
 were published posthumously as Gesammelte Werke, 2 vol. (1881–82;
“Collected Works”).

Reported by: Unggayan, Joanarhel F.

63. Marius Sophus Lie

• Norwegian mathematician who founded the theory of continuous groups and

their applications to the theory of differential equations. His investigations led to one of
the major branches of 20th-century mathematics, the theory of Lie groups and Lie
algebras.

• His interest in geometry deepened in 1868 and resulted in his first mathematical
paper being published in Crelle’s Journal in 1869. Awarded a scholarship to travel
abroad, Lie immediately went to the University of Berlin, where he soon began an
intense collaboration with the German mathematician Felix Klein. They were working
together in Paris on a unified view of geometry, among other topics.

• When Lie decided to leave for Italy in August, after the French army suffered a
major defeat, he was arrested near Fontainebleau and detained as a German spy—his
mathematical notes were taken for coded dispatches. Freed one month later through
the efforts of the French mathematician Jean-Gaston Darboux, he returned to Berlin by
way of Italy.

• In 1871 Lie became an assistant tutor at Kristiania and submitted his doctoral
dissertation on the theory of contact transformations. Appointed extraordinary professor
in 1872, he began to research continuous transformation groups in 1873.
• After working in virtual isolation for more than 10 years, Lie was joined by the
German mathematician Friedrich Engel, Lie published Theorie der
Transformationsgruppen, 3 vol. (1888–93; “Theory of Transformation Groups”), which
contains his investigations of the general theory of continuous groups.

• In 1898 Lie returned to Kristiania to accept a special post created for him, but his
health was already failing and he died soon after his arrival. Besides his development of
transformation groups, he made contributions to differential geometry; his primary aim,
however, was the advancement of the theory of differential equations. Lie’s
mathematical papers are contained in Gesammelte Abhandlungen, 7 vol. (1922–60;
“Collected Works”).

64. F.L. Gottlob Frege

• Gottlob Frege, (born November 8, 1848, Wismar, Mecklenburg-Schwerin—died

July 26, 1925, Bad Kleinen, Germany), German mathematician and logician, who
founded modern mathematical logic. Working on the borderline between philosophy and
mathematics, Frege discovered, on his own, the fundamental ideas that have made
possible the whole modern development of logic and thereby invented an entire
discipline.

• Frege entered the University of Jena in 1869, where he studied for two years,
and then went to the University of Göttingen for a further two—in mathematics, physics,
chemistry, and philosophy. Frege spent the whole of his working life as a teacher of
mathematics at Jena: he became a Privatdozent, was made an ausserordentlicher
Professor (associate professor), and became statutory professor of mathematics.

• A great many of his publications, however, were expressly philosophical in

character: he himself once said, “Every good mathematician is at least half a
philosopher, and every good philosopher at least half a mathematician.” He kept aloof
from his students and even more aloof from his colleagues.

• Though Frege was married, his wife died during World War I, leaving him no
children of his own. There was an adopted son, Alfred, however, who became an
engineer.

65. Christiaan Huygens

• Christiaan Huygens was born in 1629 to a poet father, Constantijn Huygens, who
was an important diplomat for the Princes of Orange. His mother was Suzanne van
Baerle. As a child, Christiaan Huygens was educated by private tutors and he then
studied law in Leiden and Brenda. He soon realized that he was more interested in
mathematics, physics and astronomy. As a child, Huygens loved to experiment with
windmills and other machines and to watch the ripples produced by throwing a stone
into water.

• Christiaan Huygens made many extraordinary contributions in diverse fields. His

efforts in mathematics included his work on the calculus of probabilities and showed the
fallacy in methods claiming to have squared the circle. As a fan of Descartes, Huygens
preferred to carry out new experiments himself for observing and formulating laws.

• In physics, he contributed towards the landmark Huygens-Fresnel principle which

applies to wave propagation. He also extensively researched free fall. He proved by
experiment the law of conservation of momentum. He derived the law of centrifugal
force for uniform circular motion.

