Mathematics appeared simultaneously with the desire of man to explore the world around him. Initially, it was part of philosophy - the mother of sciences - and was not singled out as a separate discipline along with the same astronomy, physics. However, over time, the situation has changed. In this article, we will find out who they are - the great mathematicians, the list of which has already jumped over a hundred. Let's highlight the main names.
Start
People accumulated more and more knowledge, as a result, there was a separation of the exact and natural sciences. After the official "birth", each of them went its own way, developing, strengthening the foundation with theory, supported by practice. It would seem, what kind of practice can mathematics, the most abstract of sciences, have? 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 predictions. From this we can conclude that all sciences are interconnected, this dependence between mathematics and physics is most obvious. Therefore, in most cases, great mathematicians and physicists are one group of scientists. Judge for yourself howcan you describe something without getting justification?
Human history is not only the conquest of new territories and wars in which the powerful of this world pursue their own interests in the first place, but also endless scientific calculations designed to explain, show, learn and find out the prospect of tomorrow. In this article we will consider those who have made a significant contribution to the creation of the present. Who are the great mathematicians of the past who paved the way for modern discoveries?
Pythagoras
When great mathematicians are mentioned, that name is the first thing that comes to mind for most people. No one knows for sure which of the facts of his biography is true and which is fiction, since the name has acquired a mass of legends. For the period of life, the range of dates 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 blessing that many discoveries of that time were made. However, we will indicate only those achievements that are undeniably the fruits of his labors:
- Geometry - the famous theorem, which says 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 brought out a method for constructing some polygons.
- Geography – the great mathematician Pythagoras was the first to suggest that the planet Earth is round.
- Astronomy - the hypothesis of the existence of extraterrestrialcivilizations.
Euclid
Modern science owes geometry to this ancient Greek mathematician.
Euclid was born in 365 BC. e. in Athens and for 65 years (until the end of his life, in fact) lived in Alexandria. He can be safely called a revolutionary among the scientists of that time, as 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 because he started from the abstract "maybe", giving a number of postulates (statements that do not require proof), and from them, using dry mathematical logic, he deduced a coherent system of the current geometry.
Francois Viet
Great mathematicians and their discoveries also depend on 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 number of "Great World Mathematicians", the list of which is not small, was replenished with a new name thanks to the war between France and Spain. The latter in her correspondence used a complex cipher that could not be deciphered. Thus the enemies of the Frenchcrowns could correspond freely in enemy territory without fear of being caught.
Having tried all the methods, the king turned to Vieta. For a half-moon, the mathematician worked without rest until he achieved the desired result. Thanks to this, the mathematician again became a personal adviser, but already to the new king. In parallel with this, Spain began to suffer defeat after defeat, not understanding what was happening. Finally, the truth came out, and the Inquisition sentenced François to death in absentia, but never carried it out.
In his new position, the adviser got the opportunity to immerse himself in mathematics, giving his all to his beloved work, like all great people. They talked about mathematics and Vieta with bewilderment, focusing on the fact that he manages to combine his hobby with legal practice.
Among Vieta's accomplishments are:
- Letter notation in algebra. The French mathematician replaced the parameters and part of the coefficients with letters, reducing the expressions several times. This measure made algebraic statements simpler and easier to understand, while at the same time facilitating further conclusions. This step was revolutionary, as it made the road easier for those behind. The truly great mathematician Pythagoras left his brainchild in good hands. The ideology of tomorrow is fully transferred.
- Derivation of the theory of solving equations up to the fourth degree inclusive.
- Derivation of the formula for the name of oneself, by which to this day the roots of quadratic equations are found.
- Derivation and justification of the first infinite product in the history of science.
Leonhard Euler
The luminary of science with an amazing fate. Born in Switzerland (1707), he can safely be included in the list of "Great Russian mathematicians", since he worked most fruitfully and found his 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 physics. In total, he made about 9 hundreds of the most complex conclusions that enriched the science of that time. By the end of Leonhard Euler's life, contrary to the rules (but with the approval of the French government), the Paris Academy of Sciences made him the ninth member, when according to the rules there should be eight. Only great mathematicians could be so honored, as any scientific organization is pedantic when it comes to following the rules.
