Aryabhata 

(IAST: Āryabhaṭa) or Aryabhata I[2][3] (476–550 CE)[4][5] was the first of the

major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian
mathematics and Indian astronomy. His works include the Āryabhaṭīya (499 CE, when he
was 23 years old)[6]and the Arya-siddhanta.

Biography
Name
While there is a tendency to misspell his name as "Aryabhatta" by analogy with other names
having the "bhatta" suffix, his name is properly spelled Aryabhata: every astronomical text spells
his name thus,[7] including Brahmagupta's references to him "in more than a hundred places by
name".[1] Furthermore, in most instances "Aryabhatta" would not fit the metre either. [7]

Time and place of birth

Aryabhata mentions in the Aryabhatiya that it was composed 3,600 years into the Kali Yuga,
when he was 23 years old. This corresponds to 499 CE, and implies that he was born in 476.
[5]
 Aryabhata called himself a native of Kusumapura or Pataliputra (present day Patna, Bihar).[1]

Works
Aryabhata is the author of several treatises on mathematics and astronomy, some of which are
lost.
His major work, Aryabhatiya, a compendium of mathematics and astronomy, was extensively
referred to in the Indian mathematical literature and has survived to modern times. The
mathematical part of the Aryabhatiya covers arithmetic, algebra, plane trigonometry,
and spherical trigonometry. It also contains continued fractions, quadratic equations, sums-of-
power series, and a table of sines.
The Arya-siddhanta, a lost work on astronomical computations, is known through the writings of
Aryabhata's contemporary, Varahamihira, and later mathematicians and commentators,
including Brahmagupta and Bhaskara I. This work appears to be based on the older Surya
Siddhanta and uses the midnight-day reckoning, as opposed to sunrise in Aryabhatiya. It also
contained a description of several astronomical instruments: the gnomon (shanku-yantra), a
shadow instrument (chhAyA-yantra), possibly angle-measuring devices, semicircular and circular
(dhanur-yantra / chakra-yantra), a cylindrical stick yasti-yantra, an umbrella-shaped device called
the chhatra-yantra, and water clocks of at least two types, bow-shaped and cylindrical. [8]
A third text, which may have survived in the Arabic translation, is Al ntf or Al-nanf. It claims that it
is a translation by Aryabhata, but the Sanskrit name of this work is not known.
Probably dating from the 9th century, it is mentioned by the Persian scholar and chronicler of
India, Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.[
Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan 
22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) was an Indian mathematical genius and autodidact who
lived during the British Raj. Though he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he
made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series,
and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems considered to be
unsolvable. Ramanujan initially developed his own mathematical research in isolation; it was
quickly recognized by Indian mathematicians. Seeking mathematicians who could understand his
work, in 1913 he began a postal partnership with the English mathematician G. H. Hardy at
the University of Cambridge, England. Recognizing the extraordinary work sent to him as
samples, Hardy arranged travel for Ramanujan to Cambridge. In his notes, Ramanujan had
produced new groundbreaking theorems, including some that Hardy stated had 'defeated [him
and his colleagues] completely', in addition to rediscovering recently proven - but highly
advanced - results.
During his short life, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3,900 results
(mostly identities and equations).[1] Many were completely novel; his original and highly
unconventional results, such as the Ramanujan prime, the Ramanujan theta
function, partition formulae, and mock theta functions, have opened entire new areas of work and
inspired a vast amount of further research.[2] Nearly all his claims have now been proven correct.
  The Ramanujan Journal, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, was established to publish work in
[3]

all areas of mathematics influenced by Ramanujan,[4] and his notebooks - containing summaries