• In the early 1650’s Christiaan started to grind lenses for microscopes and
astronomical telescopes. During his observations of Saturn, he discovered a new
satellite orbiting Saturn which he named Titan. This was the first moon of the planet
ever to be detected. He also noticed Saturn’s “ears” and deduced that he was viewing a
ring around the planet.

• Work in astronomy required accurate timekeeping and so Huygens became

interested in clocks. In 1656 he patented his first design for a pendulum clock. His book
“Horologium Oscillatorium sive de motu pendulorum” in 1673 described the theory of
pendulum motion. Huygens also improved sea clocks, which proved to be very helpful
in determining the position of ships at sea. In 1662 he invented the “Huygens eyepiece”,
a compound eyepiece for a telescope using multiple lenses. Huygen developed a wave
theory for light which was published in 1678 and he calculated the laws of reflection and
refraction.

66. François Viète

• François Viète (or Franciscus Vieta) was a French nobleman and lawyer who
was a favorite of King Henry IV and eventually became a royal privy councilor. In one
notable accomplishment he broke the Spanish diplomatic code, allowing the French
government to read Spain's messages and publish a secret Spanish letter; this
apparently led to the end of the Huguenot Wars of Religion.

• More importantly, Vieta was certainly the best French mathematician prior to
Descartes and Fermat. He laid the groundwork for modern mathematics; his works were
the primary teaching for both Descartes and Fermat; Isaac Newton also studied Vieta.
In his role as a young tutor Vieta used decimal numbers before they were popularized
by Simon Stevin and may have guessed that planetary orbits were ellipses before
Kepler.

• Vieta did work in geometry, reconstructing and publishing proofs for Apollonius'
lost theorems, including all ten cases of the general Problem of Apollonius. Vieta also
used his new algebraic techniques to construct a regular heptagon. He discovered
several trigonometric identities including a generalization of Ptolemy's Formula, the
latter (then called prosthaphaeresis) providing a calculation shortcut similar to
logarithms in that multiplication is reduced to addition (or exponentiation reduced to
multiplication).

• Vieta also used trigonometry to find real solutions to cubic equations for which
the Italian methods had required complex-number arithmetic; he also used trigonometry
to solve a particular 45th-degree equation that had been posed as a challenge. Such
trigonometric formulae revolutionized calculations and may even have helped stimulate
the development and use of logarithms by Napier and Kepler.

• He developed the first infinite-product formula for π. In addition to his geometry

and trigonometry, he also found results in number theory, but Vieta is most famous for
his systematic use of decimal notation and variable letters, for which he is sometimes
called the "Father of Modern Algebra." (Vieta used A,E,I,O,U for unknowns and
consonants for parameters; it was Descartes who first used X,Y,Z for unknowns and
A,B,C for parameters.) In his works Vieta emphasized the relationships between
algebraic expressions and geometric constructions. One key insight he had is that
addends must be homogeneous (i.e., "apples shouldn't be added to oranges"), a
seemingly trivial idea but which can aid intuition even today.

67. M.E. Camille Jordan

• Camille Jordan's father, Esprit-Alexandre Jordan (1800-1888), was an engineer
who had been educated at the École Polytechnique. Camille's mother, Joséphine Puvis
de Chavannes, was the sister of the famous painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes who
was the foremost French mural painter of the second half of the 19th century. Camille's
father's family were also quite well known; a grand-uncle also called Ennemond-Camille
Jordan (1771-1821) achieved a high political position while a cousin Alexis Jordan
(1814-1897) was a famous botanist.

• Jordan was a great "universal mathematician", making revolutionary advances in

group theory, topology, and operator theory; and also doing important work in
differential equations, number theory, measure theory, matrix theory, combinatorics,
algebra and especially Galois theory. He worked as both mechanical engineer and
professor of analysis. Jordan is especially famous for the Jordan Closed Curve
Theorem of topology, a simple statement "obviously true" yet remarkably difficult to
prove.

