MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD

The Six Mathematicians

Submitted by: Group 10

Sison, Curlcy S.

Arquirez, Cristina C.

Agabao, Princess Faith

Nepomuceno, Russel

Sicat, John Michael

Gonzaga, Michael

Course and Section: BSED ENGLISH 11

Submitted to:

Dr. Joseph Mercado

 Carl Friedrich Gauss

 Full name Johann Friedrich Carl Gauss

 Born April 30, 1777, Brunswick [Germany]—died February 23, 1855,
Göttingen, Hanover)
 The Child of Prodigy.

Carl Friedrich Gauss is a German mathematician, generally

regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time for his
contributions to number theory, geometry, probability theory, geodesy,
planetary astronomy, the theory of functions, and potential theory
(including electromagnetism). Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss is
sometimes referred to as the “Prince of Mathematicians” and the
“greatest mathematician since antiquity”. He has had a remarkable
influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as
one of history’s most influential mathematicians. The most significant
contribution of Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss in the field of mathematics
is the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra.
 Gauss gave the proof of a fundamental theorem of algebra when he
was just 22. He stated that, Every non-constant single-variable polynomial
over the complex numbers has at least one root.” Gauss was the only child
of poor parents. He was rare among mathematicians in that he was a
calculating prodigy, and he retained the ability to do elaborate calculations
in his head most of his life. Impressed by this ability and by his gift for
languages, his teachers and his devoted mother recommended him to the
duke of Brunswick in 1791, who granted him financial assistance to
continue his education locally and then to study mathematics at the
University of Göttingen from 1795 to 1798.

Gauss’s pioneering work gradually established him as the era’s

preeminent mathematician, first in the German-speaking world and then
farther afield, although he remained a remote and aloof figure. Gauss’s first
significant discovery, in 1792, was that a regular polygon of 17 sides can be
constructed by ruler and compass alone. Its significance lies not in the
result but in the proof, which rested on a profound analysis of the
factorization of polynomial equations and opened the door to later ideas of
Galois's theory. His doctoral thesis of 1797 gave proof of the fundamental
theorem of algebra: every polynomial equation with real or complex
coefficients has as many roots (solutions) as its degree (the highest power of
the variable). Gauss’s proof, though not wholly convincing, was remarkable
for its critique of earlier attempts.

Gauss later gave three more proofs of this major result, the last on
the 50th anniversary of the first, which shows the importance he attached
to the topic. Although he made contributions in almost all fields of
mathematics, number theory was always Gauss’ favorite area, and he
asserted that “mathematics is the queen of the sciences, and the theory of
numbers is the queen of mathematics”. An example of how Gauss
revolutionized number theory can be seen in his work with complex
numbers (combinations of real and imaginary numbers). The Hanover
survey work also fuelled Gauss’ interest in differential geometry (a field of
mathematics
dealing with curves and surfaces) and what has come to be known as
Gaussian curvature (an intrinsic measure of curvature, dependent only on
how distances are measured on the surface, not on the way it is embedded
in space). All in all, despite the rather pedestrian nature of his employment,
the responsibilities of caring for his sick mother, and the constant
arguments with his wife Minna (who desperately wanted to move to
Berlin), this was a very fruitful period of his academic life, and he published
over 70 papers between 1820 and 1830.Gauss’ achievements were not
limited to pure mathematics, however. During his surveying years, he
invented the heliotrope, an instrument that uses a mirror to reflect sunlight
over great distances to mark positions in a land survey. In later years, he
collaborated with Wilhelm Weber on measurements of the Earth’s magnetic
field and invented the first electric telegraph. In recognition of his
contributions to the theory of electromagnetism, the international unit of
magnetic induction is known as the gauss.
 John von Neumann he was a Hungarian-American mathematician,
physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as
having perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time and
was said to have been “the last representative of the great mathematicians
who were equally at home in both pure and applied mathematics”. Von
Neumann made major contributions to many fields, including mathematics
(foundations of mathematics, measure theory, functional analysis, ergodic
theory, group theory, lattice theory, representation theory, operator
algebras, matrix theory, geometry, and numerical analysis), physics
(quantum mechanics, hydrodynamics, nuclear physics and quantum
statistical mechanics), economics (game theory and general equilibrium
theory), computing (Von Neumann architecture, linear programming,
numerical meteorology, scientific computing, self-replicating machines,
stochastic computing), and statistics. He was a pioneer of the application of
operator theory to quantum mechanics in the development of functional
analysis, and a key figure in the development of game theory and the
concepts of cellular automata, the universal constructor and the digital
computer.
 Von Neumann published over 150 papers in his life: about 60 in pure
mathematics, 60 in applied mathematics, 20 in physics, and the remainder
on special mathematical subjects or non-mathematical ones. His last work,
an unfinished manuscript written while he was in the hospital, was later
published in book form as The Computer and the Brain.

He integrated pure and applied sciences. János Neumann in

Budapest a few years after the start of the 20th century, a well-timed birth
for all of us, for he went on to design the architecture underlying nearly
every single computer built on the planet today. Right now, whatever device
or computer that you are reading this on, be it phone or computer, is
cycling through a series of basic steps billions of times over each second;
steps that allow it to do things like render internet articles and play videos
and music, steps that were first thought up by von Neumann.

