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HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS

• In 1988, Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1995) invented a method of beating a different rhythm with each
arm–created a new composition by identifying each note in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with a
number, and then playing the square root of each note.

• The symbol for infinity (∞) was used by the Romans to represent 1000.

• The earliest evidence of a numerical recording device is a section of a fibula of a baboon, with 29
visible notches, dated to about 35000 BC, from a cave in the Lebombo mountains on the borders of
Swaziland in Southern Africa.

• A tablet from Susa, dating from the period 1900-1650 BC, uses the Pythagorean theorem to find the
circumradius of a triangle whose sides are 50, 50, 60. Pythagoras himself lived in the sixth century BC.

• Saint Hubert is the patron saint of Mathematicians.

• Newton’s annotated copy of Barrow’s Euclid was sold at auction in 1920 for five shillings. Shortly
thereafter, it appeared in a dealer’s catalog marked as £500.

• The Chinese were the first who used negative numbers around 2200 years ago or maybe even earlier.

• Cardan (1501-1576) described negative numbers as “fictions” and their square roots as “sophistic”,
and a complex root of a quadratic, which he had calculated, as being “as subtle that it is useless”.

• The probability that the thirteenth day of the month being Friday is the highest

• Richard Recorde is credited with inventing the equal sign (=) in 1557.

• Some mathematical celebrations: March 14 – Pi Day; June 28 – Tau Day; October 10 – Metric
Day.

• The symbol for division (÷) is called obelus.

• On the other hand, the division slash (/) is called virgule.

• Negative numbers don’t have logarithms.

• The Babylonian mile is approximately equal to 11.3 km (about 7 miles).

• In which civilization dot patterns were first employed to represent numbers? Chinese

• The ancient Babylonians had their number system based on? Answer: 60

• In which ancient civilization, numbers were for the first time represented by words? Indian

• In which ancient civilization, odd and even numbers were divided into two sets, the odd ones denoted
as males and the even females? Chinese

• Among the numbers – Fibonacci, Kaprekar, Mersenne and Figurate numbers which one is ancient in
origin? Figurate number

• Eudemus wrote an elaborate history of Greek geometry from its earliest origins

• Zephirum, lziphra, Cenero and Sifr are different names of Zero.

• Which ancient book contains 64 Hexagrams? The book of changes

• Which mathematician prepared the trigonometric tables seen in a modern textbook? Claudius
Ptolemy
• Ahmose wrote one of the oldest documents on mathematics, Rhind Papyrus’

• Pythagorean ancient school odd thought believed that the universe is primarily made of numbers

• Russell Maloney‘s story book gives an idea about statistics. Name this book. Inflexible logic

• Who is the author of geometry oriented science fiction Flatland? Edwin A. Abbot

• “The world can be made intelligent in terms of right angles” This statement was made in a world
famous classic of Plato. Which is that classic? The Timaeus

• Who is the author of this book “The Law”? Robert M. Coates

• “The senses delight in things duly proportional” who made this statement relating beauty to
mathematics? Thomas Aquinas

• Who said “music is the pleasure of the human soul experiences from counting without being aware
that it is counting”? G. W. Leibniz

• Who forwarded in his books this motto “The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers”?
Richard W. Hamming.

• An artist as well as mathematician, he wrote a book on geometrical and perspective meant for artists.
Who was he? Albrecht Durer

• Who said “the power is not in the hands of the few but information in the hands of the many”? John
Naisbitt

• Which books on mathematics has been described as a “scientific poem”? Mecanique Analytique

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• Who is the author of “Mecanique Analytique”? Joseph Lagrange

• Himself an esteemed philosopher of mathematics, he wrote solely and extensively on the philosophy
of mathematics. Who is he? Ludwig Wittgenstein

• Who is the author of classic “Principia Mathematica”? A. N. Whitehead and Bertrand Russell

• Who wrote one of the greatest mathematical treatises of ancient times the “Arithmetica”?
Diophantus

• Who wrote “A Mathematician‘s Apology”? G. H Hardy.

• Who wrote the first textbook on differential calculus? Marquis de l’Hôpital

• Who is the author of “The Fractal Geometry of Nature” an important contribution to understanding
form and complexity in the physical universe? Benoit Mandelbrot

• Who wrote the classic “Paradoxes of the Infinite”? Bernhard Bolzano

• Who wrote “Liber Abaci” which introduced the Indian number system and zero to the Europe?
Leonardo da Pisa, Leonardo Pisano or Fibonacci

• Which mathematician wrote “Discourse of Method” in bed when he was hardly 16 years old and had
studied mathematics for a few months only? Rene Descartes

• Who wrote the classic “On Growth and Form” a mathematical treatment of natural history? D’Arcy
Wentworth Thompson
• Who wrote the popular “One, Two, Three… Infinity” a book on numbers and their relationship with
the cosmos? George Gamow

• Jagjit Singh-author of “Mathematical Ideas, Their Nature and Use”

• James R. Newman-wrote the recent mathematical masterpiece “Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal
Golden Braid”

• A. Henry Rhind-discovered the oldest document on mathematics

• Augustus De Morgan-wrote the witty and amusing book “A Budget of Paradoxes”

• E. T. Bell-the author of the classic “Men of Mathematics”

• Menaechmus-the discoverer of conic sections

• Benoit Mandelbrot- formulated the concept of “Fractals”

• Adrien Marie Legendre- provided that π2 is irrational

• John Graunt- not so well known father of statistics

• Evangelista Torricelli- discovered the “Isogonic Centre” of the triangle

• Kurt Godel-formulated “the Incompleteness Theorem” no theory of all mathematics is finitely

describable, consistent and complete

• John Von Neumann-the originator of the game theory is now applied to business, war etc.