• In measure theory he developed Peano-Jordan "content" and proved the Jordan

Decomposition Theorem. He also proved the Jordan-Holder Theorem of group theory,
invented the notion of homotopy, invented the Jordan Canonical Forms of matrix theory,
and supplied the first complete proof of Euler's Polyhedral Theorem, F+V = E+2. Some
consider Jordan second only to Weierstrass among great 19th-century teachers; his
work inspired such mathematicians as Klein, Lie and Borel.

• Jordan’s early research was in geometry. His Traité des substitutions et des
équations algébriques (1870; “Treatise on Substitutions and Algebraic Equations”),
which brought him the Poncelet Prize of the French Academy of Sciences, both gave a
comprehensive account of Galois’s theory of substitution groups and applied these
groups to algebraic equations and to the study of the symmetries of certain geometric
figures.

• Jordan published his lectures and researches on analysis in Cours d’analyse de

l’École Polytechnique, 3 vol. (1882; “Analysis Course from the École Polytechnique”). In
the third edition (1909–15) of this notable work, which contained a good deal more of
Jordan’s own work than did the first, he treated the theory of functions from the modern
viewpoint, dealing with functions of bounded variation. Also in this edition, he gave the
proof of what is now known as Jordan’s curve theorem: any closed curve that does not
cross itself divides the plane into exactly two regions, one inside the curve and one
outside.

• Jordan was a professor of mathematics at the École Polytechnique in Paris from

1876 to 1912. He also edited the Journal des mathématiques pures et appliquées
(1885–1922; Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics).
68. Joseph Fourier

• Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier was a French mathematician born on 21st March
1768 at Auxerre. His father was a tailor who died when Fourier was 8 years old. In order
to give the boy proper education, his aunt and uncle put him in Ecole Royale Militaire
where he proved to be a conscientious student showing high intellect particularly in
mathematics. Meanwhile, he taught mathematics to his fellow learners. His life is seen
in the milieu of the French revolution which was beginning to sprout its first seeds in
1787.

• Joseph Fourier had a varied career: precocious but mischievous orphan,

theology student, young professor of mathematics (advancing the theory of equations),
then revolutionary activist. Under Napoleon he was a brilliant and important teacher and
historian; accompanied the French Emperor to Egypt; and did excellent service as
district governor of Grenoble. In his spare time at Grenoble he continued the work in
mathematics and physics that led to his immortality. After the fall of Napoleon,

• Fourier exiled himself to England, but returned to France when offered an

important academic position and published his revolutionary treatise on the Theory of
Heat. Fourier anticipated linear programming, developing the simplex method and
Fourier-Motzkin Elimination; and did significant work in operator theory. He is also noted
for the notion of dimensional analysis, was first to describe the Greenhouse Effect, and
continued his earlier brilliant work with equations.

• Fourier's greatest fame rests on his use of trigonometric series (now called
Fourier series) in the solution of differential equations. Since "Fourier" analysis is in
extremely common use among applied mathematicians, he joins the select company of
the eponyms of "Cartesian" coordinates, "Gaussian" curve, and "Boolean" algebra.
Because of the importance of Fourier analysis, many listmakers would rank Fourier
much higher than I have done; however the work was not exceptional as pure
mathematics. Fourier's Heat Equation built on Newton's Law of Cooling; and the Fourier
series solution itself had already been introduced by Euler, Lagrange and Daniel
Bernoulli.

69. Bonaventura Cavalieri

• Bonaventura Cavalieri, (born 1598, Milan [Italy]—died Nov. 30, 1647, Bologna,
Papal States), Italian mathematician who made developments in geometry that were
precursors to integral calculus.

