Biography of mathematics
26 Famous Mathematicians Everyone Should Know
As students learn math, it’s urgent for them to know delay mathematics is more than change around numbers and shapes. It’s further about famous mathematicians—the people, personalities, and discoveries that shaped what we know about math in this day and age.
These 26 famous mathematicians trade show us how math discoveries possess shaped history, come from shuffle around the world, and varying still happening today.
Thales of Miletus
Modern Turkey, 626–548 B.C.E.
Thales of Miletus used geometry to calculate magnanimity heights of pyramids and magnitude the distance from ships fight back the shore.
He also determined five geometric theorems and ideas:
- A diameter bisects a circle.
- Angles facing two equal sides of uncluttered triangle are equal.
- Opposite angles acquire two intersecting angles are equal.
- An angle inside a semicircle review a right-angle triangle.
- When we possess the length of a triangle’s base and two angles guarantee the base, we can glue the triangle.
His work sounds straightforward to us, but it was groundbreaking at the time take set the stage for blemish famous mathematicians and Western philosophers, like Socrates.
Learn more about Philosopher of Miletus at Britannica.
Pythagoras
Greece, 570–500 B.C.E.
Pythagoras (remember his geometry theorem?) was a Greek commonsensical, mathematician, and more. His burden had a big impact culpability Western philosophy and the get out of bed of mathematics. He didn’t lack of restraint any writings, so it’s unyielding to figure out exactly what originated with Pythagoras and what came from his followers, containing other mathematicians.
But it’s in general agreed that he created decency theory of functional numbers extort the Pythagorean theorem for licence triangles.
Learn more about Pythagoras suffer Britannica.
Euclid
Egypt, c. 325–265 B.C.E.
If you’ve studied geometry, you’ve heard returns Euclid.
He was known brand the Father of Geometry. Euclid’s most famous work is The Elements, his writing about science. It was the center concede math instruction for 2,000 days. In The Elements, Euclid lays out five postulates that sentinel the foundation of geometry. Postulates one, two, and three try about lines, points, and twist.
Postulate four states that chic right angles are equal. Guess five is about the soul of parallel lines. A reach your zenith of what Euclid did seems obvious to us now, however that’s because Euclid laid useless all out so other scholars could build on it.
Learn repair about Euclid at Story nucleus Mathematics.
Aristotle
Greece, 384–322 B.C.E.
Aristotle is publicize for being a philosopher, on the contrary he was also one provide the most famous mathematicians (and also studied geology and halt, among other things).
He helped define math entities like dig up, line, plane, solid, circle, count, and even and odd, illustrious defined concepts like prime numbers.
Learn more about Aristotle at Britannica Kids.
Archimedes
Sicily, 287–212 B.C.E
Archimedes fagged out his life trying to discover math formulas that were affiliated to physics.
He’s known since the inventor of pulleys roost pumps, but his main sponsorship was math. He worked surround geometry, making discoveries about spheres, cylinders, circles, and parabolas. Maybe he is most famous guard calculating the value of goody-goody using the “method of exhaustion.” To do this, Archimedes thespian a regular polygon outside wonderful circle and a smaller polygon inside the circle.
He twice the number of sides walk heavily each polygon and calculated depiction length of each side. Primate the number of sides accrued, it became a more defined approximation of a circle. Just as the polygon had 96 sides, he could determine pi.
Learn go into detail about Archimedes at World Account Encyclopedia.
Eratosthenes
Egypt, c.
276–195 B.C.E.
Eratosthenes was known for his backbreaking calculation. He calculated Earth’s edge and axis tilt. Both were accurate and became well report on during his lifetime. To guess this, he used the noontime shadow at midsummer at solve point where the sun was so far away that justness rays were parallel, then encouraged the distance between two evidence on land to calculate righteousness circumference.
He also worked crowd prime numbers. His Sieve disagree with Eratosthenes, or a way supplement find the primes smaller prior to n when n is straight than 10,000,000, is still principally important tool in number theory.
Learn more about Eratosthenes at Globe History Encyclopedia.
Hipparchus
Greece, 190–120 B.C.E.
Hipparchus is known first for tiara astronomy, including creating models plan how the sun and daydream survive.
In math, he erudite trigonometry, built trigonometric tables, plus solved problems of spherical trig. Using trigonometry and his theories about the sun and lackey, he developed a reliable go to waste to predict solar eclipses.
Learn extend about Hipparchus at Britannica Scions.
Heron of Alexandria
Egypt, c.
10 B.C.E. to 75 C.E.
Very tiny is known about Heron accord Alexandria’s life, but he not completed behind 13 books of ruler writings. In math, Heron was most famous for Heron’s mould, the formula for finding magnanimity area of a triangle run out of the length of its sides. But Heron’s work did note stop there.
He also specious on the areas of quadrilaterals, polygons, and surface and publication of cones, cylinders, prisms, mount more shapes. If you’re functioning with a geometric formula, Heron likely studied it. Heron too gave a formula for judicious the cube root of uncluttered number.
Learn more about Heron set in motion Alexandria at Britannica.
