The Indian mathematician and astronomer, Brahmagupta, contributed great knowledge through his works. Brahmagupta contributed to both Indian mathematics and astronomy and attempted to link the two subjects together. For mathematics specifically, his ideas were genius. He made great advances in arithmetic algebra, numerical analysis, and geometry; these new concepts aid mathematicians to this day.
Born in Bhinmal city in the state of Rajasthan of northwest India, Brahmagupta's life spanned from A.D. 598 to 670. Within his lifetime, he became the head of an astronomical observatory in Ujjain, northwestern India. This observatory was the center of mathematicians in India. During this time, he wrote four works about mathematics and astronomy. These works also contained criticism on the work of Brahmagupta's rival mathematicians.
Brahmagupta's most significant work was the Brahmasphutasiddhanta. This work reveals many important concepts, the existence of zero being one of the most consequential. This new number would represent nothing. As basic as the number zero is today, the concept was revolutionary during that time period.
Zero was an essential number in the number system. This number would baffle mathematicians for thousands of years even though zero made a few appearances throughout history. The first people to allegedly use this number were the Babylonians ("A history of Zero"). The Greeks would follow the Babylonians in the hunt to understand the concept behind zero. India was behind the times and wouldn't be introduced to zero until many centuries later.
So what is this zero that has baffled many for so long? This number can serve many different functions. The most common use is to represent itself as nothing. The seco...
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...h. After new concepts and more ideas are compiled and proved, calculus is born. Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry are all just merely the beginning to something bigger, something greater, and Brahmagupta can say he played a part in inventing calculus.
Brahmagupta was a major contributor to mathematics. He has theorems and formulas that bear his name, and many mathematicians are amazed at what he accomplished in his lifetime. He was one of the greatest Indian mathematicians ("Brahmagupta", Mathematician Biography, Facts and Pictures). He revolutionized India, and in the beginning his ideas would spread through trade routes only to be improved or built upon. Another incredible feat was that Brahmagupta wasn't narrow-minded. Instead, he came up with ideas for multiple fields of math. This knowledge would in turn aid mathematicians and guide mathematics.
Ancient Greece's philosophers and mathematicians have made contributions to western civilizations. Socrates believed that a person must ask questions and seek to understand the world around them. Aristotle, another famous philosopher, is known for believing that if people study the origin of life, they will understand it more. Reasoning is what makes human beings unique. Hippocrates was a mathematician and a doctor. He created the Hippocratic oath. The oath states that Hippocrates will treat his patient to the best of his abilities that he will refuse to give deadly medicine. This oath is still used by doctors today. Another Greek mathematician was Euclid. His ideas were the starting point of geometry, which is still studied around the world today.
“’The profound study of nature is the most fertile source of mathematical discoveries’ (Joseph Fourier)” (Deb Russell). This quote was spoken by a famous mathematician by the name of Joseph Fourier. Throughout his life, Joseph Fourier had made numerous contributions to the math community, many of which are still taught in schools today. From his early years until death, he lived an adventurous life filled with multiple achievements, all of which contribute to the status of legendary mathematician.
The three mathematicians I chose are as follows: Johann Heinrich Lambert, Evariste Galois, and David Hilbert. Johann Heinrich Lambert was an 18th century mathematician, and his contribution to trigonometry was providing evidence that “Pi” is irrational. His contribution was important because “Pi” is used for finding the circumference of a circle to its diameter. In addition, Evariste Galois was a 19th century mathematician, and his contribution to trigonometry was discovering the theory of polynomial equations. His contribution was important because he proved that there is no general algebraic method for solving polynomial equations of any exponent greater than four. Lastly, David Hilbert was a 20th century mathematician, and his contribution included more complex trigonometry problems. He discovered a new formal set of geometrical axioms, known as Hilbert’s axioms. Also, he showed that there were an infinite number of possible equations.
The Greeks made other mathematical discoveries as well, however. Diophantus was the discoverer of fractions, and was an early scholar of algebra. Diphantus’ algebraic problems would become fruitful and inspiring mental exercises for future mathematicians for many centuries to come, like Plato’s Platonic Solids (Plato identified five three-dimensional shapes that were the only possible convex regular polyhedra) did for future mathematicians as well.
