History of Mathematics

This period, however, was dominated by Bernoulli. He was responsible for further developing Leibniz’s calculus as well as Pascal and Fermat’s number theory. Leonhard Euler was another notable mathematician of this time. He worked in all field of mathematics and was able to find links between these different fields. He also proved multiple theorems and wrote many

Math through the Ages provides an interesting and concise analysis of the mathematical culture of different societies in history. The section “The History of Mathematics in a Large Nutshell” provides an interesting discussion of Greek mathematics. The mathematics of the culture both influenced and was influenced by the culture of the society. The Greeks were most likely the most important historical society in the Western world. They spread their vast knowledge and affected the mathematical traditions of the world.

Blaise Pascal was a brilliant mathematician and experimenter, and he was the voice that still protested against the new science and the materialism of Descartes. His investigations of probability in games of chance produce his very own theorem, and his research in conic sections helped lay the foundations for integral calculus.

Many women have achieved in the mathematics field since the 1900’s. Especially women of color. No matter how young or old, these women have taken their careers in mathematics to an inspiring degree. Take the following women as examples, for they have created history in mathematics forever.

Archimedes produced formulas to find the area of regular shapes by using the shapes he already knew how to calculate (The History of Archimedes). An example of this would be the circle. Archimedes would draw a polygon on the outside of the circle and then a smaller one on the inside and he would solve the area of the polygons. Although he knew this only would only get him a range and that the actual calculation might never be found (The History of Archimedes). He similarly was able to find the calculation of the volume of a sphere. He did this by cutting the sphere into a series of cylinders, (The History of Archimedes) and then adding the volumes of the cylinders. Archimedes noticed that the smaller he cut the cylinders the more accurate. His approximation eventually became an exact calculation. Despite all of Archimedes’ contributions to mathematics, the story he is probably the most well-known for would be his discovery of a method for finding the volume of an object with an irregular shape (The History of Archimedes). Hiero had asked the royal goldsmith to fashion a new royal crown for him. Hiero provided a thing of gold to make it, but once Hiero was given his newly made crown he began to believe that the goldsmith cheated him out of some of his gold a replaced it with silver. He asked Archimedes if he could determine this. So while bathing Archimedes noticed

“Many who have had an opportunity of knowing any more about mathematics confuse it with arithmetic, and consider it an arid science. In reality, however, it is a science which requires a great amount of imagination.”

Throughout my research of mathematicians, I realized that some mathematicians had different backgrounds and were from different time periods. The first mathematician, I will discuss goes by the name of Rene Descartes. First and foremost, according to the eBook, The 100 Most Influential Philosophers of All Time, Descartes came into this world in La Haye, Touraine, France on March 31, 1596. At the age of one his mother died and afterwards his father remarried leaving Descartes in La Haye to be raised by his maternal grandmother and then by his great uncle. During 1606 he got sent off to a Jesuit college. Soon after during 1614 Descartes went to Poitiers, where he pursued a law degree.

In 1635, Blaise Pascal’s father found his twelve-year-old son on the floor of his bedroom, charcoal in hand, having figured out by himself the proofs found in Euclid’s Elements. Pascal’s father was astounded by how his precocious son was able to replicate what the Father of Geometry had only discovered at the age of thirty. As a result, he henceforth shifted the focus of his son’s study from Classical literature to mathematics. Pascal quickly overtook his father—himself a tax official well-versed in science and mathematics—in mathematical skill. Born to a wealthy French family on June 19th, 1623, Blaise Pascal died thirty-nine years later, having been responsible for many contributions to physics, mathematics, and even theology.

He wanted to calculate this in order to challenge himself since he had already mastered the other aspects of mathematics that were known during that time. He used principles found in "integral calculus that would not be founded for another 1800 years (Famous Scientists)". Archimedes began this calculation by imagining a sphere dissected into "two hemispheres which would be placed on a flat surface, then enclosed by a cylinder. Next he imagined making two vertical slices down the sides of the cylinder and multiplied the number of blue rings from the cylinder by their depth to find the volume (Famous Scientists)". If Archimedes had considered an infinite number of blue rings, he would have invented integral calculus 1800 years before Isaac Newton. Using the information that he knew already about the volume of a cylinder and his new knowledge of the relativity between a cylinder and a sphere, he was able to come up with a formula to solve the volume of a sphere. He believed this was his greatest achievement to such an extent that he "requested a sphere with a cylinder placed on his tombstone (Famous

Math; a subject most people have hate towards doing but is essential in everything action we participate in. While thinking about math most people define it with numbers or theorems but don't say exactly who or what contributed to making the subject possible. Numerous figures can be named, for example Einstein or Pythagoras, but hundreds of other men and women, on top of the most famous few, have used their love for mathematics to create a new “invention” in the mathematical world. Pierre de Fermat, a frenchman in the late 1600’s used his hobby of math to create theorems and equations that would be expanded in the later years to become known as the equations that are familiar to us today. Pierre contributed to the study of calculus by creating the equation X2 + Y2 = Z2.

There are so many mathematicians in the world, and so many of them have applied their knowledge to our everyday world. We take a lot of things for granted. We use addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division almost daily, but do we know who created those functions? Finding these little things can lead to greater inventions, and with a little bit of research, we can explore these wondrous creations in depth. Let us look at a very important mathematician named William Gordon Welchman.

Today, our speaker is a great mathematician who has made many contributions to the field of mathematics, especially regarding geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. Through his lifetime, he has been a revered published author and has many prolific articles depicting his research. The man I am referring to is the eighteenth mathematician, Leonhard Euler.

Today we are here to honor the work of my friend Jacob Bernoulli. He was born in December of 1654 in Switzerland. Like many other Bernoulli family members, he became a mathematician, a very notable mathematician. His fame came after his various contributions to calculus, but most prominently, his contribution to the study of probability.

Since the commencement of human existence, personal qualities such as: the pursuit of knowledge, the desire to expand ones horizons, and the inclination to establish and follow a dream, has significantly impacted society. From the earliest days, right up until the present time, a number of accomplishments have filled the vast expanse of time. Such accomplishments span from exemplary literary works, such as those of Cicero, Virgil, and Goethe; to philosophical breakthroughs of men like Rene Descartes who said, “I think therefore I am”, and finally to the unprecedented discoveries in the fields of mathematics and science. Among all the civilizations of time, those of the Pre-Columbian Era seem to have successfully applied mathematical

Time and again, when referring to a historical background of a topic in science or math, we have been exposed to only a handful of key figures and even fewer notable events without any social or cultural context behind it. Such details are often overlooked and taught without the perspective of the era and why it occurred at the time. There maybe several reasons for such dismissal. Within the STEAM subjects, especially science and mathematics, the content strives to be empirical and concrete without influence of culture, race, gender or era in time. It maybe useful to only highlight few historical figures and events to maximize time in knowledge content. However, often times, the analysis of historical context and how or why the events