Biography of five great mathematicians in history

Despite facing barriers as a woman in academia during a time when this wasn't the norm, Noether's work has left a lasting legacy and continues to inspire mathematicians and physicists to this day. Right now, whatever device or computer that you are reading this on, be it a phone or computer, is cycling through a series of basic steps billions of times over each second, steps that allow it to do things like render internet articles and play videos and music, steps that were first thought up by von Neumann.

Von Neumann was a child prodigy who received his Ph. Thankfully for all of us, he stuck with math. Before his death in , von Neumann made important discoveries in set theory, geometry, quantum mechanics, game theory, statistics, computer science and was a vital member of the Manhattan Project. Remarkably, Von Neumann proposed a theory of global warming caused by human activity, noting that the Earth was only 6 degrees F 3.

In , he wrote : "Carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by industry's burning of coal and oil—more than half of it during the last generation—may have changed the atmosphere's composition sufficiently to account for a general warming of the world by about one degree Fahrenheit. Alan Turing was a British mathematician who has been called the father of computer science.

During World War II, Turing bent his brain to the problem of breaking Nazi crypto-code and was the one to finally unravel messages protected by the infamous Enigma machine. Being able to break Nazi codes gave the Allies an enormous advantage and was later credited by some historians as one of the main reasons the Allies won the war. Besides helping to stop Nazi Germany from achieving world domination, Turing was instrumental in the development of the modern computer.

His design for a so-called "Turing machine" remains central to how computers operate today. The "Turing test" is an exercise in artificial intelligence that tests how well an AI program operates; a program passes the Turing test if it can have a text chat conversation with a human and fool that person into thinking that it, too, is a person.

Turing's career and life ended tragically when he was arrested and prosecuted for being gay. He was found guilty and sentenced to undergo hormone treatment to reduce his libido, losing his security clearance as well. On June 8, , Turing was found dead of an apparent suicide. Turing's contributions to computer science can be summed up by the fact that his name now adorns the field's top award.

In , then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologized for how his government treated Turing, but stopped short of issuing an official pardon. Benoit Mandelbrot landed on this list thanks to his discovery of fractal geometry. Archimedes B. C — Mathematician, scientist and inventor. Archimedes made many contributions to mathematics, such as a calculation of pi, geometrical theorems and developing a concept of exponentiation for very large numbers.

Ptolemy c. Ptolemy wrote one of the few surviving ancient works on astronomy — the Almagest. Aryabhata c.

Biography of five great mathematicians in history

Aryabhata was influential in the development of trigonometry. Khayyam wrote an influential work on algebra — Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra Leonardo Pisano Bigollo Italian mathematician. Bigollo is considered the greatest mathematician of the medieval ages. Rene Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician. Descartes made important discoveries in analytical geometry bridging algebra and geometry , calculus and other fields of mathematics.

Pierre de Fermat French lawyer and amateur mathematician. Fermat helped develop infinitesimal calculus. Blaise Pascal French mathematician, philosopher and inventor. Since childhood, all of us have struggled to solve mathematical problems applying the Pythagoras theorem. Archimedes was a Greek Scientist, a great mathematician, and a Physician. He also worked his entire life in search of discovering mathematical formulas that are related to Physics.

The best contribution of Archimedes in mathematics is known as the invention of compound pulleys, antiquity, and screw pump. Students of class X have to study these chapters of compound pulleys and antiquity. Thales of Miletus was one of the most famous mathematicians from Greece. He was very skilled in Geometry and used Geometry as a means to calculate the heights of pyramids and measure the distance of a ship from the shore.

You can learn more about Thales of Miletus here. Aristotle was a great scholar and he had vast knowledge in various areas, including Physics, mathematics, geology, metaphysics, medicine, biology, and psychology. He was a student of Plato, and both of them together discovered many philosophical theories and contributed to mathematics and Platonism.

He combines mathematics and philosophy and in his treaties, and uses mathematical science in three principal ways. He later gained popularity for his book Arithmetica, where a brief description with examples was given on the best solution for all the algebraic equations and the theory related to the number. Eratosthenes was a world-famous mathematician known for his unbelievable and exact calculation.

Both his calculations are exact, and so he became famous worldwide. Like Geometry, trigonometry chapters are also important for class IX and X students. The founder of trigonometry was an intelligent mathematician and mythologist Hipparchus. He discovered the first trigonometric table in mathematics. He was the first person to develop a well-grounded process by which people can predict solar eclipses.

Yes, he was the one who discovered the square root of numbers. It can be argued that he also invented calculus, though fierce rival Gottfried Leibniz would disagree. This was modestly said by Isaac Newton who heralded the work of his predecessors. It is perhaps fitting that his work on the laws of motion and gravitation inspired future generations to travel to the moon and other inventions of the modern world.

As the daughter of Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace may have been forgiven for not equalling the legacy of her famous father. He remains one of the most influential and celebrated poets of all time. Ada Lovelace is known as the first computer programmer. Charles Babbage himself was known as the father of the computer. Ada was asked to translate an article about the machine written by Luigi Federico Menbrea.

She translated the article, adding her own notes which were three times that of the original article. This is still used in computer programming today. The mathematician and theoretical physicist is the embodiment of genius. The German mathematician is easily one of the most famous mathematicians. His iconic look and contribution to modern physics mean he will always have a place in history.

He developed the special and general theories of relativity and won a Nobel prize for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. Einstein found himself targeted by the Nazi party while living in Germany, and as such, along with many other European scientists and intellectuals, had to flee the country. He moved to the US and worked at Princeton.

Albert Einstein played a part in the US victory in World War 2, as he helped develop US Navy weapons and the nuclear bomb using his scientific knowledge. British mathematician Alan Turing is one of the most important mathematicians. He is known for his genius and the persecution he suffered, which has come to light since his death in Much like Einstein, his genius helped the allied forces defeat Nazi Germany.

And, much like Einstein, he was persecuted for who he was as a person. Alan Turing is often referred to as the progenitor of modern computing. He and a team of colleagues designed a code-breaking machine known as Bombe. This was incredibly effective, allowing cryptanalysis in Bletchley Park to gain decoded military intelligence from Germany.

By , Bletchley Park helped decode around 39, messages each month. He also designed the first complete specification of an electronic stored-program all-purpose digital computer. He also wanted to be the first to invent digital computers but was pipped to the post. He is further known for creating the first computer programming manual and his hypothesis on artificial intelligence.

His life story was celebrated in the film — The Imitation Game. This showed his achievements in computer science, and also highlighted his barbaric treatment by the British government.