of his published and unpublished results - have been analyzed and studied for decades since his
death as a source of new mathematical ideas. As late as 2011 and again in 2012, researchers
continued to discover that mere comments in his writings about "simple properties" and "similar
outputs" for certain findings, were themselves profound and subtle number theory results that
remained unsuspected until nearly a century after his death and which relied on work published
in 2006.[5][6] He became one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society and only the second
Indian member, and the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Of his
original letters, Hardy stated that a 'single look' was enough to show they could only have been
written by a mathematician of the highest calibre, comparing Ramanujan to other mathematical
geniuses such as Euler and Jacobi.
In 1919, ill health - now believed to have been hepatic amoebiasis (a complication from episodes
of dysentry many years previously) - compelled Ramanujan's return to India, where he died in
1920 at the age of 32. His last letters to Hardy, written January 1920, show that he was still
continuing to produce new mathematical ideas and theorems. His "lost notebook", containing
discoveries from the last year of his life, caused great excitement among mathematicians when it
was rediscovered in 1976.
A deeply religious Hindu,[7] Ramanujan credited his substantial mathematical capacities
to divinity, and stated that the mathematical knowledge he displayed was revealed to him by
his family goddess. '"An equation for me has no meaning," he once said, "unless it expresses a
thought of God."
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (German: [ˈʀiːman] (  listen); 17 September 1826 – 20 July
1866) was a German mathematicianwho made contributions to analysis, number theory,
and differential geometry. In the field of real analysis, he is mostly known for the first rigorous
formulation of the integral, the Riemann integral, and his work on Fourier series. His contributions
to complex analysisinclude most notably the introduction of Riemann surfaces, breaking new
ground in a natural, geometric treatment of complex analysis. His famous 1859 paper on
the prime-counting function, containing the original statement of the Riemann hypothesis, is
regarded, although it is his only paper in the field, as one of the most influential papers in analytic
number theory. Through his pioneering contributions to differential geometry, Bernhard Riemann
laid the foundations of the mathematics of general relativity.

Riemannian geometry[edit]
Riemann's published works opened up research areas combining analysis with geometry. These
would subsequently become major parts of the theories of Riemannian geometry, algebraic
geometry, and complex manifold theory. The theory of Riemann surfaces was elaborated
by Felix Klein and particularly Adolf Hurwitz. This area of mathematics is part of the foundation
of topology and is still being applied in novel ways to mathematical physics.
In 1853, Gauss asked his student Riemann to prepare a Habilitationsschrift on the foundations of
geometry. Over many months, Riemann developed his theory of higher dimensions and
delivered his lecture at Göttingen in 1854 entitled "Ueber die Hypothesen welche der Geometrie
zu Grunde liegen" ("On the hypotheses which underlie geometry"). It was only published twelve
years later in 1868 by Dedekind, two years after his death. Its early reception appears to have
been slow but it is now recognized as one of the most important works in geometry.
The subject founded by this work is Riemannian geometry. Riemann found the correct way to
extend into n dimensions the differential geometry of surfaces, which Gauss himself proved in
his theorema egregium. The fundamental object is called the Riemann curvature tensor. For the
surface case, this can be reduced to a number (scalar), positive, negative, or zero; the non-zero
and constant cases being models of the known non-Euclidean geometries.
Riemann's idea was to introduce a collection of numbers at every point in space (i.e., a tensor)
which would describe how much it was bent or curved. Riemann found that in four spatial
dimensions, one needs a collection of ten numbers at each point to describe the properties of
a manifold, no matter how distorted it is. This is the famous construction central to his geometry,
known now as a Riemannian metric.

Number theory[edit]
He made some famous contributions to modern analytic number theory. In a single short paper,
the only one he published on the subject of number theory, he investigated the zeta function that
now bears his name, establishing its importance for understanding the distribution of prime
numbers. The Riemann hypothesis was one of a series of conjectures he made about the
function's properties.
In Riemann's work there are many more interesting developments. He proved the functional
equation for the zeta function (already known to Euler), behind which a theta function lies. Also, it

gives a better approximation for the prime-counting function   than Gauss's function 

. Through the summation of this approximation function over the non-trivial zeros on the

line with real portion 1/2, he gave an exact, "explicit formula" for  .
Riemann knew Chebyshev's work on the Prime Number Theorem. He had visited Dirichlet in
1852. But Riemann's methods were very different.
Pythagoras of Samos

Legend and obfuscation cloud his work, so it is uncertain whether he truly contributed
much to mathematics or natural philosophy. Many of the accomplishments credited to
Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues or successors.
Some accounts mention that the philosophy associated with Pythagoras was related to
mathematics and that numbers were important. It was said that he was the first man to
call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom,[5] and Pythagorean ideas exercised a
marked influence on Plato, and through him, all of Western philosophy. Pythagorean
theorem
Main article: Pythagorean theorem
See also: Thales' theorem

A visual proof of the Pythagorean theorem

Since the fourth century AD, Pythagoras has commonly been given credit for discovering
the Pythagorean theorem, a theorem in geometry that states that in a right-angled triangle the
area of the square on the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of

the areas of the squares of the other two sides—that is,  .

