Mathematics appeared simultaneously with the desire of man to study the world around him. Initially, it was part of philosophy - the mother of science - and was not singled out as a separate discipline along with the same astronomy, physics. However, the situation has changed over time. In this article, we will find out who they are, the great mathematicians, whose list has already jumped over a hundred. Highlight the main names.
Start
More and more knowledge was accumulating among people; as a result, a division of the exact and natural sciences occurred. After the official “birth”, each of them went their own way, developing, strengthening the foundation with a theory supported by practice. It would seem, what practice can be in mathematics, the most abstract of sciences? This subject is able to describe absolutely all the processes taking place on our planet and beyond, and knowledge of the nature of the phenomenon allows us to draw conclusions and make forecasts. From this we can conclude that all sciences are interconnected, the most obvious is this relationship between mathematics and physics. Therefore, in most cases, the great mathematicians and physicists form one group of scientists. Judge for yourself - how can you describe something without receiving justification?
Human history is not only the conquest of new territories and wars in which the powers that be are pursuing their interests first of all, but also endless scientific calculations designed to explain, show, know and find out tomorrow's perspective. In this article we will consider those who made a significant contribution to the creation of the present. Who are they, the great mathematicians of the past, who set the stage for modern discoveries?
Pythagoras
When the great mathematicians are mentioned, it is this name that first comes to mind for most people. No one knows for certain what of the facts of his biography is true, and what is fiction, since the name has grown into a mass of legends. For the period of life, a date range from 570 to 490 BC is accepted. e.
Unfortunately, there were no written works left after him, but it is generally accepted that it was with his blessings that many discoveries of that time were made. However, we indicate only those achievements that are undeniably the fruits of his labors:
- Geometry is a famous theorem that states that in a right triangle the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the legs. Do not forget the Pythagorean table, according to which elementary school students study the principle of multiplying natural numbers. He also developed a method for constructing certain polygons.
- Geography - the great mathematician Pythagoras was the first to suggest that the planet Earth is round.
- Astronomy is the hypothesis of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations.
Euclid
Modern Greek owes this ancient Greek mathematics geometry.
Euclid was born in 365 BC. e. in Athens and for 65 years (until the end of his life, in fact) he lived in Alexandria. He can be called a revolutionary among the scientists of that time, since he did a great job of combining all the accumulated experience of past years into one smooth, logical system without “holes” and contradictions. This great scientist (physicist and mathematician) created the treatise "Beginnings", which included more than a dozen volumes! In addition, works describing the propagation of a ray of light in a straight line came out from under his hand.
Euclid’s theory is good in that it pushed away from the abstract “maybe”, citing a number of postulates (statements that do not require proof), and already, using dry mathematical logic, he derived a harmonious system of the existing geometry.
Francois Viet
Great mathematicians and their discoveries also depend on the will of chance. This was proved by Mr. Viet (years of life - 1540-1603), who lived in France and served at the royal court first as a lawyer, and then as an adviser to the monarch. When, instead of Henry III, Henry IV ascended the throne, Francois changed his occupation. A series of "World Great Mathematicians", the list of which is not small, was replenished with a new name thanks to the war of France with Spain. The latter used a complex cipher in her correspondence, which could not be decrypted. Thus , the enemies of the French crown could conduct free correspondence on the territory of the enemy without fear of being caught.
After trying all the methods, the king turned to Viet. For a crescent, the mathematician worked without rest until he achieved the desired result. Thanks to this, the mathematician again became a personal adviser, but already a new king. In parallel, Spain began to suffer defeat after defeat, not understanding what was happening. Finally, the truth surfaced, and the Inquisition sentenced Francois to death in absentia, but never executed it.
In his new position, the adviser got the opportunity to immerse himself in mathematics, giving all of himself to his beloved business, like all great people. They talked about mathematics and Vieta with bewilderment, focusing on the fact that he manages to combine his passion with legal practice.
Among the achievements of Vietnam are:
- Letter designations in algebra. The French mathematician replaced the parameters and part of the coefficients with letters, reducing the expression several times. This measure made algebraic statements simpler and easier to understand, while facilitating further conclusions. This step was revolutionary, as it facilitated the road going behind. The truly great mathematician Pythagoras left his brainchild in good hands. The ideology of tomorrow is fully conveyed.
- The conclusion of the theory of solving equations to the fourth degree inclusive.
- The derivation of a formula of the name of oneself, by which the roots of quadratic equations are still found.
- The conclusion and justification of the first in the history of science endless work.
Leonard Euler
The luminary of science with an amazing fate. Born in Switzerland (1707), he can safely enter the list of "Great Russian mathematicians", as he worked most fruitfully and found the last refuge in Russia (1783).
The period of his work and discoveries is connected precisely with our country, to which he moved in 1726 at the invitation of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. For a decade and a half, he wrote a lot of works both in mathematics and in physics. In total, he made about 9 hundred complicated conclusions that enriched the science of that time. Toward the end of life, Leonard Euler, contrary to the rules (but with the approval of the French government), the Paris Academy of Sciences made him the ninth member, while according to the rules there should be eight. Only great mathematicians could be awarded such an honor, since any scientific organization is pedantic when it comes to compliance with the rules.
Among the discoveries of Leonard Euler it should be noted:
- The union of mathematics as a science. Until the eighteenth century, which is rightfully considered the period of Euler's triumph, all disciplines were fragmented. Algebra, mathematical analysis, geometry, probability theory, etc. existed on their own, without intersecting. He assembled from them a harmonious, logical system, which is still being presented in educational institutions without changes.
