HISTORY OF MATHEMATICIAN

BIOGRAPHY
Though his exploits in the field of geometry, science, and physics are widely famous, not much is known about his personal life, as all records have been lost. He was so much in love with geometry and his inventions that the last words he uttered were "Do not disturb my circles." He was killed in the Second Punic War by a Roman soldier against the wishes of General Marcellus. Plutarch writes that Archimedes was contemplating a mathematical diagram at the time of his death. His tomb was engraved with the figure of a sphere and cylinder as per his wish.

INVENTIONS
In the field of mathematics, Archimedes produced several theorems that became widely known throughout the world. He is credited with producing some of the principles of calculus long before Newton and Leibniz. He worked out ways of squaring the circle and computing areas of several curved regions. His interest in mechanics is credited with influencing his mathematical reasoning, which he used in devising new mathematical theorems. He proved that the surface area and volume of a sphere are two-thirds that of its circumscribing cylinder. He is credited with the invention of Archimedes screw or screw pump, which is a device used to raise the level of water from a lower area to a higher elevation. He is known for the formulation of Archimedes' principle, a hydrostatic principle stating that an object in any liquid is buoyed by force equal to the weight of fluid it displaces. Legend has it that he discovered the principle of buoyancy while taking bath and following the discovery, he ran naked shouting "Eureka, Eureka," meaning I have found it.

Using the method of exhaustion, he was able to address irrational numbers, such as square roots and Pi. He showed how to calculate areas and tangents. His mastery of applied mathematics reflects from his work on the Archimedes screw. From his invention of war machines, such as parabolic mirrors, Archimedes claw and death ray and complex lever systems, shows that he played an important role in guarding Syracuse against the siege laid by Romans. Though he could not save Syracuse from being captured by General Marcus Claudius Marcellus and his Roman forces in 212 B.C., his war machines might have delayed the capture. Archimedes himself was killed when the city was captured by the Romans. Undoubtedly, Archimedes was one of the most brilliant minds of all times. His contributions in the field of geometry, science, and physics truly reflect his genius. He wrote many treatises, but only a few would survive the Middle Ages. Still his work and fame live on.

BACKGROUND
Charles Babbage was born in London, England December 26, 1791. Babbage suffered from many childhood illnesses, which forced his family to send him to a clergy operated school for special care. Babbage had the advantage of a wealthy father that wished to further his education. A stint at the Academy at Forty Hills in Middlesex began the process and created the interest in Mathematics. Babbage showed considerable talent in Mathematics, but his disdain for the Classics meant that more schooling and tutoring at home would be required before Babbage would be ready for entry to Cambridge. Babbage enjoyed reading many of the major works in math and showed a solid understanding of what theories and ideas had validity. As an undergraduate, Babbage setup a society to critique the works of the French mathematician, Lacroix, on the subject of differential and integral calculus. Finding Lacroix's work a masterpiece and showing the good sense to admit so, Babbage was asked to setup a Analytical Society that was composed of Cambridge undergraduates.

CONTRIBUTIONS
Written Works: A Comparative View of the Various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives (1826) Table of Logarithms of the Natural Numbers from 1 to 108, 000 (1827) Reflections on the Decline of Science in England (1830) On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1832) Ninth Bridgewater Treatise (1837) Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864) Famous Quote: "The whole of the developments and operations of analysis are now capable of being executed by machinery. ... As soon as an Analytical Engine exists, it will necessarily guide the future course of science." ---Excerpt from the Life of a Philosopher

Ren Descartes was born on March 31, 1596 in a village in Touraine, France, which is now called La Haye-Descartes. His mother died shortly after he was born (thirteen months). About 1606, Ren entered the Jesuit college of La Fleche, in which a relative of his, Father Charlet, a theologian would watch out for him. Because of his delicate health, Descartes was allowed to spend mornings in bed, meditating, reading, and writing -a habit he maintained for most of his life. He left La Fleche, because he was more confused about knowledge, and he did not get his thirst for knowledge fulfilled. He then studied at the University of Poitiers in 1615-16, earning a bachelor's degree and a licentiate in law there. At the age of twenty-two he left Paris and join the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau. In the next year he was transferred to the army of Maximailian. Duke of Bavaria. But in the night of November 10, 1619, he had a series of three dreams, that he interpreted as a message from God tell him to devote his life to the rational quest for certain truth. After ending his voluntary military service he went back to Paris.