While the theorem that now bears his name was known and previously utilised by
the Babylonians and Indians, he, or his students, are often said to have constructed the first
proof. It must, however, be stressed that the way in which the Babylonians handled Pythagorean
numbers implies that they knew that the principle was generally applicable, and knew some kind
of proof, which has not yet been found in the (still largely unpublished) cuneiform sources.
[69]
 Because of the secretive nature of his school and the custom of its students to attribute
everything to their teacher, there is no evidence that Pythagoras himself worked on or proved
this theorem. For that matter, there is no evidence that he worked on any mathematical or meta-
mathematical problems. Some attribute it as a carefully constructed myth by followers
of Plato over two centuries after the death of Pythagoras, mainly to bolster the case for Platonic
meta-physics, which resonate well with the ideas they attributed to Pythagoras. This attribution
has stuck down the centuries up to modern times.[70] The earliest known mention of Pythagoras's
name in connection with the theorem occurred five centuries after his death, in the writings
of Cicero and Plutarch.

Musical theories and investigations

According to legend, the way Pythagoras discovered that musical notes could be translated into
mathematical equations was when he passed blacksmiths at work one day and thought that the
sounds emanating from their anvils were beautiful and harmonious and decided that whatever
scientific law caused this to happen must be mathematical and could be applied to music. He
went to the blacksmiths to learn how the sounds were produced by looking at their tools. He
discovered that it was because the hammers were "simple ratios of each other, one was half the
size of the first, another was 2/3 the size, and so on".
This legend has since proven to be false by virtue of the fact that these ratios are only relevant to
string length (such as the string of a monochord), and not to hammer weight.[71][72] However, it may
be that Pythagoras was indeed responsible for discovering the properties of string length.

The Swiss Bernoulli brothers, James and John, were the first to achieve a
full understanding of Leibniz’s presentation of the calculus. Their
subsequent publications did much to make the subject widely known to the
rest of the continent.

James Bernoulli, the elder of the two, entered the University of Basel in
1671, receiving a master’s degree in theology two years later and a licentiate
(a degree just below the doctorate) in theology in 1676. Meanwhile, he was
teaching himself mathematics, much against the wishes of his merchant
father. Bernoulli spent two years in France familiarizing himself with
Descartes’ Géométrie and the work of his followers. By 1687, he had
sufficient mathematical reputation to be appointed to a vacant post at Basel.
He also wrote to Leibniz in the same year, asking to be shown his new
methods. This proved difficult because Leibniz’s abbreviated explanations
were full of errors. Still, Bernoulli mastered the material within several
years and went on to make contributions to the calculus equal to those of
Leibniz himself.

The Bernoulli brothers used the techniques of Leibniz’s calculus as a means

for handling a wide range of astronomical and physical problems,
sometimes working independently to solve the same problem. In 1690,
James Bernoulli challenged the mathematicians of Europe to determine the
shape (that is, to find the equation) of a hanging flexible cable suspended in
equilibrium at two points. The correct solution was presented a year later by
his brother John in his first published paper. The desired curve was not a
parabola, as some expected, but a curve known as the catenary -- from the
Latin word catena, chain.

Bernoulli was more adapt at treating infinite series than most

mathematicians of the day. He showed that
diverges, and that

1/12 + 1/22 + 1/32 + 1/42 + . . .

converges; but he confessed his inability to find the sum of the latter series.
(Euler succeeded in finding its sum.) In 1690 he established what is known
as the "Bernoullian inequality,"

(1 + x)n > 1 + nx, x > -1, n > 1, n an integer.