- The output of the number e, which is approximately equal to 2.7. As you can see, great mathematicians often gain immortality in their work, this cup and Euler have not passed - the first letter of the name gave the name to this irrational number, without which there would be no natural logarithm.
- The first formulation of the theory of integration indicating the methods that are used in it. Introduction of double integrals.
- The foundation and distribution of Euler diagrams - concise and intuitive graphs that show the relationship of sets regardless of their origin. For example, thanks to them it can be shown that an infinite set of natural numbers is included in an infinite set of rational numbers and so on.
- Writing revolutionary works for that time on differential calculus.
- Addition of elementary geometry, deduced by Euclid. For example, he deduced and proved that all the heights of a triangle intersect at one point.
Galileo Galilei
This scientist, who lived all his life in Italy (from 1564 to 1642), is familiar to every student. The period of his activity fell on a time of troubles, which took place under the sign of the Inquisition. Any dissent was punished, science was persecuted, as it contradicted the theologians. No one and nothing could be described, for all the will of God.
It was the mathematician Galileo who, according to legend, became the author of the phrase “And yet it revolves!” After he renounced his words that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa. This step was due to the struggle for life, since the Inquisition considered heresy as his hypothesis, in which the participants in the rotation exchanged places. The priests could not allow the Earth as the creation of God to cease to be the center of everything.
However, his works were not limited to this hypothesis, for he went down in history as a great physicist and mathematician. Galileo:
- through empirical research, he rejected Aristotle's statement, which stated that the speed of a body falling is directly proportional to its weight;
- he deduced a paradox of the name of himself, in which the number of natural numbers is equal to the number of their own squares, while most of the numbers are not squares;
- wrote the work “Reasoning about the game of dice”, in which he considered a standard problem from the point of view of probability theory with a conclusion and justification.
Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov
When the great mathematicians of Russia are mentioned, it was this scientist who came to mind one of the first.
Alexey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov was born in the spring of 1903 in the city of Tambov. He received primary education at home, after which he entered a private gymnasium. Already there his amazing abilities in the field of exact sciences were noted. Due to a number of circumstances, his family was forced to move to Moscow, where they were caught by the Civil War. Despite everything, Kolmogorov entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Mathematics. The success of the young student in the chosen field was so great that he was able to pass the exams ahead of schedule without much effort, without interrupting his main hobby - probability theory. The works of Andrei Nikolaevich began to appear in scientific journals, starting in 1923, and after all, at that time he had barely passed 20 years. Methodically achieving the desired, the mathematician already in 1939 became an academician. He worked all his life in Moscow and died in the fall of 1987, buried in the Novodevichy cemetery.
His significant works include:
- Improving the methodology of teaching mathematics in primary and secondary schools. Great mathematicians and their discoveries on a global scale are important, but no less valuable and necessary is the work of preparing the young generation of future scientists. Everyone knows that the foundations are laid in early childhood.
- The development of mathematical methods and their transfer from abstract fields to applied ones. In other words, thanks to the works of Andrei Nikolaevich, mathematics has firmly entered the natural sciences.
- Conclusion of the axioms of the elementary probability theory accepted by the world scientific community. The latter is characterized in that it describes a finite number of events.
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky
This scientist, like all the great Russian mathematicians, from childhood showed remarkable abilities in the field of exact sciences.
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky was born in 1793 in one of the provinces of Russia. At the age of 7, he moved to Kazan with his family, where he lived his whole life. He died at the age of 63, perpetuating his name for centuries with work, which complemented the classical geometry of Euclid. He introduced several refinements into the familiar system, proving a number of statements, for example, that parallel lines intersect at infinity. His work is determined in a plane that is characterized by speeds close to the speed of light. It would seem, what is the point of discovery for that time? The theory was found to be controversial, outrageous, but over time, great mathematicians recognized that the work of Lobachevsky opened the door to the future.
Augustin Louis Cauchy
The name of this mathematician is known to every student, since he managed to be noted both in the general course of higher mathematics and in its narrower directions, for example, in mathematical analysis.
Augustin Louis Cauchy (years of life - 1789-1857) can rightfully be considered the father of mathematical analysis. It was he who brought to mind everything that was in limbo, having no definition or justification. Thanks to his labors, such pillars of discipline appeared as continuity, limit, derivative and integral. Cauchy also showed the convergence of the series and its radius, and gave a mathematical justification for the dispersion in optics.
Cauchy's contribution to the development of modern mathematics was so widespread that his name took a place of honor on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower - that is where scientists (including great mathematicians) are listed in chronological order. This list serves as a kind of monument to science to this day.
Total
From century to century, mathematics has attracted scientists with its unnaturalness, which in an amazing way could describe everything that happens in the world around us.
Pythagoras claimed that everything is based on a number. Almost everything that happens to and within a person can be described.
Galileo said that mathematics is the language of nature. Think it over. A value that is of an artificial nature describes everything natural.
The names of the great mathematicians are not just a list of people who were fond of their job, expanding and deepening the scientific base. These are the links that are able to connect the present and the future, to show humanity a perspective.
However, this is a double-edged sword, as the abundance of information provides more leverage for influence.
Knowledge is power. Mindless abuse can destroy what has been so carefully studied and collected bit by bit. Awareness of this is paramount, science should go for good.
Great people talk about mathematics with infinite respect, as it is a pass for tomorrow.