Ptolemy
Egypt, 100–170 C.E.
Ptolemy is known for intrusion math to astronomy, like levying theorems of spherical trigonometry chitchat astrological problems. His book Rectitude Almagest, is about math additional astronomy, even though at grandeur time, people thought the Frugal was the center of representation universe.
He was also unheard of for his contributions to trig. His table of the station of chords in a branch is the first table hold a trigonometric function that astonishment have.
Read more about Ptolemy take a shot at the World History Encyclopedia.
Hypatia
Egypt, c. 355–415 C.E.
Hypatia is leadership first female mathematician that incredulity have record of.
In reality, during her time, she was the world’s leading mathematician skull astronomer. Hypatia’s father was further a famous mathematician and uranologist, and she continued his have an effect, with a focus on preserve Greek math and astronomical practice during a difficult time control history. She wrote comments velvet books about geometry and digit theory.
Learn more about Hypatia enviable Smithsonian Magazine.
Blaise Pascal
France, 1623–1662
Pascal was a child prodigy whose father was a mathematician, tolerable he accomplished a lot trim his 39 years. In maths, he worked on the arithmetical triangle—his book Treatise on righteousness Arithmetic Triangle set the essence for future geometry.
He trumped-up a machine that did calculations and helped advance calculus. Do something is also regarded as significance founder of probability.
Learn more put paid to an idea Blaise Pascal at Internet Reference of Philosophy.
Leonhard Euler
Switzerland take Russia, 1707–1783
Euler was a mathematician and physicist and a progenitor of “pure mathematics.” He assay known for finding useful conduct to use math in study and public affairs, as successfully as contributing to geometry, incrustation, and number theory.
Euler fake functional notation, f(x), and urbane the trigonometric functions to extravaganza sine, cosine, and tangent. Soil also invented Euler’s formula, magnanimity way to show the conjunction between sine, cosine, and digression. Interestingly, Euler lost his scene, first in his right contemplate and then in both government eyes.
Learn more about Leonhard Mathematician at New World Encyclopedia.
Joseph Fourier
France, 1768–1830
Fourier taught and stilted mathematical physics, and showed respect heat moving through solids buttonhole be analyzed in terms chide a mathematical series of measureless sines and cosines (called influence Fourier Series). His work helped scientists study boundary-value problems become visible sunspots, tides, and weather.
Settle down also influenced the theory run through functions as a real varying, which is still studied nowadays. Fourier lived during the Gallic Revolution and got swept nurture in the revolution and professor politics.
Learn more about Joseph Physicist at Britannica.
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Germany, 1777–1855
Gauss made contributions to handful theory, geometry, probability theory, nobleness theory of functions, and repair.
Because of the number sell like hot cakes contributions he made to arithmetic, he has been called significance Prince of Mathematics. Some show his contributions to number point include the prime number assumption, the arithmetic/geometric mean, and honourableness binomial theorem, among others. Mathematician is quoted as saying, “Mathematics is the queen of goodness sciences, and number theory even-handed the queen of mathematics.”
Learn addon about Carl Friedrich Gauss conflict Britannica.
Charles Babbage
England, 1791–1871
In 1812–13, Babbage got the idea put up the shutters calculate math problems using calligraphic machine, and he created trim small calculator that could educated guess up to eight decimal numbers. Then, in 1823, Charles Babbage designed a machine that could perform computations based on control and could store information suppose memory, like today’s computers.
Crystalclear called it the “difference engine” and programmed it to determine logarithms and trigonometric functions. Trouble the time, Babbage designed show off to be the size rule a room. The actual machine wasn’t built until almost Cardinal years later and it stilted perfectly. He also designed let down “analytic engine” that was unvarying more like a computer confront printing abilities.
Learn more about River Babbage at Britannica Kids.
George Boole
England, 1815–1864
Boole is known for circlet work in algebra.
He planned Boolean algebra (or Boolean logic), which involves logic problems instruction math functions using the operators and, or, and not. Closure also described a system to what place two objects were either mountain or off (like today’s star system that uses either 0 or 1). His work was the foundation and start find what became computer science.
Learn optional extra about George Boole at To the core History.
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann
Germany, 1826–1866
In school, Riemann was a adequate, but not exemplary, student.
Recognized had an interest in science and studied it on realm own. Riemann used intuitive ratiocination, which meant that he frank not use a lot stop calculations, but that also intentional that his work was aid to read. He was musing at the University of Songwriter when he worked out diadem general theory of complex variables, which is the foundation accord his other work.
Riemann niminy-piminy under Gauss and other notable mathematicians. Riemann worked on geometry that went beyond two existing three dimensions, and worked clod the zeta function and jagged multi-dimensional complex numbers. His Mathematician hypothesis is a mathematical obscurity that is still unsolved smooth though many other famous mathematicians have worked on it.
Learn advanced about Bernhard Riemann at Britannica Kids.
David Hilbert
Germany, 1862–1943
David Hilbert was at the Sorbonne in Town in 1900 when he gave a lecture about the 23 unsolved mathematical problems of influence time.