We also owe to him the word "integral" in its technical sense.

The Swiss Bernoulli brothers, James and John, were the first to achieve a
full understanding of Leibniz’s presentation of the calculus. Their
subsequent publications did much to make the subject widely known to the
rest of the continent.

James Bernoulli, the elder of the two, entered the University of Basel in
1671, receiving a master’s degree in theology two years later and a licentiate
(a degree just below the doctorate) in theology in 1676. Meanwhile, he was
teaching himself mathematics, much against the wishes of his merchant
father. Bernoulli spent two years in France familiarizing himself with
Descartes’ Géométrie and the work of his followers. By 1687, he had
sufficient mathematical reputation to be appointed to a vacant post at Basel.
He also wrote to Leibniz in the same year, asking to be shown his new
methods. This proved difficult because Leibniz’s abbreviated explanations
were full of errors. Still, Bernoulli mastered the material within several
years and went on to make contributions to the calculus equal to those of
Leibniz himself.

The Bernoulli brothers used the techniques of Leibniz’s calculus as a means

for handling a wide range of astronomical and physical problems,
sometimes working independently to solve the same problem. In 1690,
James Bernoulli challenged the mathematicians of Europe to determine the
shape (that is, to find the equation) of a hanging flexible cable suspended in
equilibrium at two points. The correct solution was presented a year later by
his brother John in his first published paper. The desired curve was not a
parabola, as some expected, but a curve known as the catenary -- from the
Latin word catena, chain.

Bernoulli was more adapt at treating infinite series than most

mathematicians of the day. He showed that

diverges, and that

1/12 + 1/22 + 1/32 + 1/42 + . . .

 converges; but he confessed his inability to find the sum of the latter series.
(Euler succeeded in finding its sum.) In 1690 he established what is known
as the "Bernoullian inequality,"

(1 + x)n > 1 + nx, x > -1, n > 1, n an integer.

We also owe to him the word "integral" in its technical sense.

Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz

was a German polymath and philosopher who occupies a prominent place in the history of

mathematics and the history of philosophy, having developed differential and integral
calculus independently of Isaac Newton.[12] Leibniz's notation has been widely used ever since it
was published. It was only in the 20th century that his Law of Continuity and Transcendental Law
of Homogeneity found mathematical implementation (by means of non-standard analysis). He
became one of the most prolific inventors in the field of mechanical calculators. While working on
adding automatic multiplication and division to Pascal's calculator, he was the first to describe
a pinwheel calculator in 1685[13] and invented the Leibniz wheel, used in the arithmometer, the
first mass-produced mechanical calculator. He also refined the binary number system, which is
the foundation of virtually all digital computers.
In philosophy, Leibniz is most noted for his optimism, i.e. his conclusion that our Universe is, in a
restricted sense, the best possible one that God could have created, an idea that was often
lampooned by others such as Voltaire. Leibniz, along with René Descartesand Baruch Spinoza,
was one of the three great 17th-century advocates of rationalism. The work of Leibniz anticipated
modern logicand analytic philosophy, but his philosophy also looks back to
the scholastic tradition, in which conclusions are produced by applying reason to first principles
or prior definitions rather than to empirical evidence.
Leibniz made major contributions to physics and technology, and anticipated notions that
surfaced much later in philosophy, probability
theory, biology, medicine, geology, psychology, linguistics, and computer science. He wrote
works on philosophy, politics, law, ethics, theology, history, and philology. Leibniz's contributions
to this vast array of subjects were scattered in various learned journals, in tens of thousands of
letters, and in unpublished manuscripts. He wrote in several languages, but primarily
in Latin, French, and German.[14]There is no complete gathering of the writings of Leibniz in
English