• Joseph Liouville- proved that transcendental numbers exist

• Daniel Bernoulli-father of mathematical physics

• George Cantor-discovered the science of infinity, introduced the study of sets

• George Polya-gave a global plan to solve a mathematical problem

• Francesco Bonaventura Cavalieri- invented the invention of integral calculus

• John Napier-invented logarithm for faster calculations

• William Oughtred- invented the slide rule

• Eudoxus-invented the method of exhaustion for determining the areas and volume of geometrical
figures and solids respectively

• Piet Hein-inventor of super ellipse

• James Thomson- invented the integrator, an instrument which gives the value of definite integrals

• Leonardo Torres y Quevedo-invented the first chess playing machine

• William R. Hamilton- invented “Quaternions”

• Gaspard Monge- invented what is known as “descriptive geometry”

• Claude Shannon- founded the mathematical theory of information

• Hipparchus-considered the founder of trigonometry

• Arthur Cayley-laid the foundation of matric algebra

• Josiah Williard Gibbs-founded the subject of vector analysis

• Thomas Bayes- founded the subject of functional analysis

• Pierre de Fermat-founder of modern theory of numbers

• Girard Desargues- founded the subject of projective geometry

• Isaac Barrow-he laid the foundation of calculus in geometrical form before it was actually invented
by others

• Charles Stanhope- built the first logic machine which could solve problems in formal logic

• William Stanley Jevons-built the first workable logic machine which could solve a problem faster
than a human being

• Howard H. Alken-built the first automatic calculating machine

• Vannevar Bush-built the first calculating machine that solved different equations
(ctto)
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History of Math
1. The Mathematics that is persistent in identifiable cultural groups.
a. conventional mathematics
b. ethnomathematics
c. cultural mathematics
d. socio-mathematics
CA: B. ethnomathematics
2. To whom the Greeks inherited their mathematical basis?
a. Babylonian
b. Chinese
c. Egyptian
d. Indian
CA: A. Babylonian
3. An extinct Mesoamerican culture with surviving treatise on astronomy called Dresden Codex and
used vigesimal numeral system.
a. Incans
b. Africans
c. Native Americans
d. Mayans
CA: D. Mayans
4. It is the most famous Chinese mathematics book of all time which is also called Nine Chapters on
the Mathematical Art.
a. Jiuzhang Suanshou
b. Suan Chu
c. Arithmetic Classic of the Gnomon
d. Chou Pei Suan Ching
CA: A. Jiuzhang Suanshou
5. This century came to be known as the Age of Scientific Revolution which saw an uprecendented
explosion of mathematical and scientific ideas across Europe.
a. 16th
b. 17th
c. 18th
d. 19th
CA: B. 17th
6. An 18th century mathematician who invented an analytical machine that can tabulate values of any
function and print the results.
a. Jean Fourier
b. Charles Babbage
c. Pierre Simon Laplace
d. Jean-le-Rond D’Alembert
CA: B. Charles Babbage
7. Began the algebra of logic by approaching logic in a new way, reducing to a simple algebra and
incorporating logic into mathematics.
a. Carl Gauss
b. Evariste Galois
c. George Boole
d. Abraham de Moivre
CA: C. George Boole
8. His greatest contributions include such groundbreaking texts in invention of divining rods used as
multiplication tables.
a. Francois Viete
b. Marin Mersenne
c. Johannes Kepler
d. John Napier
CA: D. John Napier
9. He wrote De Triangulis Omnimodis, a systematic account of methods for solving triangles, and
made important contributions to trigonometry and astronomy.
a. Regiomontanus
b. Girolamo Cardano
c. Scipione del Ferro
d. Niccolo Tartaglia
CA: A. Regiomontanus
10. Known as the father of modern analysis during 19th century who also devised tests for the
convergence of series and contributed to the theory of periodic function, Abellian functions, elliptic
functions etc.
a. Johann Direchlet
b. Karl Weierstrass
c. Evariste Galois
d. Johann Carl Gauss
CA: B. Karl Weierstrass
11. A rich mathematician in France who invented a new, non-Greek way of doing geometry, now
called “projective” or “modern geometry”.
a. Leonhard Euler
b. Francois Viete
c. Gerard Desargues
d. John Napier
CA: C. Gerard Desargues. Also known for his famous Perspective Theorem “when two triangles
are in perspective, the meets of corresponding sides are collinear.”
12. A “grand” Russian mathematician who gave the basis for applying the theory of probability to
statistical data, worked on number of prime numbers not exceeding a given number, and proved
Bertrand’s conjecture in 1850.
a. August Cauchy
b. Pafnuty Chebyshev
c. Francois Viete
d. Nicolai Lobachevsky
CA: B. Pafnuty Chebyshev. He also worked on construction of maps, the calculation of geometric
volumes, and the construction of calculating machines in 1870s.
13. A mathematician of the Medieval Ages who invented a type of coordinate geometry by finding the
logical equivalence between tabulating values and graphing them.
a. Nicole Oresme
b. Leonardo Fibonacci
c. Roger Bacon
d. Rene Descartes
CA: A. Nicole Oresme. One of his works contain the first use of a fractional exponent, although
not in modern notation.
14. A Greek mathematician who is remembered for his prime number Sieve.
a. Anaxagoras
b. Eratosthenes
c. Pythagoras
d. Thales
CA: B. Erastothenes. He invented a mechanical device to find line segments x and y so that, for
given segments a and b, a:x = x:y = y:b
15. An 18th century mathematician who enunciated the principles of the Calculus of variations and
became a lecturer in the Royal Artillery School at the age of 19.
a. Jean Baptiste Fourier
b. Jean D’ Alembert
c. Pierre Simon Laplace
d. Louis Lagrange
CA: D. Louis Lagrange. He worked on number theory proving in 1770 that every positive integer
is the sum of four squares. He studied the integration of differential equations and made various
applications to topics such as fluid mechanics (where he introduced the Lagrangian function).

