-
5000 BCE
Writing Developed
This is when writing was developed and a need for recording what was produced and needed taxed was required. Mathematics became a specialized type of writing. -
Period: 1101 BCE to 263
Nine Chapters of the Mathematical Art
This mathematical classic is dated back to the 11th century but Liu Hui's verison was made known in 263 A.D. -
600 BCE
Greek Mathematicians Begin Discussion Mathematics
An exact date isn't known but there are arguments known to have happened surrounding mathematics back in 600 B.C. -
569 BCE
Pythagoras of Samos is born
In Samos, Ionia (Greece), Pythagoras was born in 569 B.C. He is a well known mathematician, philosopher and founded a brotherhood called the Pythagorean Brotherhood that supported the development of new mathematics concepts of that time. -
Period: 500 BCE to 401 BCE
The Pythagorean Theorem Originated
While an exact date is difficult to be determined, we know that Pythagoras lived during the 5th century. Mathematicains wrote about his work many centuries after he was alive. Pythagoras stated that when finding the distance between two points in a triangle, if you know two sides, you will be able to find the other side by using a^2+b^2=c^2. This is important to coordinate planes because it is closely related to the distance formula discovered by Descartes. -
350 BCE
A connection between algebra and geometry is first made
In ancient Greece, about 350 B.C., Menaechmus made the connection between cutting a cone to the solution of numerical proportions. -
Period: 350 BCE to 416 BCE
Hypatia
Daughter of Theon, (Theon was a Greek mathematician known for his work prior to Pythagoras) was one of the first women to be known for her work in mathematics. She continued in her father's footsteps studying mathematics and philosophy. -
300 BCE
Euclid's "Elements" is written
This is the oldest, surviving Greek mathematical work. -
Period: 262 BCE to 190 BCE
Apollonius of Perga lives
Apollonius' work followed Menaechmus of investigating locus questions: What points satisfy a given set of conditions, and do they form some kind of line or curve? For more information, see Math Through the Ages: A Gentle Hisotry for Teachers and Others- page 172 -
Period: 601 to 700
Brahmagupta and Bhaskara
The 7th century created two famous Indian mathematicians, Brahmagupta and Bhaskara. Their work influenced the work with negative quantities. -
Period: 801 to 900
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was an Arabic mathematician who expanded on the decimal writing system and wrote several influential pieces. -
1300
Nicole Oresme
Nicole Oresme, a French philosopher, describes a way of graphing the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent one. -
Period: 1540 to
François Viète
A continued attempt to connect algebra to geometry comes with François Viète attempt to represent quantities with letters and relationships with equations. -
1577
A clock with minute hands in invented
A Swiss clockmaker, Jost Burgi, invents the first clock that includes minute hands. -
René Descartes was born
In La Haye, France, French mathematician and philosopher, René Descartes was born. He was home-schooled by his parents until the age of 8. -
"Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe to heaven" by Shakespeare
William Shakespeare has written: "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe to heaven. (From All's Well that Ends Well, first performed in 1602.) -
Shakespeare dies
William Shakespeare dies at the age of 52. -
First Thanksgiving
The Wompanoag chief has a meal with The Pilgrims in Massachusetts. This is the first Thanksgiving to be celebrated in the United States. -
Pierre de Fermat wrote letters with key concepts related to coordinate systems
Fermat was one of the "world's finest mathematical amateur" from France. He devised a coordinate system of sorts that related plotting the relationship between two unknown quantities. -
"Discourse on the Method"
French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes publishes "Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences". In "Discourse on Method", there were three sections. In the last section, La Géometrie, he described what we know as the Cartesian Coordinates.
For more on this publication: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/descartes-and-his-coordinate-system -
Distance Formula
Within the publication of "Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting Reason and Seeking Truth in Sciences", Rene Descartes applied Pythagoras' theorem to the distance between points on the coordinate plane by stating: d = sqrt[(x2-x1)^2+(y2-y1)^2]. He also assigned every point on the Euclidean plane with and ordered pair (x,y). He connected algebra with equations and numbers to geometry with shapes, lines and angles. For more info:
https://blog.mathteachersresource.com/?p=171 -
Harvard College founded
The oldest institution of higher education in the United States, Harvard College, was founded. -
Period: to
La Geometrie translated into Latin
Dutch mathematician Frans van Schooten translated the difficult to read "La Geometrie" from Descartes' original language of French to Latin which broadened the accessibility of Descartes ideas. -
Period: to
John Wallis extends on Descartes idea of the coordinate plane to include negative coordinates
Up to this point, both Decartes and Fermat only considered positive coordinates. John Wallis, an English mathematician, extended the idea of the coordinate plane to have a vertical axis and include negative coordinates.