Among the discoveries of Leonhard Euler it should be noted:
- Unification of mathematics as a science. Until the 18th century, which is rightfully considered the period of Euler's triumph, all disciplines were scattered. Algebra, mathematical analysis, geometry, probability theory, etc., existed on their own, without intersecting. He assembled them into a coherent, logical system, which is now presented in educational institutions without changes.
- Derivation 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 did not pass and Euler- the first letter of the surname gave the name to this irrational number, without which the natural logarithm would not exist.
- The first formulation of the theory of integration, indicating the methods that are used in it. Introduction of double integrals.
- Foundation and distribution of Euler diagrams - concise and visual graphs that show the connection of sets, regardless of their origin. For example, thanks to them, one can show that an infinite set of natural numbers is included in an infinite set of rational numbers, and so on.
- Writing revolutionary for that time works on differential calculus.
- Addition of elementary geometry, derived by Euclid. For example, he deduced and proved that all 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 schoolchild. The period of his activity fell on a troubled time that passed under the sign of the Inquisition. Any dissent was punished, science was persecuted, as it contradicted the statements of theologians. No one and nothing could be described, for everything is the will of God.
It was the mathematician Galileo who, according to legend, became the author of the phrase "And yet it turns!", after he retracted 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 his hypothesis to be heresy, in which the participants in the rotation switched places. The clergy could notto allow the Earth as a creation of God to cease to be the center of everything.
However, his works were not limited to this hypothesis, because he went down in history as a great physicist and mathematician. Galileo:
- through empirical research rejected Aristotle's statement, which stated that the speed of a body falling is directly proportional to its weight;
- deduced the paradox of the name of oneself, in which the number of natural numbers is equal to the number of their own squares, despite the fact that most of the numbers are not squares;
- wrote the work "Reasoning about the game of dice", in which he considered a reference problem from the point of view of probability theory with derivation and justification.
Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov
When the great mathematicians of Russia are mentioned, this scientist is one of the first to come to mind.
Aleksey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov was born in the spring of 1903 in the city of Tambov. He received his 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 the 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 breaking away from his main hobby - the theory of probability. The works of Andrei Nikolaevich began to appear in scientific publications, starting in 1923, andHe was barely 20 years old at the time. Methodically achieving what he wanted, the mathematician already in 1939 became an academician. He worked all his life in Moscow and died in the fall of 1987 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
His significant works include:
- Improving the methods of teaching mathematics in primary and secondary schools. Great mathematicians and their world-class discoveries are important, but no less valuable and necessary is the work to prepare the young generation of future scientists. Everyone knows that the foundations are laid in early childhood.
- Development of mathematical methods and their transfer from abstract areas to applied ones. In other words, thanks to the works of Andrei Nikolaevich, mathematics has firmly entered the natural sciences.
- Derivation of the axioms of elementary probability theory accepted by the world scientific community. The latter is characterized by the fact that it describes a finite number of events.
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky
This scientist, like all 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 with his family to Kazan, where he lived all his life. He died at the age of 63, having perpetuated his name for centuries with work that supplemented the classical geometry of Euclid. He introduced several refinements to the familiar system, proving a number of statements, for example, that parallel lines intersect at infinity. Hiswork is defined in the plane, which is characterized by velocities close to the speed of light. It would seem, what is the meaning of the discovery for that time? The theory was considered controversial, outrageous, but over time, great mathematicians recognized that Lobachevsky's work opened the door to the future.
Augustin Louis Cauchy
The name of this mathematician is known to every student, as he managed to mark both the general course of higher mathematics and its narrower areas, 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 neither definition nor justification. Thanks to his work, such pillars of the discipline as continuity, limit, derivative and integral appeared. Cauchy also showed the convergence of the series and its radius, gave a mathematical justification for the dispersion in optics.
Cauchy's contribution to the development of modern mathematics was so massive that his name took pride of place on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower - it is there that scientists (including great mathematicians) are listed in chronological order. This list serves as a kind of monument to science to this day.
Result
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 number is the basis of everything. Almost everything that happens to a person andinside a person, it can describe.
Galileo said that mathematics is the language of nature. Think about it. A quantity that is artificial describes everything natural.
The names of great mathematicians are not just a list of people who were fond of their work, expanding and deepening the scientific base. These are the links that can link the present and the future, show humanity the prospect.
However, this is a double-edged sword, as the abundance of information gives more leverage.
Knowledge is power. Thoughtless 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 math with infinite respect as it is a pass to tomorrow.