Mathematician[edit]
Although the mathematical notion of function was implicit in trigonometric and logarithmic tables,
which existed in his day, Leibniz was the first, in 1692 and 1694, to employ it explicitly, to denote
any of several geometric concepts derived from a curve, such
as abscissa, ordinate, tangent, chord, and the perpendicular.[68] In the 18th century, "function" lost
these geometrical associations.
Leibniz was the first to see that the coefficients of a system of linear equations could be arranged
into an array, now called a matrix, which can be manipulated to find the solution of the system, if
any. This method was later called Gaussian elimination. Leibniz's discoveries of Boolean
algebra and of symbolic logic, also relevant to mathematics, are discussed in the preceding
section. The best overview of Leibniz's writings on calculus may be found in Bos (1974). [69]

Calculus[edit]
Leibniz is credited, along with Sir Isaac Newton, with the discovery of calculus (differential and
integral calculus). According to Leibniz's notebooks, a critical breakthrough occurred on
November 11, 1675, when he employed integral calculus for the first time to find the area under
the graph of a function y = f(x).[70] He introduced several notations used to this day, for instance
the integral sign ∫, representing an elongated S, from the Latin word summa, and the d used
for differentials, from the Latin word differentia. This cleverly suggestive notation for calculus is
probably his most enduring mathematical legacy. Leibniz did not publish anything about his
calculus until 1684.[71] Leibniz expressed the inverse relation of integration and differentiation,
later called the fundamental theorem of calculus, by means of a figure[72] in his 1693
paper Supplementum geometriae dimensoriae....[73]However, James Gregory is credited for the
theorem's discovery in geometric form, Isaac Barrow proved a more generalized geometric
version, and Newton developed supporting theory. The concept became more transparent as
developed through Leibniz's formalism and new notation. [74] The product rule of differential
calculus is still called "Leibniz's law". In addition, the theorem that tells how and when to
differentiate under the integral sign is called the Leibniz integral rule.
Leibniz exploited infinitesimals in developing calculus, manipulating them in ways suggesting that
they had paradoxical algebraic properties. George Berkeley, in a tract called The Analyst and
also in De Motu, criticized these. A recent study argues that Leibnizian calculus was free of
contradictions, and was better grounded than Berkeley's empiricist criticisms
Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor 

February 19] 1845 – January 6, 1918[1]) was a German mathematician. He invented set theory,

which has become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor established the importance
of one-to-one correspondence between the members of two sets, defined infinite and well-
ordered sets, and proved that the real numbers are more numerous than the natural numbers. In
fact, Cantor's method of proof of this theorem implies the existence of an "infinity of infinities". He
defined the cardinal and ordinal numbers and their arithmetic. Cantor's work is of great
philosophical interest, a fact of which he was well aware. [2]
Cantor's theory of transfinite numbers was originally regarded as so counter-intuitive – even
shocking – that it encountered resistancefrom mathematical contemporaries such as Leopold
Kronecker and Henri Poincaré[3] and later from Hermann Weyl and L. E. J. Brouwer, while Ludwig
Wittgenstein raised philosophical objections. Cantor, a devout Lutheran, [4] believed the theory
had been communicated to him by God.[5] Some Christian theologians (particularly neo-
Scholastics) saw Cantor's work as a challenge to the uniqueness of the absolute infinity in the
nature of God[6] – on one occasion equating the theory of transfinite numbers with pantheism[7] – a
proposition that Cantor vigorously rejected.
The objections to Cantor's work were occasionally fierce: Henri Poincaré referred to his ideas as
a "grave disease" infecting the discipline of mathematics,[8] and Leopold Kronecker's public
opposition and personal attacks included describing Cantor as a "scientific charlatan", a
"renegade" and a "corrupter of youth." [9] Kronecker objected to Cantor's proofs that the algebraic
numbers are countable, and that the transcendental numbers are uncountable, results now
included in a standard mathematics curriculum. Writing decades after Cantor's
death, Wittgenstein lamented that mathematics is "ridden through and through with the
pernicious idioms of set theory", which he dismissed as "utter nonsense" that is "laughable" and
"wrong".[10] Cantor's recurring bouts of depression from 1884 to the end of his life have been
blamed on the hostile attitude of many of his contemporaries, [11] though some have explained
these episodes as probable manifestations of a bipolar disorder

