THE GREATEST MATHEMATICIANS

Written Report of Group 2

I. Albert Einstein

 cBorn on March 14, 1879, was a German mathematician and physicist who developed the special and
general theories of relativity.
 His work also had a major impact on the development of atomic energy.
 With his passion for inquiry, Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20th
century

Inventions & Discoveries

▹ Einstein’s E=MC²

As a physicist, Einstein had many discoveries, but he is perhaps best known for his theory of relativity and the
equation E=MC2, which foreshadowed the development of atomic power and the atomic bomb.

▹ Theory of Relativity

Einstein was convinced of the merits of general relativity because it allowed for a more accurate prediction of
planetary orbits around the sun, and for a more expansive, nuanced explanation of how gravitational forces
worked.

II. Leonardo Pisano Bigollo

 c.1170 – c.1250
 Italian mathematician
 He is usually better known by his nickname, Fibonacci, and is considered to be among the foremost
European mathematicians of the medieval era.
 He was instrumental in bringing the widespread use of Arabic numerals to the West. The Fibonacci
number sequence is
named after him,
although he merely
referenced it
rather than devising it
himself.
 III. Rene Descartes

 BORN: 31 March 1596 at Kingdom of France

 DIED: 11 February 1650 at age 53; Stockholm, Swedish empire
 NATIONALITY: FRENCH
 EDUCATION: College Royal Henrry-Le-Grand
 (1607-1614)
 University of Poitiers (LL.B., 1616)
 University of Franeker
 Leiden University

Contributions in Mathematics

▹ Father of Analytical Geometry

▹ Main achievement: bridge The gulf between algebra and geometry

▹ Widely acclaimed as the first Mathematician who laid the foundation of modern geometry that
resulted the development of analysis and calculus.

Major Contributions

▹ Bringing forth coordinate system, the Cartesian Coordinate system. This tended to explain the
algebraic equations through geometrical shapes.

▹ He “invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by x, y and z”

▹ He also invented rule of signs to establish the positive and negative roots of polynomial.

IV. Archimedes

 (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC)

 Greek Mathematician
 mathematician, physicist, inventor, engineer, and astronomer
 “Archimedes Palimpsest”
 “Method of Exhaustion” or “Archimedes Method”

V. Gottfried Wilhem Leibniz

  June 1, 1646 – Leipzig, Germany
 November 14, 1716
 German philosopher, Mathematician, and political adviser, important both as a metaphysician and
as a logician
 Differential and Integral Calculus
 Nicolai School
 University of Leipzig
 Degree of doctor of law
 Late 1675
 Works:
 De principio individui (On the Principle of the individual) May 1663
 De Arte Combinatoria (On the Art of Combination) 1666

VI. Pythagoras

 Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 - 490 B.C.) was an early Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher and
mathematician from the Greek island of Samos.
 Founder of the influential philosophical and religious movement or cult called Pythagoreanism.
 First man to actually call himself a philosopher (or lover of wisdom)
 Father of number
 None of his original writings have survived.
 Best known for his Pythagorean Theorem
 He believed that the number system (and therefore the universe system) was based on the sum of
the numbers one to four.
 Odd numbers were masculine and even numbers were feminine.
 Square numbers and square roots
 Golden ratio
 Theory of mathematical proportions

Other Works

• He was one of the first to think that the Earth was round, that all planets have an axis, and that all
the planets travel around one central point. He also believed that the Moon was another planet that
he called a “counter-Earth".
• Musical notes could be translated into mathematical equations
• Pythagorean tuning
• Musica universalis

VII. George Boole

 English mathematician
 established modern symbolic logic and
  Boolean algebra

Symbolic Logic

▹ way to represent logical expressions by using symbols and variables in place of natural language, such
as English, in order to remove vagueness

Boolean Algebra

▹ the only mathematical principle which is of great importance to a person who wishes to study
Electronics and Fields related to Logical Electronic Devices
▹ a very simple method to find contradiction, proofs out of statements with conclusive and effective
assertions

VIII. Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli

 sometimes Paccioli or Paciolo (1447–1517)

 Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar
 collaborator with Leonardo da Vinci
 early contributor to accounting
 "Father of Accounting and Bookkeeping"

IX. EUCLID

 Euclid (325-265 B.C.) was the author of “The Elements” which was a gathering of the work of many of
his predecessors such as Thales, Pythagoras, and Hippocrates It is quite possible that Euclid modeled
his book after Hippocrates

The Five Postulates of Geometry

In “The Elements” Euclid proposed 5 postulates (things assumed true)

1. “Let it be postulated to draw a straight line from any point to any point, and”

2. “to produce a limited straight line in a straight line,”

3. “to describe a circle with any center and distance,”

4. “that all right angles are equal to each other.”

5. “That if a straight line falling on 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 are the
angles less than the two right angles.” (parallel postulate)

Euclidean (Parabolic)
 ▹ Only one where similar but not congruent triangles are possible

▹ Sum of angles of a triangle is exactly 180°

▹ Ratio of circumference of a circle to its diameter is exactly π

Riemannian (Elliptic)

▹ Sum of the angles of a triangle is less than 180°

▹ Ratio of circumference of a circle to its diameter is greater than π and not constant

Lobachevskian (Hyperbolic)

▹ Sum of the angles of a triangle is less than 180°

▹ Ratio of circumference of a circle to its diameter is less than π and not constant

X. John Napier

 John Napier of Merchiston (/ˈneɪpɪər/;1550 – 4 April 1617); also signed as Neper, Nepair; nicknamed
Marvellous Merchiston) was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and
astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. His Latinized name was Ioannes Neper.
 Discoverer of logarithms, “Napier's bones“, the use of the decimal point in arithmetic and
mathematics.
 Napier's birthplace, Merchiston Tower in Edinburgh, is now part of the facilities of Edinburgh Napier
University. Napier died from the effects of gout at home at Merchiston Castle and his remains were
buried in the kirkyard of St Giles. Following the loss of the kirkyard there to build Parliament House, he
was memorialised at St Cuthbert's at the west side of Edinburgh.

XI. Andrew Wiles

 is an illustrious English mathematician and currently a research professor at the University of Oxford
 was born on 11 April 1953 in Cambridge, England
 is awarded the 2016 Abel Prize

Contributions

▹ He is known for his contribution to number theory

▹ Proved Fermat’s Last Theorem
▹ worked with Barry Mazur on the idea of Iwasawa theory
XII. Leonhard Euler

 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.
 He is regarded as the greatest mathematician to have ever walked this planet

Contributions

 Euler’s Identity

The mathematical equation, eiπ = -1, sometimes known as Euler’s Identity, combines arithmetic, calculus,
trigonometry and complex analysis into what has been called the most remarkable formula in
mathematics.’

 Euler’s Formula

Often known simply as Euler’s Formula,

is eix = cosx + isinx. Used to demonstrate the deep relationships between trigonometry, exponentials and
complex numbers.

 Calculation of Infinite Sums

Concerned the calculation of infinite sums of the of the reciprocals of the squares of all the natural
numbers to infinity. Euler’s superior method yielded the exact but rather unexpected result of π2⁄6.

 Provided Solution to the Seven Bridges of Königsberg Problem

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.