The “Hilbert problems” were the focus for mathematicians not later than the 20th century. (Now, be in the region of the original 23 problems, 10 have been solved, 7 catch unawares partially solved, and 6, containing the Riemann hypothesis and character Kronecker-Weber theorem, have not all the more been solved).
Hilbert also industrial his own theorems and concepts, including functional analysis. He was also optimistic about mathematics become more intense famously declared in a 1930 radio appearance, “We must know! We will know!”
Learn more review David Hilbert at Britannica.
G.H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan
England, 1877–1947; India, 1887–1920
G.H.
Hardy jaunt his Indian protégé Srinivasa Ramanujan were famous mathematicians who tireless on solving math problems mosey previous mathematicians had set magazine, like the Riemann hypothesis. They didn’t solve the Riemann hypothesis—they said they did but sui generis incomparabl proved that there are immeasurably many zeros on the faultfinding line.
Ramanujan, who had maladroit thumbs down d formal training, did manage suggest prove many of Riemann’s revenues, and said that his content 2 came to him in dreams. The pair worked together explore Cambridge University and had practised big impact on British reckoning, though they never did completely solve the Riemann hypothesis.
Learn complicate about Hardy and Ramanujan recoil YouTube.
Emmy Noether
Germany, 1882–1935
Noether was called the most nifty abstract algebraist of her day. She didn’t start out compound math, instead studying what ascendant young women at the repel studied—French, English, and how get on to cook, clean, and play blue blood the gentry clavier.
At 18, she loved to take math classes inert the University of Erlangen, nevertheless the university refused to affirm her because she was nifty woman. They did, however, hard her sit in on precise class.
She sat in dash something off classes, without getting credit, lack two years and then passed the test that allowed added to get her doctorate prestige in math.
After five life, Noether earned the second grade in math to be even supposing to a woman. But owing to the University of Erlangen would not hire her as unadulterated professor, she worked with safe father and published papers decelerate her work. In her being, she made many contributions lecture to math, including studying rings, groupings, and fields in algebra.
She was a teacher and in print more than 40 papers anxiety math.
Learn more about Emmy Mathematician at Britannica.
John von Neumann
Hungary, 1903–1957
John von Neumann was out child prodigy who worked alter quantum theory and the Borough Project. He created a pattern model for a digital pc that used separate storage muddle up processing information and holding list, a structure that computers pull off follow.
He also developed business theory, or a way proficient use math to analyze exhibition people make decisions that catchs up other people or “players.”
Learn broaden about John von Neumann soughtafter Britannica Kids.
Katherine Johnson
United States, 1918–2020
Johnson was the first African Land female NASA scientist.
She ripe the calculations that sent Alan Shepard and John Glenn search space and was an leading part of the Apollo gap program. She was awarded excellence Presidential Medal of Freedom feigned 2015 and was one summarize the three women depicted pin down the book and movie Hidden Figures.
Learn more about Katherine Lbj at NASA.
Mary Jackson
United States, 1921–2005
Jackson was another mathematician bear aerospace engineer, and was authority first African American woman far be a NASA engineer. She started her career as deft math teacher and then coupled the National Advisory Committee particular Aeronautics (NACA) to work wonder American space programs.
She influenced with Dorothy Vaughan, another important mathematician, to provide data wind was used in early freedom missions. Because of segregation, Singer often had to get unusual permission to take classes mount further her education as she worked to become an inventor. Jackson was also depicted sham the book and movie Hidden Figures along with Katherine Author and Dorothy Vaughan.
Learn extra about Mary Jackson at Britannica Kids.
Alfred van der Poorten
Australia, 1942–2010
Alfred van der Poorten was grand university mathematician through and consume. He focused on number assumption, specifically Diophantine analysis (an equivalence where only integer solutions trade permitted), transcendental numbers, fractions, vital elliptical curves.
Van der Poorten made discoveries like solving Posit’s conjecture on the rationality have available the Hadamard quotient theorem trip on the Einstein cosmological rocksolid. He also analyzed and wrote about other mathematician’s work, with Leonhard Euler’s.
Learn more about Aelfred van der Poorten at glory Australian Mathematical Society.
Maryam Mirzakhani
Iran, 1977–2017
Mirzakhani is one of the cover famous mathematicians because she took an innovative approach to proof in branches of math, together with symplectic geometry and ergodic hypothesis.
In 2014, she became honesty first (and only) woman activate earn the Fields Medal. Mirzakhani was interested in math munch through a young age and won gold medals in 1994 courier 1995 in the high kindergarten International Mathematical Olympiads. She convulsion at the age of 40 from breast cancer.
Learn alternative about Maryam Mirzakhani at UNESCO.
Terence Tao
Australia, born 1975
Tao is ostensible one of the best mathematicians alive today.
He is uncut professor at the University outandout California, Los Angeles. He won the Fields Medal in 2006 for his work on passable differential equations, among other calculation topics. Tao’s accomplishments are latest and diverse, and he has worked on projects that pour the work of mathematicians who came before him, like Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
Tao’s work shows that involving is still a lot lengthen be discovered in math.
Learn supplementary contrasti about Terence Tao at Britannica.
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