History of Mathematics LET reviewer

Who published a treatise on trigonometry which contains the earliest use of our abbreviations:
sin, tan, sec, for sine, tangent and secant?
-Albert Gerard
An 18th century Swiss Mathematician, he introduced the “Law of Large Numbers” in his (The Artof
Conjecture). In Statistics, this implies that the larger the sample, the more likely will the
sample become representative of the population. Who was he?
-Jacob Bernoulli

He has been described as the greatest “might have been” in the history of Mathematics.
-Blaise Pascal

He invented a method of determining the optimal values of a linear function subject to certain
constraints. This method is known as linear programming? Who was he?
-George Dantzig

He was a 16th-century mathematician, who was the first to define that the probability of an
event to happen is the quotient of the number of favorable outcomes and the number of alloutcomes.
Who was he?
-Girolamo Cardano

The first to discover “zero”.

-Indian

He was mostly remembered for his formula for( cos � + ����� )*, which was important in the
early development of the theory of complex numbers and for predicting the day of his own
death.
-Abraham de Moivre

A Russian Mathematician in the 19th century who would instead develop geometry without
Euclid’s fifth postulate and whose achievement exhibits the development of non- Euclidean
Geometry.
-Nikolai Lobachevsky

He was the mathematician who proposed basic descriptions of a point, a line and shapes. He
also discovered that square root of two is an irrational number and that there were infinitely
many prime numbers.
-Euclid

Archimedes proved, among many other geometrical results, that the volume of a sphere is two-thirds
the
volume of a circumscribed cylinder. This he considered his most significant accomplishments,
requesting that a representation of a cylinder circumscribing a sphere be inscribed on his tomb.
-ARCHIMEDES OF SYRACUSE

A 19th century mathematician who added the integers from 1 to 100 within seconds by a flash of
mathematical insights.
-Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss

One of the earliest cities of the world built in India and was built to carefully planned and
tessellations.
-Indus

He did notable work in Geometry, particularly studying higher plane curves. He also considered
the geometric problem of finding the difference between the volume of the frustum of a solid of
revolution and the volume of the cylinder of the same height as frustum.
-Colin Maclaurin

An extinct Mesoamerican culture with surviving treatise on astronomy called Dresden Codex
and used vigesimal number system.
-Mayans

A Bernoulli who considered the function � = �^x. and investigated series using the method of
integration by parts.
-Johann Bernoulli

The FIRST mathematician to attempt to classify according to the types of equations that produce
them and also made contributions to the theory of equations.
-Rene Descartes

The first to show that ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas are obtained by cutting a cone in a plane not
parallel
to the base.
-Menaechmus

His greatest contributions include such groundbreaking texts in invention of divining rods used
as multiplication tables.
-John Napier

This century came to be known as the Age of Scientific Revolution which saw an unprecedented
explosion of mathematical and scientific ideas across Europe.
-17th century

It is a period prior to people kept written records.

-prehistory

To whom the Greeks inherited their mathematical basis?

-Babylonians

A 17th century French mathematician, philosopher, and scientist who was honored by having
Cartesian coordinate system. His rule of signs is also a commonly used method in modern
Mathematics.
-Rene Descartes

He was considered as the father of differential geometry who introduced geometrie descriptive
now known as orthographic projection
-Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse

Who laid the foundations for differential and integral Calculus?

-Sir Isaac Newton

Who introduced topographical methods into complex function theory and examined the zeta
function (s) = (1/ns) = (1 – p-s)-1 which resulted to one of the most important of the unsolved
problems f Mathematics?
-Bernhard Riemann