• As a boy Cavalieri joined the Jesuati, a religious order (sometimes called

“Apostolic Clerics of St. Jerome”) that followed the rule of St. Augustine and was
suppressed in 1668 by Pope Clement IX. Euclid’s works stimulated his interest in
mathematics, and, after he met Galileo, Cavalieri considered himself a disciple of that
great astronomer.

• By 1629, when he was appointed professor of mathematics of the University of

Bologna, Cavalieri had completely developed his method of indivisibles, a means of
determining the size of geometric figures similar to the methods of integral calculus. He
delayed publishing his results for six years out of deference to Galileo, who planned a
similar work. Cavalieri’s work appeared in 1635 and was entitled Geometria
Indivisibilibus Continuorum Nova Quadam Ratione Promota (“A Certain Method for the
Development of a New Geometry of Continuous Indivisibles”).

• As stated in his Geometria, the method of indivisibles was unsatisfactory and fell
under heavy criticism, notably from the contemporary Swiss mathematician Paul Guldin.
In reply to this criticism, Cavalieri wrote Exercitationes Geometricae Sex (1647; “Six
Geometrical Exercises”), stating the principle in the more satisfactory form that was
widely employed by mathematicians during the 17th century.

• Cavalieri was largely responsible for introducing the use of logarithms as a

computational tool in Italy through his book Directorium Generale Uranometricum (1632;
“A General Directory of Uranometry”). His other works include Lo specchio ustorio
ouero trattato delle settioni coniche (1632; “The Burning Glass; or, A Treatise on Conic
Sections”) and Trigonometria plana et sphaerica, linearis et logarithmica (1643; “Plane,
Spherical, Linear, and Logarithmic Trigonometry”).

70. Hermann Gunther Grassmann

• Hermann Günther Grassmann, (born April 15, 1809, Stettin, Prussia [now
Szczecin, Pol.]—died Sept. 26, 1877, Stettin, Ger.), German mathematician chiefly
remembered for his development of a general calculus of vectors in Die lineale
Ausdehnungslehre, ein neuer Zweig der Mathematik (1844; “The Theory of Linear
Extension, a New Branch of Mathematics”). Grassmann taught at the Gymnasium in
Stettin from 1831 until his death, except for two years (1834–36) of teaching at an
industrial school in Berlin.

• In Ausdehnungslehre Grassmann developed Gottfried Leibniz’ idea of an algebra

in which symbols representing geometric entities (such as points, lines, and planes) are
manipulated according to certain rules. In suitable circumstances this calculus proves
far more powerful than earlier methods of coordinate geometry.

• Grassmann also initiated the representation of subspaces of a given space (e.g.,

the lines in three-dimensional space) by coordinates; this leads to a point mapping of an
algebraic manifold, called the Grassmannian. Somewhat similar ideas were propounded
independently and contemporaneously by Sir William R. Hamilton of Great Britain in his
quaternion theory; indeed, Grassmann, Hamilton, and the British mathematician George
Boole were the pioneers in the field of modern algebra.

• Grassmann was an accomplished linguist, specializing in Sanskrit literature, and

at the age of 53, disappointed with the lack of interest in his mathematical work, he
turned all his efforts to Sanskrit studies. His Sanskrit dictionary on the Ṛgveda is still
widely used.

71. Albert Einstein

• Albert Einstein, the renowned physicist, is remembered for his theories on

nuclear power, and his revolutionary concept concerning nature of light. Nonetheless,
his innovative ideas were misunderstood and he was regularly criticized for his
involvement in politics as well as social issues. He has made significant contributions to
the field of mathematics, physics, and science.

• Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, at Ulm, Germany. Six weeks later,
he moved to Munich with his family where he later started his schooling at Luitpold
Gymnasium. Later, his family moved to Milan, Italy, and Albert continued his schooling
in Switzerland.

