Name 3 of your favorite mathematicians. And why ?

Answer 1

Gauss>

Carl Friedrich Gauss, the ``Prince of Mathematics,'' exhibited his calculative powers when he corrected his father's arithmetic before the age of three. His revolutionary nature was demonstrated at age twelve, when he began questioning the axioms of Euclid. His genius was confirmed at the age of nineteen when he proved that the regular n-gon was constructible if and only if n is the product of prime Fermat numbers. At age 24 he published Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, probably the greatest book of pure mathematics ever.

Gauss built the theory of complex numbers into its modern form, including the notion of ``monogenic'' functions which are now ubiquitous in mathematical physics. The other contributions of Gauss are quite numerous and include the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra (that an n-th degree polynomial has n complex roots), foundations of statistics (including Law of Least Squares) and differential geometry. He was the premier number theoretician of all time, proving Euler's Law of Quadratic Reciprocity. He also did important work in several areas of physics. Much of Gauss's work wasn't published: unbeknownst to his colleagues it was Gauss who first discovered doubly periodic elliptic functions, non-Euclidean geometry, quaternions, foundations of topology, the ``butterfly'' procedure for rapid calculation of Fourier series, and even the rudiments of knot theory. Also in this category is the Fundamental Theorem of Functions of a Complex Variable (that the line-integral over a closed curve of a monogenic function is zero): he proved this first but let Cauchy take the credit.

Euler>

Euler made decisive contributions in all areas of mathematics. He gave the world modern trigonometry. Just as Archimedes extended Euclid's geometry to marvelous heights, so Euler took marvelous advantage of the analysis of Newton and Leibniz. He probably discovered the calculus of variations first, but modestly let Lagrange take the credit. He was the most prolific mathematician in history and the best algorist. His colleagues called him ``Analysis Incarnate.'' He was supreme at discrete mathematics, as well as continuous: He invented graph theory and generating functions.

Euler combined his brilliance with phenomenal concentration. He developed the first method to estimate the Moon's orbit (the ``three-body problem'' which had stumped Newton), and he settled an arithmetic dispute involving 50 decimal places of a long convergent series. Both these feats were accomplished when he was totally blind.

As a young man, Euler discovered and proved the following:
pi2/6 = 1 + 1/4 + 1/9 + 1/16 + 1/25 + ...
This striking identity catapulted Euler to instant fame, since the right-side infinite sum was a famous unsolved problem of the day.


Newton>

Newton is regarded as the Father of Calculus (what he called the ``method of fluxions''); his most crucial insight being what is now called the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus (that integration and differentiation are each other's inverse operation). He applied calculus to solve a variety of problems: finding areas, tangents, the lengths of curves and the maxima and minima of functions. Other mathematical works include the Binomial Theorem and the numeric Method which still bears his name. An anecodote often cited to demonstrate his brilliance is the problem of the brachistochrone, which had baffled the best mathematicians in Europe, and came to Newton's attention late in life. He solved it in a few hours and published the answer anonymously. But on seeing the solution Johann Bernoulli immediately exclaimed ``I recognize the lion by his footprint.''

Well I can't keep the fourth person out of the list. So the 4th person is

Abel>

Inversion (replacing y = f(x) with x = g(y)) is a key idea in mathematics (consider Newton's Fundamental Theorem of Calculus); Abel developed this insight. One of the most respected mathematicians of Abel's day had spent a lifetime studying elliptic integrals, but Abel inverted these to get elliptic functions, which quickly became a productive field of mathematics, and led to more general complex-variable functions, which were important to the development of both abstract and applied mathematics.

Finding the roots of polynomials is a key mathematical problem: the general solution of the quadratic equation was known by Euclid's time, and the discovery of general methods for solving polynomials of degree three and four is usually treated as the major math achievement of the 16th century, so for over two centuries an algebraic solution for the general 5th-degree polynomial (quintic) was a ``Holy Grail'' sought by most of the greatest mathematicians. Abel proved that most quintics did not have such solutions.

Answer 2

Leohnard Euler - Composed more mathematical writings than any other mathematician. Accomplished many discoveries in several different fields of mathematics and even has a number named after him (e).

Archimedes - Discovered a very close approximation for pi by circumscribing and inscribing regular polygons with hundreds of sides inside a circle and used the resulting ratio.

Georg Cantor - For his insights on infinity and set theory. Basically he proposed that there are different sizes of infinity. For example, consider the number of even numbers that exists. Infinite, but now consider the number of real numbers that exist within all positive numbers. The real numbers are a larger set than the set of even numbers yet both go on for inifinity. There is a very great read about it at a site called "hotel infinity" but the site seems to be down so feel free to read the wiki on it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert's_paradox_of_the_Grand_Hotel

Answer 3

I have no idea what god does. You are assuming the bible was written by a god. Start with the more correct assumption that the bible was written by men (not women) of the bronze age in the middle east. 7 is easy to explain from what the Sumerians developed- most around the way a circle can be divided into 6 (hence 360 degrees, 60 minutes etc) 7 was the magic number beyond.(hence 7 days in week). Same with 40. There are other theories. None involve the use of a god.

Answer 4

Jerry Needlemyer- has the coolest room in his mom's basement with popcorn machine and vintage Pong game.

Brandon G. Gloover- AKA- Human Slide-rule- Has a tattoo of an abacus on his chest and another of the cast of Star Trek Deep Space 9 on his back.

Wentzel Shnotz- has his own apartment and has seen a real vagina without paying for it, or sneaking in on a family member in the shower.

Answer 5

Henri Poincare- I had to do a report on him in Grad School
Fibonacci - Suck up points
Rene DeCartes His name sounds like a girl.

Answer 6

Euler: exp(i*pi) = -1 . . freaky.

Leibnitz: never got his props, although we use all his notation in calculus.

Fourier: Invented a series based on physicial intuition that he used even before it could be "proven" valid. What a rebel!