Von Neumann received his Ph.D. in mathematics at the age of 22

while also earning a degree in chemical engineering to appease his father,
who was keen on his son having a good marketable skill. Thankfully for all
of us, he stuck with math. In 1930, he went to work at Princeton University
with Albert Einstein at the Institute of Advanced Study. Before his death in
1957, von Neumann made important discoveries in set theory, geometry,
quantum mechanics, game theory, statistics, computer science and was a
vital member of the Manhattan Project.
 Charles Babbage

• Full name: Charles Babbage KH FRS

• Born: December 26, 1791 (London)

• Died: October 18, 1871

In 1821 Babbage invented the Difference Engine to compile

mathematical tables. On completing it in 1832, he conceived the idea of a
better machine that could perform not just one mathematical task but any
kind of calculation. This was the Analytical Engine (1856), which was
intended as a general symbol manipulator, and had some of the
characteristics of today’s computers.

In his twenties Babbage worked as a mathematician, principally in

the calculus of functions. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in
1816 and played a prominent part in the foundation of the Astronomical
Society (later Royal Astronomical Society) in 1820. It was about this time
that Babbage first acquired the interest in calculating machinery that
became his consuming passion for the remainder of his life.
 Charles Babbage, a brilliant polymath, is remembered today as the
first man to build a computing machine. He helped found the Astronomical
Society and came to be interested in creating a calculating machine. He
built a small machine that could compute squares. This helped him acquire
funds from the British government for the Difference Engine, but it could

not be completed. In his second attempt, he designed a more

complicated machine called the Analytical Engine, which was programmed
using punched cards. Apart from this computing machine, his brilliant
mind

achieved more. His study of electrodynamics was referred to by

Michael Faraday. He designed an open submarine in which four people
could survive for a couple of days. He could decode the Vigenère's auto key
cipher, but was forced to keep his achievement under wraps due to the
Crimean War. He invented the pilot fixed to locomotives to clear the tracks,

and the dynamometer which kept track of the locomotive's progress.

He was a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge for over a
decade. He was one of the first to write about operational research. The
‘Babbage Principle’ developed the division of labor according to the skill of
the laborer. His views on Creation supported natural law, and distanced the
scriptures from it.

Babbage designed a complex machine called the Analytical Engine

which could be used for general computation and was programmed by
punched cards. The Engine was continuously redesigned and developed
from 1833 until his death.

In 1838, he invented the pilot, a metal frame in front of locomotives

that clears the tracks of obstacles and designed a dynamometer car that
would record the progress of the locomotive.

In 1814, Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore. Of the couple’s eight

children, only, four namely, Benjamin Herschel, Georgiana Whitmore,
Dugald Bromhead and Henry Prevost, survived till adulthood.
 He died of renal inadequacy at the age 79, and was buried in London's
Kensal Green Cemetery. A green plaque commemorates the 40 years he
resided at 1 Dorset Street, Marylebone.

Among the many things named after him, is a crater on the moon and
a locomotive, while The Charles Babbage Institute, an information
technology center, functions at the University of Minnesota.

This polymath’s friend and admirer Ada Lovelace is regarded as the

world's first computer programmer because she prepared an algorithm
designed to be executed by a machine.

This mathematician was one of the four scientists who independently

discovered dendrochronology or the study of tree rings; however, A. E.
Douglass is regarded as the fat'her of dendrochronology.
 • Full name: Leonhard Euler

• Born: 15 April 1707 Basel, Swiss Confederacy

• Died: 18 September 1783 (aged 76) Saint Petersburg, Russian

Empire

Leonhard Euler was born on 15 April 1707, in Basel, Switzerland, to

Paul III Euler, a pastor of the Reformed Church, and Marguerite (née
Brucker), whose ancestors include a number of well-known scholars in the
classics.[14] He was the oldest of four children, having two younger sisters,
Anna Maria and Maria Magdalena, and a younger brother, Johann
Heinrich.[15][14] Soon after the birth of Leonhard, the Euler family moved
from Basel to the town of Riehen, Switzerland, where his father became
pastor in the local church and Leonhard spent most of his childhood.

From a young age, Euler received schooling in mathematics from his

father, who had taken courses from Jacob Bernoulli some years earlier at
the University of Basel. Around the age of eight, Euler was sent to live at his
maternal grandmother's house and enrolled in the Latin school in Basel. In
addition, he received private tutoring from Johannes Burckhardt, a young
theologian with a keen interest in mathematics.

In 1720, at thirteen years of age, Euler enrolled at the University of

Basel. Attending university at such a young age was not unusual at the time.
The course on elementary mathematics was given by Johann Bernoulli, the
younger brother of the deceased Jacob Bernoulli (who had taught Euler's
father). Johann Bernoulli and Euler soon got to know each other better.
Euler described Bernoulli in his autobiography: Euler is held to be one of
the greatest mathematicians in history and the greatest of the 18th century.
A statement attributed to Pierre-Simon Laplace expresses Euler's influence
on mathematics: "Read Euler, read Euler, he is the master of us all." Carl
Friedrich Gauss remarked: "The study of Euler's works will remain the best
school for the different fields of mathematics, and nothing else can replace
it." Euler is also widely considered to be the most prolific; his 866
publications as well as his correspondences are collected in the Opera
Omnia Leonhard Euler which, when completed, will consist of 81 quarto
volumes. He spent most of his adult life in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and in
Berlin, then the capital of Prussia.

Euler was also the first practitioner of graph theory (partly as a

solution for the problem of the Seven Bridges of Königsberg). He became
famous for, among many other accomplishments, solving the Basel
problem, after proving that the sum of the infinite series of squared integer
reciprocals equaled exactly π2/6, and for discovering that the sum of the
numbers of vertices and faces minus edges of a polyhedron equals 2, a
number now commonly known as the Euler characteristic. In the field of
physics, Euler reformulated Newton's laws of physics into new laws in his
two-volume work Mechanica to better explain the motion of rigid bodies.
He also made substantial contributions to the study of elastic deformations
of solid objects.