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 ...
... middle of paper ...
... 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.
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
“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.”
Born in France on March 31st, 1596, Rene Descartes grew to be known as ‘The Father of Modern Philosophy”. Not only was Rene a philosophical man but he contributed greatly to Mathematics and his ideas have influenced our daily lives in a productive way. DesCartes was raised in a very religious christian family, his father was a member of the parliament and strongly believed in education at a young age. DesCartes studied at the Jesuit college at the mere age of eight. As a child and throughout his adulthood physical incapabilities enabled DesCartes to function as swift or promptly as his peers. Growing up and until the day of his death, Descartes’s health was always a major precaution he was forced to remain aware of. The Jesuit college granted him the immunity of resting in mornings before class. It was this education that led him to contribute philosophical and mathematical theories and devices that still hold a great value to mathematicians and everyday people even today in the 21st century. From a very young age he had interests in mathematics and analytical geometry. Descartes’s contributions to modern day society were affected by his young adulthood, soon he created mathematical and scientific ideas, and lastly philosophical ideas.
René Descartes was born on March 31, 1596, in La Haye, France, which has been renamed after him, Descartes. He was the baby out of his three siblings. His mom named Jeanne Brochard had died before he turned one year old. His father, Joachim Brochard, a council member in the provincial parliament, sent his kids to live with their grandmother. The father left them with the grandmother while he himself remarried and enjoyed the bliss of not having children under his feet. He still was a stickler for a good education and having a legacy so he sent 8 year old Rene to the Jesuit college of Henri IV where he stayed until he was 15.
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.
Etienne Pascal was very concerned about his son becoming an educated man. This is why he decided to teach his son on his own. He brought a young Blaise to lectures and other gatherings. He decided Blaise would not study math until age 15. When he made this decision he took all the math books out of the family home; however, this did not stop a curious Pascal. At age twelve, he started to work on geometry by himself. Blaise’s father finally started to take him to mathematical gatherings at "Academic Parisienne." At the age of 16, Pascal began to play an active role in "Academic Parisienne," as the principal disciple of Girard Desargues, one of the heads of "Academic Par...
A new craze swept France, as well as most of Europe, in the early nineteenth century. The oppressed society was exhausted from its continual battle against itself. The people sought change; they sought relief from the socio-economic labyrinth they had been spinning themselves dizzy in for their entire lives, and the lives of their fathers, and their fathers before them.
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.
...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.
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.
Isaac was reunited with his mom when he was twelve years old; she had three small children from her second husband who was deceased. By that time, he was enrolled at King’s School in Grantham where he was first introduced to chemistry (Bio). His mother, who wanted her son to be like his father, pulled Isaac out of school to make him a farmer but he failed because he found farming to be boring. He returned to school and finished basic education. Then his uncle, a professor got him enrolled at Cambridge University. During his first three years, he was taught standard curriculum, but was more fascinated with advanced science and chemistry (Bio). After being there three years, in October 1665, a plague epidemic forced Cambridge University to close and Isaac returned home to Woolsthorpe. During this time is when he did research and conceived the method of infinitesimal calculus, and set foundations for his theory of light and color. It is also believed that during...
Burton, D. (2011). The History of Mathematics: An Introduction. (Seventh Ed.) New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.