Mathematical work[edit]
Cantor's work between 1874 and 1884 is the origin of set theory.[31] Prior to this work, the concept
of a set was a rather elementary one that had been used implicitly since the beginning of
mathematics, dating back to the ideas of Aristotle. No one had realized that set theory had any
nontrivial content. Before Cantor, there were only finite sets (which are easy to understand) and
"the infinite" (which was considered a topic for philosophical, rather than mathematical,
discussion). By proving that there are (infinitely) many possible sizes for infinite sets, Cantor
established that set theory was not trivial, and it needed to be studied. Set theory has come to
play the role of a foundational theory in modern mathematics, in the sense that it interprets
propositions about mathematical objects (for example, numbers and functions) from all the
traditional areas of mathematics (such as algebra, analysis and topology) in a single theory, and
provides a standard set of axioms to prove or disprove them. The basic concepts of set theory
are now used throughout mathematics.[32]
In one of his earliest papers,[33] Cantor proved that the set of real numbers is "more numerous"
than the set of natural numbers; this showed, for the first time, that there exist infinite sets of
different sizes. He was also the first to appreciate the importance of one-to-one
correspondences (hereinafter denoted "1-to-1 correspondence") in set theory. He used this
concept to define finite and infinite sets, subdividing the latter into denumerable (or countably
infinite) sets and uncountable sets (nondenumerable infinite sets).[34]
Cantor developed important concepts in topology and their relation to cardinality. For example,
he showed that the Cantor set is nowhere dense, but has the same cardinality as the set of all
real numbers, whereas the rationals are everywhere dense, but countable.
Cantor introduced fundamental constructions in set theory, such as the power set of a set A,
which is the set of all possible subsets of A. He later proved that the size of the power set of A is
strictly larger than the size of A, even when A is an infinite set; this result soon became known
as Cantor's theorem. Cantor developed an entire theory and arithmetic of infinite sets,
called cardinals and ordinals, which extended the arithmetic of the natural numbers. His notation

for the cardinal numbers was the Hebrew letter   (aleph) with a natural number subscript;
for the ordinals he employed the Greek letter ω (omega). This notation is still in use today.
Archimedes of Syracuse 

was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer.[3] Although few details

of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity.
Generally considered the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time, [4]
[5]
 Archimedes anticipated modern calculus and analysis by applying concepts
of infinitesimals and the method of exhaustion to derive and rigorously prove a range
of geometrical theorems, including the area of a circle, the surface area and volume of a sphere,
and the area under a parabola.[6]
Other mathematical achievements include deriving an accurate approximation of pi, defining and
investigating the spiral bearing his name, and creating a system using exponentiation for
expressing very large numbers. He was also one of the first to apply mathematics to physical
phenomena, founding hydrostatics and statics, including an explanation of the principle of
the lever. He is credited with designing innovative machines, such as his screw pump, compound
pulleys, and defensive war machines to protect his native Syracuse from invasion.

Mathematics
While he is often regarded as a designer of mechanical devices, Archimedes also made
contributions to the field of mathematics. Plutarchwrote: "He placed his whole affection and
ambition in those purer speculations where there can be no reference to the vulgar needs of
life."[51] Archimedes was able to use infinitesimals in a way that is similar to modern integral
calculus. Through proof by contradiction (reductio ad absurdum), he could give answers to
problems to an arbitrary degree of accuracy, while specifying the limits within which the answer
lay. This technique is known as the method of exhaustion, and he employed it to approximate the
value of π. In Measurement of a Circle he did this by drawing a larger regular hexagon outside
a circle and a smaller regular hexagon inside the circle, and progressively doubling the number
of sides of each regular polygon, calculating the length of a side of each polygon at each step. As
the number of sides increases, it becomes a more accurate approximation of a circle. After four
such steps, when the polygons had 96 sides each, he was able to determine that the value of π
lay between 31/7 (approximately 3.1429) and 310/71 (approximately 3.1408), consistent with its
actual value of approximately 3.1416.[52] He also proved that the area of a circle was equal to π
multiplied by the square of the radius of the circle (πr2). In On the Sphere and Cylinder,
Archimedes postulates that any magnitude when added to itself enough times will exceed any
given magnitude. This is the Archimedean property of real numbers.[53]

As proven by Archimedes, the area of the parabolic segment in the upper figure is equal to 4/3 that of the
inscribed triangle in the lower figure.

