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Mathematicians
Often, to completely understand the importance of a mathematical theory, it's essential to know about the person who developed it. This category is where all questions about historically significant mathematicians should be asked.
6,570 Questions
How did Rene Descartes invent the coordinate system?
Every time you graph an equation on a Cartesian coordinate system, you are using the work of René Descartes. Descartes, a French mathematician and philosopher, was born in La Haye, France (now named in his honor) on March 31, 1596. His parents taught him at home until he was 8 years old, when he entered the Jesuit college of La Flèche. There he continued his studies until he graduated at age 18.
Descartes was an outstanding student at La Flèche, especially in mathematics. Because of his delicate health, his teachers allowed him to stay in bed until late morning. Despite missing most of his morning classes, Descartes was able to keep up with his studies. He would continue the habit of staying late in bed for his entire adult life.
After graduating from La Flèche, Descartes traveled to Paris and eventually enrolled at the University of Poitiers. He graduated with a law degree in 1616 and then enlisted in a military school. In 1619, he joined the Bavarian army and spent the next nine years as a soldier, touring throughout much of Europe in between military campaigns. Descartes eventually settled in Holland, where he spent most of the rest of his life. There Descartes gave up a military career and decided on a life of mathematics and philosophy.
Descartes attempted to provide a philosophical foundation for the new mechanistic physics that was developing from the work of Copernicus and Galileo. He divided all things into two categories-mind and matter-and developed a dualistic philosophical system in which, although mind is subject to the will and does not follow physical laws, all matter must obey the same mechanistic laws.
The philosophical system that Descartes developed, known as Cartesian philosophy, was based on skepticism and asserted that all reliable knowledge must be built up by the use of reason through logical analysis. Cartesian philosophy was influential in the ultimate success of the Scientific Revolution and provides the foundation upon which most subsequent philosophical thought is grounded.
Descartes published various treatises about philosophy and mathematics. In 1637 Descartes published his masterwork, Discourse on the Method of Reasoning Well and Seeking Truth in the Sciences. In Discourse, Descartes sought to explain everything in terms of matter and motion. Discoursecontained three appendices, one on optics, one on meteorology, and one titled La Géometrie (The Geometry). In La Géometrie, Descartes described what is now known as the system of Cartesian Coordinates, or coordinate geometry. In Descartes's system of coordinates, geometry and algebra were united for the first time to create what is known as analytic geometry.
I DONT KNOW MABABASAG NA ANG ULO KO
What is Ramanujans taxi number?
1729, the smallest number that can be expressed as a sum of a pair of cubes in two different ways.
What is the Archimedes principle of displacement?
I think it is the volume displacement.
When you put an object into a container with a known volume of water, the water will rise, and that change of volume is the volume of the object you introduced into the container.
Who is Mathematician Doris Cannell?
Doris Cannell was not herself a mathematician, but she did contribute to the world of mathematics. She was a British teacher who lived in the 1900s and wrote a biography of George Green, a famous mathematician.
What did Copernicus think of space?
The idea is simply explained by looking at the Earth and Mars orbiting the Sun, as we now know they do, and assume circular orbits for simplicity. The Earth's orbit has a radius of 1.000 and it goes round in 365.25 days, while Mars's orbit has a radius of 1.524 and it goes round in 687 days.
Now suppose some outside force has decreed that the Earth stays still. How is the movement of Mars explained now? well, all you have to do is put Mars on an epicycle so that the centre of the epicycle has the same circle with radius 1.524, going round in 687 days, but in addition to this the epicycle has a radius of 1.000 and Mars goes round that (as well) in 365.25 days.
In this way the Ptolemaic system explains all the observed behaviour of the Mars while allowing the Earth to remain fixed at the centre. Extra epicycles were added to allow for eccentricity and inclination of the orbits.
Don't forget there was no dynamical theory underlying the Ptolemaic and Copernican theories: they only aimed to reproduce the observed movements of the planets among the fixed stars.
Of course Copernicus had a different starting-point from us, he started with the Earth at the centre, but he must have been impressed about the gain in simplicity achieved by placing the Sun at the centre instead of the Earth.
Who is the mathematician who contributed synthetic division?
Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 - 19 August 1662).
Why was Joseph Fourier famous?
Joseph Fourier was the French mathematician and physicist after whom Fourier Series, Fourier's Law, and the Fourier Transform were named. He is commonly credited with discovering the greenhouse effect.
What is Leonard Euler's famous formula?
eix = cos(x) + i*sin(x)
where e is the irrational number 2.7182...
i is the maginary sq root of -1
and x is measured in radians.
In the special case when x = pi, this reduces to:
eiπ = cos(π) + i*sin(π)
or
eiπ = -1
Who are the most famous mathematicians?
This is an extremely difficult question to answer as there have been many influential mathematicians over time. Some of the most influential have been Pythagoras, Euclid, Euler, Newton and Leibniz, but, the list goes on and on. The University of St. Andrews, Scotland, maintains an extensive timeline at www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk / ~history / Timelines / index . html
Who invented Pascal's triangle?
Pascal's triangle was invented by Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) in 1653.
Although it has been named after blaise pascal, there have been traces of the triangle, long before Blaise Pascal was born. It is belived that the Persians and the Chinese had been using it to find the square and cube root of numbers. Whoever asked this question is a complete idiot, because the answer is in the question.
What did Emmy noether look like?
The Wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Noether, includes a few pictures of her. You can also search google.images.com for additional images.
What value is equivalent to the following symbol 10!6!?
10! and 6! means factorial of 10, and factorial of 6, respectively. You can calculate that on most scientific calculators - or you can multiply all numbers from 1 to 6 for the factorial of 6, and all numbers from 1 to 10 for the factorial of 10.
How many seconds are there in 100 years?
3,217,760,000 seconds GUESS WHAT!!?? I DIDN'T USE A CALCULATOR!!! I SMRT!!!!!!!!!! ~A 12 yr. old girl :)
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, and social critic. He pioneered the study of analytic philosophy, and wrote extensively on logic as the basis for mathematics and linguistics. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1950.
These philosophers are associated with German idealism, a philosophical movement that emphasizes the importance of human consciousness and rationality in shaping reality. They all shared the view that the mind plays a central role in creating and understanding the world, and that reality is fundamentally shaped by our mental activities and processes. Hegel, in particular, developed a comprehensive system of dialectical idealism that sought to explain the development of human consciousness and history.
Why do they invent math games?
They invented math games so people can practice their math in a more fun way.
You might be thinking of Blaise Pascal. He had a computer language named after him.
Is there a relationship between Sierpinski Gasket and Pascals Triangle?
Yes. If you mark the odd numbers in Pascal's Triangle, it would form Sierpinski's Gasket.