The social life in Paris was too distracting, so he moved to Holland in 1628. He lived in Holland until 1649. During this time, he avoided reading any scholastic texts. He wrote a couple of works in Holland, but when he heard of the Inquisition condemning Galileo to death for his thoughts, as well as, other thinkers, he decided to suppress his works. In late 1604, Descartes' daughter, though he was never married, and father died. Descartes' philosophy became famous during the last decade of his life. Descartes was later accused of heresy at the University of Leyden and wrote a letter of self-defense to its trustees in 1647. He feared that he might be arrested and killed, like Galileo, but that never happened. In around 1648, Queen Christina of Sweden invited him to come to her court to instruct her in philosophy. Despite his cautious reluctance, Descartes accepted her invitation. She sent an admiral with a warship to carry him to Sweden, and Descartes left for Stockholm in September of 1649. This was the costliest mistake of his life.

German mathematician who is sometimes called the "prince of mathematics." He was a prodigious child, at the age of three informing his father of an arithmetical error in a complicated payroll calculation and stating the correct answer. In school, when his teacher gave the problem of summing the integers from 1 to 100 (an arithmetic series ) to his students to keep them busy, Gauss immediately wrote down the correct answer 5050 on his slate. At age 19, Gauss demonstrated a method for constructing a heptadecagon using only a straightedge and compass which had eluded the Greeks. (The explicit construction of the heptadecagon was accomplished around 1800 by Erchinger.) Gauss also showed that only regular polygons of a certain number of sides could be in that manner (a heptagon, for example, could not be constructed.) Gauss proved the fundamental theorem of algebra, which states that every polynomial has a root of the form a+bi. In fact, he gave four different proofs, the first of which appeared in his dissertation. In 1801, he proved the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, which states that every natural number can be represented as the product of primes in only one way. At age 24, Gauss published one of the most brilliant achievements in mathematics, Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801). In it, Gauss systematized the study ofnumber theory (properties of the integers ). Gauss proved that every number is the sum of at most three triangular numbers and developed the algebra of congruences.

n 1801, Gauss developed the method of least squares fitting, 10 years before Legendre, but did not publish it. The method enabled him to calculate the orbit of the asteroid Ceres, which had been discovered by Piazzi from only three observations. However, after his independent discovery, Legendre accused Gauss of plagiarism. Gauss published his monumental treatise on celestial mechanics Theoria Motus in 1806. He became interested in the compass through surveying and developed the magnetometer and, with Wilhelm Weber measured the intensity of magnetic forces. With Weber, he also built the first successful telegraph. Gauss is reported to have said "There have been only three epoch-making mathematicians: Archimedes, Newton and Eisenstein" (Boyer 1968, p. 553). Most historians are puzzled by the inclusion of Eisenstein in the same class as the other two. There is also a story that in 1807 he was interrupted in the middle of a problem and told that his wife was dying. He is purported to have said, "Tell her to wait a moment 'til I'm through" (Asimov 1972, p. 280). Gauss arrived at important results on the parallel postulate, but failed to publish them. Credit for the discovery of non-Euclidean geometry therefore went to Janos Bolyai and Lobachevsky. However, he did publish his seminal work on differential geometry in Disquisitiones circa superticies curvas. The Gaussian curvature (or "second" curvature) is named for him. He also discovered the Cauchy integral theorem

