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.

• All palindromes with even number of digits are divisible by 11.

• 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.

• The number 365 is equal to the sum of three consecutive squares and two consecutive squares in
which the five squares are also consecutive.

• 365 = 102 + 112 + 122 = 132 + 142

• 169 is equal to 132 and its reverse 961 is equal to 312.

• 206156734 = 26824404 + 153656394 + 187967604. This is an integer solution for the equation w4 = x4
+ y4 + z4 found by Noam Elkies.

• 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.

• Perfect squares are the only numbers with an odd number of divisors.

• Saint Hubert is the patron saint of mathematicians.

• When the English mathematician Augustus de Morgan was asked for his age, he would reply, “I was x
years of age in the year x²” (He was 43 in 1849)

• 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”.

• In chess, there are 4897256 total possible positions after 5 moves by both players.

• 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.

• People back then believe that the number of grains of sand is limitless. However, Archimedes argued
in The Sand Reckoner that the number of grains of sand is not infinite. He then gave a method for
calculating the highest number of grains of sand that can fit into the universe, which was approximately
1063 grains of sand in his calculation.

• G. H. Hardy doesn’t like mirrors. He even covered the mirrors in any hotel rooms that he entered.

• 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

• 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

• 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, Thre… 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

• 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 Williarrd 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

Famous Mathematicians and their Contribution

1. Archimedes- famous Greek physicist and mathematician who devised the use of method of
exhaustion. He is the first to attempt in finding the value of pi and known to his books about spheres. In
physics, he was known for his Archimedes' screw and Archimedes' principle.

2. Pythagoras- known for his theorem that in a right triangle, the length of the square of the hypotenuse
is equal to the sum of its squares of its legs (Pythagorean theorem) and he is one who introduced the
numerology, a type of horoscope according to numbers.

3. Apollonius of Perga- he is famous on his studies on conic sections.

4. Thales of Miletus- Greek philosopher who proved that the triangle inscribed in a semicircle is a right
triangle.

5. Eratosthenes- famous in calculating Earth's circumference through shadows and devised the Sieve of
Eratosthenes, a traditional method for finding prime numbers by means of listing.

6. Diophantus- regarded as the Father of Algebra and wrote the book Arithmetica, an essential book for
algebra. He was known for his equations that bear on his name.

7. Babylonians- first to introduced the first numeral system existed throughout

the history.

8. Hipparchus- known as one who devised the trigonometric tables using the chords of the circle.

9. Cladius Ptolemy- geographer and mathematician known for his geocentric model and known for his
theorem on the diagonals of a cyclical quadrilateral.

10. Euclid- famous author of The Elements which paved way in studying plane geometry.
11. Nicole Oresme- he is known in introducing the plus sign (+).

12. Rene Descartes- French philosopher and mathematician known in introducing the coordinate system
which became the basis of analytic geometry. Known also for his modern symbols in radical with
vinculum (a bar found at the top) and theories about polynomial function.

13. Christoff Rudolf- the first to introduce the radical sign.

14. Leonardo Fibonacci- known to his sequence 1,1, 2,3,5..... which is known as Fibonacci sequence.

15. Al-Khwarizmi- an Arab mathematician who contributes greatly in Algebra especially law of
exponents.

16. John Wallis- known for his definite integrals involving trigonometric derivatives.

17. Nikolai Lobachevsky and Janos Bolyai- they are the founders of hyperbolic geometry, a type of non-
Euclidean geometry.

18. Benoit Mandelbrot- known for his introduction of fractals, a geometric figure that exhibits self
similarity.

19. Pappus- known for his theorem on solid of revolutions.

20. Neils Henrik Abel- known for his Abellian group that is use in number theory.

21. Gabriel Cramer- devised the method of solving linear equations through determinants.
22. Johannes Kepler- a physicist and mathematician and student of Tycho Brahe who devised the three
planetary laws and concluded that the orbit of the planets are elliptical.

23. Isaac Newton- one of the founders of calculus who devised the method of fluxions and fluents.

24. Guillaume de L'Hospital- known for his special rule for limits that states that

the limit of f(x)/g(x) as x approaches to the certain value is equal to the quotient of the value substituted
on the partial derivative of f(x) and g(x) provided that f (x)/g(x) is indeterminate.

25. David Hilbert- known for his Hilbert's problem that composes of difficult math problems that cannot
be solve.

27. Blaise Pascal- inventor of Pascalline and introduced a special triangle for finding the coefficients of a
binomial expansion.

28. Gino Fano- known for his introduction of Fano plane, a projective plane having 7 points and 7 lines.

29. Georg Cantor- he introduced the set theory and some symbols for set theory.

30. Guissepi Peano- one who introduced the symbols for union, intersection, universal and subset.

31. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz- one of the founders of calculus with Isaac Newton who introduce the
Leibniz rule and modern symbol for integration, the elongated S.

33. Leonhard Euler- blind mathematician known for his Euler's number (e) and modern symbols for
differentiation. He also attempted to find the value of pi and devised the formula for the Platonic solids.

34. Georg Friedrich Riemann- known for his introduction of elliptical geometry.
35. Albert Einstein- famous German-American physicist who was known for his E=mc^2.

36. Carl Friedrich Gauss- the Princeps Mathematicorum who introduced the normal distribution, the
congruence symbol or modulus in number theory, a method of finding the echelon of a matrix and first
to devised a formula in finding the sums of a given sequence.

37. William Rowan Hamilton- known for his discovery and introduction of quaternions, a type of normed
division algebra that involves distinct imaginary parts.