• One of the many urban legends about the Relativity genius claims that Einstein
failed mathematics at school. Nothing could be further from the truth: in fact, his grades
in Algebra and Geometry were even better than in Physics. This false rumor, which has
been repeated over and over, comes from a wrong interpretation of the grading scales.
Moreover, in his memoirs he himself recounts his passion for one of the works most
celebrated by mathematicians, Euclid’s Elements.
• While Einstein was remembered for his contributions to physics, he also made
contributions in mathematics. He contributed several equations to calculus and
geometry, ten of which are called the Einstein Field Equations. He first published these
equations in 1915. One of these equations demonstrates how stress-energy inflicts
curvature of space-time.

Reported by: Villamena, Lianne Raye

72. James Clerk Maxwell

(June 13, 1831 – Nov. 5, 1879)

Maxwell did little of importance in pure mathematics,

so his great creativity in mathematical physics might not
seem enough to qualify him for this list. But then, in 1864
James Clerk Maxwell stunned the world by publishing the
equations of electricity and magnetism, predicting the
existence of radio waves and that light itself is a form of such
waves and is thus linked to the electro-magnetic force.

#1 MAXWELL GAVE MATHEMATICAL FORM TO

FARADAY’S WORK IN ELECTROMAGNETISM

Michael Faraday built on this discovery to devise a number of unique, inventive

ways to test and explore electromagnetic phenomena; and made several important
discoveries regarding the nature of electromagnetism.

Maxwell, one of the finest mathematicians of his time, unified the then disparate
science of electromagnetism into a coherent theory, complete with mathematical
formalism. As early as 1855 when he was only 24, he produced a paper titled “On
Faraday’s lines of force”, in which he presented a simplified model of Faraday’s work;
and explained how electricity and magnetism are related.

#2 MAXWELL’S EQUATIONS FORM THE BASIS OF CLASSICAL

ELECTROMAGNETISM
 Maxwell reduced all of the current knowledge in the field into a linked set of
differential equations with 20 equations in 20 variables. In 1881, British physicist Oliver
Heaviside reduced 12 of these 20 equations into four differential equations, known now
collectively as Maxwell’s equations.

Maxwell’s equations accurately and completely describe electromagnetism. They

form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics and electric circuits.
Maxwell’s equations describe how electric charges and electric currents create electric
and magnetic fields. Further, they describe how an electric field can generate a
magnetic field, and vice versa.

The four equations are:

 Gauss’s law, which allows you to calculate the electric field created
by a charge;
 Gauss’s law for magnetism, which can be used to calculate the
magnetic field;
 Faraday’s law, which describes how a time varying magnetic field
creates an electric field;
 Ampere’s law with Maxwell’s addition, which states that magnetic
fields can be generated in two ways: by electric current (Ampere’s
law) and by changing electric fields (Maxwell’s addition).
Maxwell, through his equations of electromagnetism, paved the way for major
technological innovations including the television and the microwave. Apart from his
work in electromagnetism, Maxwell accurately described the reason for the stability of
Rings of Saturn; made important contributions to Colour Theory in Optics; and wrote the
founding paper on the field of cybernetics.

73. Girolamo Cardano

(Sept. 24, 1501 – Sept. 21, 1576)

The Ars Magna ("The Great Art") contains the first

published algebraic solution to cubic and quartic equations.
Cardano was the first mathematician to make systematic use
of negative numbers. He was first to publish general solutions
to cubic and quartic equations, and first to publish the use of
complex numbers in calculations. Cardano introduced
binomial coefficients and the Binomial Theorem, and
introduced and solved the geometric hypocycloid problem, as well as other geometric
theorems.

Cardano was notoriously short of money and kept himself solvent by being an
accomplished gambler and chess player. His book about games of chance, Liber de
ludo aleae ("Book on Games of Chance"), contains the first systematic treatment of
probability, as well as a section on effective cheating methods. He used the game of
throwing dice to understand the basic concepts of probability. He demonstrated the
efficacy of defining odds as the ratio of favourable to unfavourable outcomes.

