Joseph Fourier
“’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.
According to Dirk Struik of the encyclopedia Britannica online, Joseph Fourier was born on March 21, 1768 in Auxerre France (Struik). As described in the article, Joseph Fourier, from the famous people website, Fourier was born into a wealthy family. He was the son of Joseph Fourier, father, and Edmee Germaine Lebegue, mother, only to become an orphan soon after (famous people). From this point forward he began to turn to education in order to better is life.
During his lifetime, Fourier had been to multiple different schools, both to teach and to be taught. Paraphrased from the same source material as above, His first educational experience came from Pallais’s school, which was under the leadership of a local music teacher. His next stop on the expedition for education was a military school by the French name Ecole Royale Militaire of Auxerre. During his time there, he expressed many great qualities in the field of literature; however, by the age of thirteen he discovered mathematics which belittled any interest in literature (famous people). From this point on he would become enveloped in the study of mathematics, which would lead to numerous teaching jobs.
As expressed by the previous website, one of his first roles ...
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... a century long debate about global warming and the greenhouse effect. Lastly, as a result of his overwhelming contributions and popularity in France, Joseph Fourier is one of only seventy two people to have their names inscribed in the Eiffel Tower in France (famous people). This shows that along with his mathematical contributions, Joseph Fourier lived an exotic life with many other adventures along the way.
According to the previous source material, following a fall from a flight of stairs on May 4, 1830, Joseph Fourier passed away on May 16, 1830 (famous people). Gone but not forgotten, Joseph Fourier lived an exciting life filled with many adventures. From his contributions to the math and science world, to his involvement in politics, and ending in his death, Fourier left his impact on the math community with his many contributions that are still in use today.
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was born on February 28, 1533, in a time when only the wealthy received the privilege of a good education. Around 1539, Montaigne's father sent him to the College of Guyenne in Bordeaux, where, by the time he had reached his thirteenth year, had completed the curriculum under the direction of George Buchanan. Montaigne spoke well of his educators and praised their teaching techniques, but chastised the stern discipline of most of the schools during his time. He said that if one were to visit a college where lessons were in progress, nothing could be heard, save “the cries of children being beaten and of masters drunk with anger.”1 In his work, The Essays, Montaigne emphasizes some very important subjects, such as the need to teach children with gentleness, make learning an enjoyable experience, and train a child's personality. Though Montaigne's thoughts on education may be contrasting to the world today, he understood the process of learning very well. His ideas may be applied to instructional theory to this day.
Descartes was born in 1596 in Touraine, France. His education consisted of attendance to a Jesuit school of La Fleche. He studied a liberal arts program that emphasized philosophy, the humanities, science, and math. He then went on to the University of Poitiers where he graduated in 1616 with a law degree. Descartes also served as a volunteer in several different armies to broaden his horizons.
Michael Guillen, the author of Five Equations that Changed the World, choose five famous mathematician to describe. Each of these mathematicians came up with a significant formula that deals with Physics. One could argue that others could be added to the list but there is no question that these are certainly all contenders for the top five. The book is divided into five sections, one for each of the mathematicians. Each section then has five parts, the prologue, the Veni, the Vidi, the Vici, and the epilogue. The Veni talks about the scientists as a person and their personal life. The Vidi talks about the history of the subject that the scientist talks about. The Vici talks about how the mathematician came up with their most famous formula.
“Thus in arithmetic, during the few months that he studied it, he made such progress that he frequently confounded his master by continually raising doubts and difficulties. He devoted some time to music … Yet though he studied so many different things, he never neglected design and working in relief, those being the things which appealed to his fancy more than any other.”
It is said that when history looks upon the life of an individual when their time has passed; it is not the dates on the tombstone that define the man but the dash in between. Such was the case in the life of theologian, philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal. Pascal was born on the 19th of June 1623, in Clermont-Ferrand France and died at the age of 39 of tuberculosis on the 19th August 1662 in Paris, but the bulk of his career, his success and life achievement began in his early years. As a young boy, Pascal’s lost his mother and soon afterward his father moved the family, Blaise and his two sisters to Paris. Pascal’s father, Étienne Pascal was a mathematician himself and taught Pascal Latin and Greek, which at the time was considered
Rene Descartes was born on March 31, 1596 in La Haye Touraine, France. Descartes was considered a "jack of all trades", making major contributions to the areas of anatomy, cognitive science, optics, mathematics and philosophy. He has been referred to as the father of modern rationalism, soldier of fortune, scholar, pilgrim, traveler, and a firm adherent of the Roman Catholic faith.
...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.
No other scholar has affected more fields of learning than Blaise Pascal. Born in 1623 in Clermont, France, he was born into a family of respected mathematicians. Being the childhood prodigy that he was, he came up with a theory at the age of three that was Euclid’s book on the sum of the interior of triangles. At the age of sixteen, he was brought by his father Etienne to discuss about math with the greatest minds at the time. He spent his life working with math but also came up with a plethora of new discoveries in the physical sciences, religion, computers, and in math. He died at the ripe age of thirty nine in 1662(). Blaise Pascal has contributed to the fields of mathematics, physical science and computers in countless ways.
When Rene was around 10 years old on 1609 he joined the Jesuit College in La Fleche and remained there till 1614. He had five to six years of grammar school which involved Latin and Greek grammar, and for his final three years left he took mathematics courses. After leaving Jesuit College, he studied at the University of Poitiers on 1616. He graduated and he earned a bachelorette degree of law to follow his father’s wishes on becoming a lawyer like him. Everyone is his family wanted him to become a lawyer but he never decided on practicing law.
The Bernoulli family had eight significant and important mathematicians, starting with Jacob Bernoulli, born in 1654. Though there was a great deal of hatred and jealousy between the Bernuollis, they made many remarkable contributions in mathematics and science and helped progress mathematics to become what it is today. For example, Daniel discovered a way to measure blood pressure that was used for 170 years, which advanced the medical field. Daniel’s way of measuring pressure is still used today to measure the air speed of a plane. Without the Bernoulli family’s contributions and advancements to calculus, probability, and other areas of mathematics and science, mathematics would not be where it is now.
Although his father had other plans for him, Pasteur had the opportunity to attend a preparatory school in Paris before going on to Ecole Normale, however when he got to Paris he became very homesick and his father soon arrived to take him home. After returning to Arbois Pasteur attended a local school named Besancon where he worked very hard and became one of the top students in his class. In 1842 Pasteur passed the admission tests to attend Ecole Normale however he was rated fifteenth of twenty-two candidates and this was not good enough to satisfy him. He continued to study and finally in 1843 Pasteur sailed through his admission tests and was awarded fourth place among the other candidates (Burton, 7-11).
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.
Burton, D. (2011). The History of Mathematics: An Introduction. (Seventh Ed.) New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Galileo was probably the greatest astronomer, mathematician and scientist of his time. In fact his work has been very important in many scientific advances even to this day.
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...