In Measurement of a Circle, Archimedes gives the value of the square root of 3 as lying

between 265/153 (approximately 1.7320261) and 1351/780(approximately 1.7320512). The actual
value is approximately 1.7320508, making this a very accurate estimate. He introduced this
result without offering any explanation of how he had obtained it. This aspect of the work of
Archimedes caused John Wallis to remark that he was: "as it were of set purpose to have
covered up the traces of his investigation as if he had grudged posterity the secret of his method
of inquiry while he wished to extort from them assent to his results." [54] It is possible that he used
an iterative procedure to calculate these values.[55]
In The Quadrature of the Parabola, Archimedes proved that the area enclosed by a parabola and
a straight line is 4/3 times the area of a corresponding inscribed triangle as shown in the figure at
right. He expressed the solution to the problem as an infinite geometric series with the common
ratio 1/4:
Thales of Miletus was a pre-Socratic Greek
philosopher, mathematician and astronomer from Miletus in Asia Minor (present-
day Milet in Turkey). He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle,
regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition,[1][2] and he is otherwise historically
recognized as the first individual in Western civilization known to have entertained and engaged
in scientific philosophy.[3][4]
Thales is recognized for breaking from the use of mythology to explain the world and the
universe, and instead explaining natural objects and phenomena by theories and hypotheses,
i.e. science. Almost all the other Pre-Socratic philosophers followed him in explaining nature as
deriving from a unity of everything based on the existence of a single ultimate substance, instead
of using mythological explanations. Aristotle reported Thales' hypothesis that the originating
principle of nature and the nature of matter was a single material substance: water.
In mathematics, Thales used geometry to calculate the heights of pyramids and the distance of
ships from the shore. He is the first known individual to use deductive reasoning applied to
geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales' theorem. He is the first known individual to
whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed

Thales' theorems
There are two theorems of Thales in elementary geometry, one known as Thales'
theorem having to do with a triangle inscribed in a circle and having the circle's diameter as one
leg, the other theorem being also called the intercept theorem. In addition Eudemus attributed to
him the discovery that a circle is bisected by its diameter, that the base angles of an isosceles
triangle are equal and that vertical angles are equal. According to a historical Note,
[32]
 when Thales visited Egypt, he observed that whenever the Egyptians drew two intersecting
lines, they would measure the vertical angles to make sure that they were equal. Thales
concluded that one could prove that all vertical angles are equal if one accepted some general
notions such as: all straight angles are equal, equals added to equals are equal, and equals
subtracted from equals are equal.

Sir Isaac Newton

was an English mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (described in his own day as a "natural

philosopher") who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and a
key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia
Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid the
foundations of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and he
shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus.
Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated
scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. By deriving Kepler's laws of
planetary motion from his mathematical description of gravity, and using the same principles to
account for the trajectories of comets, the tides, the precession of the equinoxes, and other
phenomena, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of
the Solar System and demonstrated that the motion of objectson Earth and of celestial bodies
could be accounted for by the same principles. Newton's theoretical prediction that the Earth is
shaped as an oblate spheroid was later vindicated by the geodetic measurements
of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, thus convincing most Continental European scientists
of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over the earlier system of Descartes.
Newton’s Law of Gravitation was conceived in 1665. From that moment on Newton work in
mechanics and physics started to change the perspective of the world with ground-breaking
theories. He wrote ‘Principia’ which was a series of three books each one dealing in different
concepts. Book one dealt with basic mechanics and explanation of gravity controlling the
motions of celestial bodies. The second book was about the theory of fluids and their motion
and density whereas the third books shows the law of gravitation affecting the universe.

Newton was the master of all sciences. He did a considerable amount of work in chemistry
and alchemy. He also conducted several researches other than science which were in
theology, prophecy and history. Though he rejected the sacrament and shunned many other
religious beliefs for being superstitious and illogical, Newton can be called a Unitarian for his
passion to combine knowledge and faith.