74. Aristotle of Stagira

(384-322 BC)

Aristotle uses mathematics and mathematical sciences in three

important ways in his treatises.

 Contemporary mathematics serves as a model

for his philosophy of science and provides
some important techniques, e.g., as used in his
logic.
 Throughout the corpus, he constructs
mathematical arguments for various theses,
especially in the physical writings, but also in the biology and ethics.
 Finally, Aristotle's philosophy of mathematics provides an important
alternative to platonism.
*In this regard, there has been a revival of interest in recent years because of its affinity
to physicalism and fictionalisms based on physicalism. However, his philosophy of
mathematics may better be understood as a philosophy of exact or mathematical
sciences.

75. Galileo Galilei

(1564-1642)

Galileo is best remembered as an astronomer. He had

improved on the first versions of the telescope and was the first
to observe the seas of the moon and the satellites of Jupiter. However, Galileo's true
legacy lives on in physics. Galileo made truly remarkable discoveries in mechanics and
is considered to be the first modern scientist.

The modern view of projectile motion requires one to study modern concepts such
as velocity and acceleration. The irony is that Galileo himself is responsible for these
``modern'' concepts. So by studying how we explain projectile motion today, we are
really studying Galileo's explanation as well. What is of interest, though, is how Galileo
came to the conclusions that we study today.

Galileo exposed the world to his physical findings in a book entitled Dialogues
Concerning Two New Sciences. In this book, Galileo had three characters discuss his
findings with each other. This method of indirectly teaching through the dialogue of
characters allowed Galileo to shed some of the responsibilty of his findings. In Two New
Sciences, Galileo begins his examination of falling objects by discussing the drawing of
parabolas. In the Fourth Day (chapter) of Two New Sciences, Galileo returns to the
discussion above to lay down the scientific groundwork for the proof of a projectile's
motion.

76. Atle Selberg

(1917-2007)

Selberg may be the greatest analytic number theorist ever. He

also did important work in Fourier spectral theory, lattice theory
and the theory of automorphic forms, where he introduced
Selberg's Trace Formula. He developed a very important result in
analysis called the Selberg Integral. Other Selberg techniques of
general utility include mollification, sieve theory, and the Rankin-
Selberg method. These have inspired other mathematicians, e.g.
contributing to Deligne's proof of the Weil conjectures. Selberg is
also famous for ground-breaking work on Riemann's Hypothesis, and the first
"elementary" proof of the Prime Number Theorem.

Professor Selberg made significant contributions to modular forms, Riemann and

other zeta functions, analytic number theory, sieve methods, discrete groups, and trace
formula. The impact of his work is evident from the many mathematical terms that bear
his name: The Selberg Trace Formula, The Selberg Sieve, The Selberg Integral, The
Selberg Class, The Rankin-Selberg L-Function, The Selberg Eigenvalue Conjecture,
and The Selberg Zeta Function.

During the 1940s, his work centered around the theory of the Riemann Zeta
Function and related problems concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Riemann
zeta function, function useful in number theory for investigating properties of prime
numbers. Developing fundamental and new techniques, led him to his powerful and
novel sieving methods and in 1948 to his celebrated Selberg Formula and to the
elementary proof of the Prime Number Theorem.

In number theory, the prime number theorem (PNT) describes the asymptotic
distribution of the prime numbers among the positive integers. It formalizes the intuitive
idea that primes become less common as they become larger by precisely quantifying
the rate at which this occurs.

77. Alfred Tarski

(1902-1983)

Alfred Tarski was one of the greatest and most

prolific logicians ever, but also made advances in set
theory, measure theory, topology, algebra, group
theory, computability theory, metamathematics, and
geometry. He achieved fame at an early age with the
Banach-Tarski Paradox, his greatest achievements
were in formal logic. the Banach-Tarski paradox states
that it is possible to decompose a ball into six pieces which can be reassembled by rigid
motions to form two balls of the same size as the original. A generalization of this
theorem is that any two bodies in R^3 that do not extend to infinity and each containing
a ball of arbitrary size can be dissected into each other.