INTRODUCTION
G. W. Leibniz was one of the most important thinkers of his time. His contributions to such diverse fields as philosophy, linguistics, and history are undeniable. And yet although he became acquainted quite late in his life with the mathematical achieveme nts of his generation, it will always be his innovations in this field that put him to the forefront of the enlightened thinkers of his era. These achievements are especially remarkable considering that Leibniz often treated the subject as a corollary to his studies in other fields, notably logic, philosophy, and even law. It was precisely for this reason that Leibniz had so much success in the field, in that he was unhampered by much of the dogma that might have hindered its progress. Leibniz viewed the subject through his own lens, interpreting the mathematical issues differently from his colleagues. Perhaps it was the distance from which he viewed the field that allowed Leibniz to be such an innovator in the rapidly changing subject. He gathered and pr ocessed as much contem-porary mathematics as possible, reassessed it, and through his innovative system of notation, repackaged it as a superior product. It was Leibniz's algebraic symbolism that freed the subject from much of its rigid verbal structure, allowing it to develop at an even faster rate. Leibniz's modern mathematical notation probably represents his greatest single contribution to mathematics. G.W. Leibniz is generally considered, along with Isaac Newton, as a cofounder of the differential and integral Calculus.

Mathematicians had developed algebraic methods for finding areas and volumes of a great variety geometric figures. This marks one of the greatest developments in m athematics since the Greeks beg using limits to approximate areas and then find the value of p. It was Cavalieri (1598-1647) who firs introduced the concept of "indivisible magnitudes" in his Geometry of Indivisibles to study areas und curves of the form: y = xn (n(1) At roughly the same time Descartes published his La Giomitrie, in which he showed, somewhat obsc how to use Viite's algebra to describe curves and obtain an algebraic analysis of geometric problems. 319-331] The work of these two mathematici ans would have an especially great influence on the development of Leibniz's new calculus. [4, X]

Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727), English natural philosopher, generally regarded as the most original and influential theorist in the history of science. In addition to his invention of the infinitesimal calculus and a new theory of light and color, Newton transformed the structure of physical science with his three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. As the keystone of the scientific revolution of the 17th century, Newton's work combined the contributions of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and others into a new and powerful synthesis. Three centuries later the resulting structure - classical mechanics - continues to be a useful but no less elegant monument to his genius.

Life & Character - Isaac Newton was born prematurely on Christmas day 1642 (4 January 1643, New Style) in Woolsthorpe, a hamlet near Grantham in Lincolnshire. The posthumous son of an illiterate yeoman (also named Isaac), the fatherless infant was small enough at birth to fit 'into a quartpot.' When he was barely three years old Newton's mother, Hanna (Ayscough), placed her first born with his grandmother in order to remarry and raise a second family with Barnabas Smith, a wealthy rector from nearby North Witham. Much has been made of Newton's posthumous birth, his prolonged separation from his mother, and his unrivaled hatred of his stepfather. Until Hanna returned to Woolsthorpe in 1653 after the death of her second husband, Newton was denied his mother's attention, a possible clue to his complex character. Newton's childhood was anything but happy, and throughout his life he verged on emotional collapse, occasionally falling into violent and vindictive attacks against friend and foe alike.

Scientific Achievements

Mathematics - The origin of Newton's interest in mathematics can be traced to his undergraduate days at Cambridge. Here Newton became acquainted with a number of contemporary works, including an edition of Descartes Gomtrie, John Wallis' Arithmetica infinitorum, and other works by prominent mathematicians. But between 1664 and his return to Cambridge after the plague, Newton made fundamental contributions to analytic geometry, algebra, and calculus. Specifically, he discovered the binomial theorem, new methods for expansion of infinite series, and his 'direct and inverse method of fluxions.' As the term implies, fluxional calculus is a method for treating changing or flowing quantities. Hence, a 'fluxion' represents the rate of change of a 'fluent'--a continuously changing or flowing quantity, such as distance, area, or length. In essence, fluxions were the first words in a new language of physics.

Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian (Greek) philosopher and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist; however some have questioned the scope of his contributions to mathematics or natural philosophy. We do know that Pythagoras and his students believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality and, through mathematics, everything could be predicted and measured in rhythmic patterns or cycles. The Pythagoreans were musicians as well as mathematicians. Pythagoras wanted to improve the music of his day, which he believed was not harmonious enough and was too hectic.