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572 BCE
Pythagoras (572 - 475 BC)
Pythagoras himself came up with the theory that numbers are of great importance for understanding the natural world, and he studied the role of numbers in music. Although the Pythagorean theorem bears his name, the discoveries of the Pythagorean theorem and that the square root of 2 is an irrational number were most likely made after his death by his followers. Credits: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pythagoras -
470 BCE
Hippocrates (470 - 410 BC)
Hippocrates was a Greek mathematician who is mostly known for his The quadratures of lunes, which were considered to belong to an uncommon class of propositions on account of the close relation of lunes to the circle, were first investigated by Hippocrates, and his exposition was thought to be correct. Credits and complete biography: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hippocrates/ -
325 BCE
Euclid (325 - 265 BC)
Greek Eukleides, is the most prominent mathematician of Greco-Roman antiquity, best known for his treatise on geometry, the Elements which represents the mathematical revolution. He also wrote works on the division of geometrical figures into parts in given ratios, on catoptrics, and on spherical astronomy (the determination of the location of objects on the “celestial sphere”), as well as important texts on optics and music. credits: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/hellenistic_euclid.html -
287 BCE
Archimedes (287 - 212 BC)
Greek mathematician, an engineer, inventor and astronomer, Archimedes was best known throughout most of history for his military innovations like his siege engines and mirrors to harness and focus the power of the sun, as well as levers, pulleys and pumps (including the famous screw pump known as Archimedes’ Screw, which is still used today in some parts of the world for irrigation). Credits and complete biography: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/hellenistic_archimedes.html -
429
Zu Chongzhi (429 - 500)
A Chinese mathematician and astronomer. He introduced the approx 355/113 to π which is correct to 6 decimal places.
He learnt maths from a number of sources, mainly from Liu Hui's on the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Zu learnt other skills too. He was excelled in engineering and was skilled in literary composition writing ten novels. In 462 Zu proposed a new calendar, Calendar of Great Brightness. Credits and biography: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Zu_Chongzhi/ -
476
Aryabhata I (476 - 550)
Aryabhata names the first 10 decimal places and gives algorithms for obtaining square and cubic roots, using the decimal number system. Then he treats geometric measurements—employing 62,832/20,000 (= 3.1416) for π, very close to the actual value 3.14159 and develops properties of similar right-angled triangles and of two intersecting circles. Credits and complete biography: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aryabhata-I -
601
Brahmagupta (7th Century)
He wrote some important works on both mathematics and astronomy. Was the first to consider negative numbers by portraying them as debts. He, like Aryabhata I, could solve linear equations in the form of ax+by= c Credits and complete biography: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/indian_brahmagupta.html -
780
Al - Khwárizmí (780 - 850)
The word “algorithm” is derived from the Latinization of his name, and the word “algebra” is derived from the Latinization of “al-jabr“, in which he introduced the fundamental algebraic methods and techniques for solving equations. His most important contribution to math was his strong advocacy of the Hindu numerical system. Credits and biography: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/islamic_alkhwarizmi.html
Book: https://guao.org/sites/default/files/biblioteca/%C3%81lgebra%20de%20Baldor.pdf -
1170
Leonardo de Pisa (1170 - 1240)
Better known by his nickname Fibonacci, he wrote a hugely influential book called “Liber Abaci” (“Book of Calculation”), in which he promoted the use of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, Practica Geometriae ("Practical Geometry") and liber Quadratorum ("Book of Squares"). Fibonacci sequence, as well as pointed mathematicians Fermat and Euler in the right direction. Credits and biography: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/medieval_fibonacci.html -
1436
Johannes Regiomonanus (1436 - 1476)
German mathematician was the first to develop a statement of the cosine law for spherical triangles that clarified as a theorem in his book, De Triangulis Omnimodis ( On triangles), which he worked on in Rome around 1464. His work was composed of numerous theorems that for the first time used algebra to solve trigonometric problems, which greatly influenced later development of trigonometry. Credits and biography: https://prezi.com/loj4_vzr3sh1/history-of-math-timeline/ -
1535
Rafael Bombelli (1535 - 1615)
Bombelli was an Italian mathematician who wrote an influential algebra text and made free use of negative numbers and complex numbers. Bombelli's Algebra was intended to be in five books. The first three were published in 1572 and at the end of the third book he wrote that.. Bombelli's Algebra was intended to be in five books. The first three were published in 1572 and at the end of the third book he wrote that. Credits and biography: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Bombelli/ -
Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650)
