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Greatest Mathematicians

This document summarizes several of the greatest mathematicians throughout history including Archimedes, Euclid, Sir Isaac Newton, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Pythagoras, Blaise Pascal, and Aryabhatta. It provides details about their major mathematical contributions and accomplishments, such as Archimedes' work on areas and volumes, Euclid's Elements being one of the most influential works in mathematics, Newton developing calculus, and Aryabhatta making early contributions to trigonometry and place-value systems.

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mohd irwan
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60 views

Greatest Mathematicians

This document summarizes several of the greatest mathematicians throughout history including Archimedes, Euclid, Sir Isaac Newton, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Pythagoras, Blaise Pascal, and Aryabhatta. It provides details about their major mathematical contributions and accomplishments, such as Archimedes' work on areas and volumes, Euclid's Elements being one of the most influential works in mathematics, Newton developing calculus, and Aryabhatta making early contributions to trigonometry and place-value systems.

Uploaded by

mohd irwan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GREATEST

MATHEMATICIANS

Archimedes
Archimedes is remembered as the greatest mathematician of the ancient
era. He contributed significantly in geometry regarding the areas of plane
figures and the areas as well as volumes of curved surfaces. His works
expected integral calculus almost 2000 years before it was invented by Sir
Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. He also proved that the
volume of a sphere is equal to two-thirds the volume of a circumscribed
cylinder. He regarded this as his most vital accomplishment. So, he desired
that a cylinder circumscribing a sphere ought to be inscribed on his tomb.
He found an approximate value of pi by circumscribing and inscribing a
circle with regular polygons of 96 sides. His works have original ideas,
impressive demonstrations and excellent computational techniques. Some of
these which have survived are:

• on the sphere and cylinder


• measurement of a circle
• quadrature of the parabola
• on floating bodies
• stomachion
• on conoids and spheroids
• on spirals
• on plane equilibriums
• the sand reckoner
Euclid
Euclid is the most famous mathematician of all time. "Euclid's Elements" is
divided into 13 books.

• the initial six are related to plane geometry


• seven, eight and nine are pertaining to number theory
• number ten is regarding Eudoxus's theory of irrational numbers
• eleven to thirteen comprise of solid geometry
• the last part throws light on the properties of five regular
polyhedrons and an evidence that there can be maximum five of these

These Elements have an impressive clarity regarding the selection and


order of the theorems and problems. There are minimum assumptions, less
extraneous material and an excellent logic in the propositions. The
Elements was first published in 1482. The other works of Euclid which
survive
are:

• optics
• phaenomena
• on divisions of figures
• data

The works of Euclid that have not survived are:

• elements of music
• book of
fallacies
• conics
• porisms
• surface loci
Sir Isaac Newton
Newton created the basis for elementary differential and integral calculus
during the plague years. This occurred several years prior to its
independent discovery by the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm
von Leibniz. He called it as the method of fluxions. He proposed that the
integration of a function is the opposite procedure of its differentiation.
Using differentiation as a basic operation, he developed simple analytical
methods concerning issues like finding areas, lengths of curves, areas,
maxima and minima. Newton is credited for development of a potent
problem solving and analysis tool in pure mathematics and physics.

Carl Friedrich Gauss


Gauss was a German mathematician. While he attended Caroline college
from 1792 to 1795, he formulated the least-squared method and a surmise
on the distribution of prime numbers amongst all numbers. In 1795, he
discovered the basic theorem of quadratic residues relating to the concept
of congruence in number theory. In 1796, he proved the possibility of
constructing a 17-sided regular polygon with the help of a ruler and
compass only. In 1799, his dissertation revealed the first evidence of the
fundamental theorem of algebra. In 1801, his treatise – Disquisitiones
arithmeticae set a basis for future research and enabled Gauss to have a
major recognition amongst mathematicians. His became very popular when
he correctly predicted where the asteroid Ceres would reappear by
calculating the orbit by an improved theory.
Pythagoras
He was a Greek mathematician. His belief was that all relations could be
expressed as number relations i.e. all things are numbers. He deduced this
conclusion due to observations in mathematics, music and astronomy. The
Pythagorean theorem is thought to be first proved by the Pythagoreans.
However, it is thought that this was known in Babylonia, where Pythagoras
traveled in his young days. The Pythagoreans also observed that vibrating
strings created harmonious tones if the ratios of the length of the strings are
whole numbers. These ratios could be extended to other devices also. The
important discovery was that the diagonal of a square was not an integral
multiple of its side. This led to the proof of existence of irrational numbers.

Blaise Pascal
The French mathematician had been involved in imaginative and subtle
work in geometry and other branches of mathematics. In 1645, Pascal
invented the first calculating machine and sold it. His work in hydrostatics
led to the invention of the syringe and hydraulic press. In 1647, he
published an essay on conic sections using the methods of Gerard Desargues
and deserted the field of mathematics. However, later he developed an
interest in probability due to his involvement in gambling.

Aryabhatta
"Aryabhatiya" is the name of Aryabhatta's work. There are an
introductory 13 verses followed by 108 verses, all of them divided into 4
chapters. Aryabhatta found out the approximate value of pi and writes
about it in the second part of his works (Ganitapada 10). It is possible that
he found out that pi is irrational. In Ganitapada 6, he mentions the formula
to calculate the value of a triangle. He developed the "Kuttaka" method to
solve first order Diophantine equations. This is termed as the "Aryabhatta
algorithm". The number place-value system was obviously present in his
work. Later, this system was noticed in the 3rd century Bakhshali
manuscript. Georges Ifrah, the French mathematician, states that the
number "zero" was implicit in this system.

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