His most famous result may be Tarski's Undefinability Theorem, which is related to
Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem but more powerful. Several other theorems, theories
and paradoxes are named after Tarski including Tarski-Grothendieck Set Theory,
Tarski's Fixed-Point Theorem of lattice theory

Tarski's undefinability theorem, stated and proved by Alfred Tarski in 1936, is an

important limitative result in mathematical logic, the foundations of mathematics, and in
formal semantics. Informally, the theorem states that arithmetical truth cannot be
defined in arithmetic. The theorem applies more generally to any sufficiently strong
formal system, showing that truth in the standard model of the system cannot be
defined within the system.

78. Gaspard Monge (Comte de Péluse)

(1746-1818)

Monge is called the "Father of Differential Geometry," and it is

that foundational work for which he is most praised. He also did
work in discrete math, partial differential equations, and calculus
of variations. . Monge's most famous theorems of geometry are
the Three Circles Theorem and Four Spheres Theorem. His
early work in descriptive geometry has little interest to pure
mathematics.

Gaspard Monge is usually considered the "father of descriptive geometry" due to his
developments in geometric problem solving. Descriptive geometry is the branch of
geometry which allows the representation of three-dimensional objects in two
dimensions by using a specific set of procedures. The resulting techniques are
important for engineering, architecture, design and in art. The theoretical basis for
descriptive geometry is provided by planar geometric projections.

79. Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer

(1881-1966)
 Brouwer is most famous as the founder of Intuitionism. In the
philosophy of mathematics, intuitionism is an approach where
mathematics is considered to be purely the result of the
constructive mental activity of humans rather than the discovery of
fundamental principles claimed to exist in an objective reality. That
is, logic and mathematics are not considered analytic activities
wherein deep properties of objective reality are revealed and
applied but are instead considered the application of internally consistent methods used
to realize more complex mental constructs, regardless of their possible independent
existence in an objective reality.

Intuitionism is based on the idea that mathematics is a creation of the mind. The
truth of a mathematical statement can only be conceived via a mental construction that
proves it to be true, and the communication between mathematicians only serves as a
means to create the same mental process in different minds.

Intuitionism has had a significant influence, although few strict adherents. Since only
constructive proofs are permitted, strict adherence would slow mathematical work. This
didn't worry Brouwer who once wrote: "The construction itself is an art, its application to
the world an evil parasite."

Among his important theorems were the Fixed Point Theorem, the "Hairy Ball"
Theorem, the Jordan-Brouwer Separation Theorem, and the Invariance of Dimension.
He developed the method of simplicial approximations, important to algebraic topology;
he also did work in geometry, set theory, measure theory, complex analysis and the
foundations of mathematics. He was first to anticipate forms like the Lakes of Wada,
leading eventually to other measure-theory "paradoxes." Several great mathematicians,
including Weyl, were inspired by Brouwer's work in topology.

80. Liu Hui

(ca 220-280)
 Liu Hui made major improvements to Chang's influential
textbook Nine Chapters, making him among the most important
of Chinese mathematicians ever. He seems to have been a
much better mathematician than Chang, but just as Newton
might have gotten nowhere without Kepler, Vieta, Huygens,
Fermat, Wallis, Cavalieri, so Liu Hui might have achieved little
had Chang not preserved the ancient Chinese learnings.

Among Liu's achievements are an emphasis on

generalizations and proofs, incorporation of negative numbers
into arithmetic, an early recognition of the notions of infinitesimals and limits, the
Gaussian elimination method of solving simultaneous linear equations, calculations of
solid volumes, anticipation of Horner's Method, and a new method to calculate square
roots.

Like Archimedes, Liu discovered the formula for a circle's area; however he failed
to calculate a sphere's volume, writing "Let us leave this problem to whoever can tell the
truth."