FAMOUS MATHEMATICIANS

A - ISAAC NEWTON

Isaac Newton was born in Lincolnshire in 1642. His father died before Newton was born and his mother remarried. The time he spent with his mother was very troublesome since he did not like his stepfather at all. Newton became a student at Trinity College in Cambridge. He spent a lot of time pursuing his love for astronomy and he spent time learning about the lives and work of many famous astronomers. One of Newton’s best known achievements was his discovery of the generalized binomial theorem. Ironically, he was not considered all that great of a student when he was enrolled in college. When he graduated, he invested a great deal of time in self-study. During this period of self-study, he focused on physics, calculus, and the laws of gravity. Newton made many discoveries in areas related to optics, the theory of finite differences, and innovative applications in geometry. Based on his very unique work, he received a great deal of acclaim. This led to him being named Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669. Economic hardships, however, caused him great trouble later in life.

B - BLAISE PASCAL

Blaise Pascal was born in France, in 1623. His father did not believe in the French school system so he chose to homeschool his son. Ironically Pascal was not taught mathematics until he was 15. Starting late did not have much of a negative effect on Pascal’s skills as a mathematician. In fact, Pascal would study maths on his own in secret. At the age of 12, he made the discovery that two right angles are the sum of a triangle. Pascal continued to take his study of maths very seriously. Pascal followed his father to Paris when the elder Pascal was offered a job as a tax collector. To help his father out with the collection of taxes, Pascal designed and invented a primitive calculator. In 1653, Pascal published the groundbreaking work The Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids. Pascal’s most famous work from the time period would be The Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle, which was an innovative study into the triangle that would set the stage for a great deal of geometric revelations in the future.

C - MARIE SOPHIE GERMAIN

Marie Sophie Germain was born in France, in 1776. It is claimed that her father was a very wealthy silk merchant. When Sophie turned 13, the Bastille fell and this forced her to stay indoors a lot. To kill her boredom, Sophie turned to her father’s library where she became interested in mathematics. She taught herself Latin and Greek so she was able to read works on famous mathematicians. Her parents didn’t like the idea that their daughter loved that subject and tried to stop her. But eventually, they realized their daughter was serious. In 1794, Ecole Polytechnique opened. Since she was a woman, Sophie was barred from joining this school. However, she managed to get lecture notes and send her work to Joseph Louis Lagrange (a faculty member). Sophie heard of a contest sponsored by the Paris Academy of Sciences and submitted a paper on elasticity in 1811, but she did not win the prize. She later tried the same contest again but failed. On her next try, however, she won and became the first woman to win a prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences. 

D - ARCHIMEDES

Archimedes was born in Italy, in 287 BC. Archimedes’ father, Phidias, was an astronomer of some note, and his family was well off. Because of his position, Archimedes was able to travel to Alexandria, Egypt, for his formal education. Upon completing his studies, he returned to Syracuse to help with his family and to work for King Hiero II as an engineer inventing machines of war and improving the designs of existing ones. The Claw of Archimedes was a weapon designed to intercept enemy ships entering the Syracuse harbour, stop them, lift them and topple them into the water. On his own, Archimedes continued to study geometry and science and the principles of mechanics and made many major contributions to these disciplines. He created formulations for such mathematical accomplishments as a formula to measure the area of a circle. Additionally, he was able to discover the precise value of pi and create a formula for determining the volume of a sphere. His formulas are still in use today.

Adapted from famous-mathematicians.org