In 1637, he published his ground-breaking philosophical and mathematical treatise “Discours de la méthode” (“Discourse on Method”), and one of its appendices in particular, “La Géométrie”, is now considered a landmark in the history of mathematics. “La Géométrie” introduced what has become known as the standard algebraic notation, using lowercase a, b and c for known quantities and x, y and z for unknown quantities. Credits and biography: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/17th_descartes.html -
Pierre de Fermat ( 1601 -1665)
Pierre de Fermat, effectively invented modern number theory virtually single-handedly, despite being a small-town amateur mathematician. Stimulated and inspired by the “Arithmetica” of the Hellenistic mathematician Diophantus, he went on to discover several new patterns in numbers which had defeated mathematicians for centuries, and throughout his life he devised a wide range of conjectures and theorems. Credits and biography: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/17th_fermat.html -
Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)
He wrote a subject of projective geometry, known as Pascal’s Theorem, which states that if a hexagon is inscribed in a circle, then the three intersection points of opposite sides lie on a single line -the Pascal line. He built a functional calculating machine, able to perform additions and subtractions, to his tax calculations. Pascal also made the conceptual leap to use the Triangle to solve problems in probability theory. Credits: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/17th_pascal.html -
Gottfried Leibniz (1646 - 1716)
His work anticipated modern logic and analytic philosophy. He was perhaps the first to explicitly employ the mathematical notion of function to denote geometric concepts derived from a curve, and he developed a system of infinitesimal calculus, independently of Sir Isaac Newton. He also revived the ancient method of solving equations using matrices, invented a practical calculating machine and pioneered the use of the binary system. Credits: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/17th_leibniz.html -
Marquis de L'Hóspital (1661 - 1704)
He was a French mathematician and wrote the first book on calculus, which consisted of the lectures of his teacher Bernoulli. From a very young age, He has a desire to learn Maths. His familiy, being very wealthy, hired Bernoulli lecture him on everything he knew and L'Hospital absorbed every detail. These lectures led to the first works in differential calculus and his L'Hospital Rule for calculating limits of unkown forms.
Credits: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/De_LHopital/ -
Leonhard Euler (1707 - 1783)
Euler was one of the giants of 18th Century mathematics, Euler is considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. His interests covered almost all aspects of mathematics, from geometry to calculus to trigonometry to algebra to number theory, as well as optics, astronomy, cartography, mechanics, weights and measures and even the theory of music. Credits and biography: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/18th_euler.html -
Sophie Germain (1776 - 1831)
Sophie was a French female mathematician who fought against the norms of ther time. By borrowing male peer's advanced mathematics notes, she taught herself enough to become a well-respected mathematician. Her work in number theory, including Fermat's Last Theorem, solidified her reputations. Credits: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sophie-Germain -
Carl Friedrich Gauss ( 177 - 1855)
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. Credits and biography: https://www.storyofmathematics.com/19th_gauss.html -
Bernard Rieman (1826 - 1866)
German mathematician whose profound and novel approaches to the study of geometry laid the mathematical foundation for Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. He also made important contributions to the theory of functions, complex analysis, and number theory. Riemann introduced a way of generalizing the study of polynomial equations in two real variables to the case of two complex variables. Credits and biography: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bernhard-Riemann -
R.A. Fisher (1890 -1962)
Ronald Fisher was a British statistician and geneticist important in developing the use of statistics in genetics and biomathematics. He studied mathematics and astronomy at Cambridge, he was also interested in biology. He continued his studies at Cambridge under Stratton on the theory of errors, It was Fisher's interest in the theory of errors that eventually led him to investigate statistical problems. Credits: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Fisher/ -
Renfrey Burnard Potts ( 1925 - 2005)
Renfrey Potts was an Australian mathematician who worked in operations research and network problems. He was known as a leader in applied mathematics at the University of Adelaide Where he was appointed chair in 1959. His book, Flows in transportation Networks, serves as an introduction for students and covers areas such as operations research and difference equations. Credits: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Potts/ -
Ivo Milan Babuska (1926 - Present)
Ivo Babuska is a Czech mathematician who works in America and is noted for his work on the finite element method. He studied civel engineering and mathematics in Prague, hene accomplishments in using math to solve engineering problems. His work is most prominent in Differential equations and has a lot of publications on the matter. Babuska teached various subjects in the University of Texas. Credits: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Babuska/