It was the Ancient Greeks to first invent this field of mathematics and it has had drastic influences on the world today because without it many of the buildings and architecture around the world could not be built.One could find it hard to build without no mathics, if one doesn’t have the mathics involved with building a strong base for the military, It will not and can’t stand a blast from enemy fire.
Over the centuries, math has evolved in an astounding way. Since the beginning of time, there have been many mathematicians that has influenced and contributed to the math we know today. None compares to the work of Sir Isaac Newton. He was influential as a person, as well as in his work.
John Napier was a mathematician during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. He was known for the development of the decimal point, discovering exponential form, logarithms, and Napier’s Rods. All of his discoveries and developments gave him a place in history as one of the early, great mathematicians. His discoveries didn’t only help other mathematicians, but they also helped astronomers do their calculations more quickly and other science based studies. While his first loves were theology and astronomy, he excelled in mathematics. The world of science and math was made simpler by John Napier’s discoveries.
...to the Second Punic War with the defense of Syracuse. He even made amazing engineering tools and machines that benefitted the community, like the Archimedes screw, which helped irrigation among other things. The Archimedes’ principle, which is said to of helped King Hiero ll, showed the different densities between objects using the buoyancy of the water. The findings in mathematics from Archimedes like The Quadrature of the Parabola and the Measurement of a Circle have greatly benefitted mathematics and are still helping now. Archimedes wrote a lot of different works, including his most famous Archimedes Palimpsest, which contained many more important writing like On Floating Bodies. With his amazing inventions, intricate ideas on science, intelligent theorems and principles in mathematics, and his life in general, Archimedes has greatly affected society in many ways
However, his greatest contribution to mathematics is considered to be logic, for without logic there would be no reasoning and therefore no true valid rules to the science of mathematics.
Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest mathematicians to ever live, which is displayed in all of his inventions. His main pursuit through mathematics was to better the understanding and exploration of the world. He preferred drawing geographical shapes to calculate equations and create his inventions, which enlisted his very profound artistic ability to articulate his blueprints. Leonardo Da Vinci believed that math is used to produce an outcome and thus Da Vinci thought that through his drawings he could execute his studies of proportional and spatial awareness demonstrated in his engineering designs and inventions.
Carl Friedrich Gauss is revered as a very important man in the world of mathematicians. The discoveries he completed while he was alive contributed to many areas of mathematics like geometry, statistics, number theory, statistics, and more. Gauss was an extremely brilliant mathematician and that is precisely why he is remembered all through today. Although Gauss left many contributions in each of the aforementioned fields, two of his discoveries in the fields of mathematics and astronomy seem to have had the most tremendous effect on modern day mathematics.
...st important scientists in history. It is said that they both shaped the sciences and mathematics that we use and study today. Euclid’s postulates and Archimedes’ calculus are both important fundamentals and tools in mathematics, while discoveries, such Archimedes’ method of using water to measure the volume of an irregularly shaped object, helped shaped all of today’s physics and scientific principles. It is for these reasons that they are remembered for their contributions to the world of mathematics and sciences today, and will continue to be remembered for years to come.
The 17th Century saw Napier, Briggs and others greatly extend the power of mathematics as a calculator science with his discovery of logarithms. Cavalieri made progress towards the calculus with his infinitesimal methods and Descartes added the power of algebraic methods to geometry. Euclid, who lived around 300 BC in Alexandria, first stated his five postulates in his book The Elements that forms the base for all of his later Abu Abd-Allah ibn Musa al’Khwarizmi, was born abo...
Srinivasa Ramanujan was one of India's greatest mathematical geniuses. He made contributions to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series.
Zero is where it all begins. The use of zero is well known today. But where did it come from? Everything is created, it does not just show up. The use of zero predates the twenty-first century. It is one of the largest controversies of all time. Present day math and even ancient math would not have been the same without it. Zero was conspicuously absent from most early number systems and all earlier civilizations. So where did it come from? No one knows exactly where and when it was invented, nor who invented it. The origin of zero is controversial. Many believe it was invented around 500 B.C., but each civilization/culture has their own theory.