John Wallis was an English mathematician born on 23rd november 1616 in Ashford, Kent. His early education was from a local school in Ashford but later he transferred to James Movat’s school in Tenterden in 1625 after an epidemic outbreak. However mathematics became a major part of his life after he started studying it at Martin Holbeach school in Felsted.
His early career choice was being a doctor for which he was even sent to Emmanuel College in Cambridge however his interests in mathematics were overtaking his first choice. Wallis received a Bachelor’s Degree in Art in 1637 and a Master’s Degree in 1640. He became a Priest in 1643 and continued to serve in West minister Assembly till 1649. He was later elected as a Fellow at Queen’s College of Cambridge. Wallis was also involved in the current politics of that time.
John Wallis’s contributions in many branches of mathematics are of great significance. He made advances in trigonometry, geometry and calculus. He is also credited for analyzing the infinite series. He made many innovations such as introducing the term ‘continued fraction’ and using the symbol for infinity for the first time. He is also said to be the initiator of the number line.
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His work ‘Arithmetica Infinitorum’ published in 1656 was one of his most significant works in which he worked upon the theories of mathematicians like Descartes and Cavalieri. He had many new ideas which he proved in his treatise. He published a treatise in 1655 which contained his work on conic sections. He defined curves of the second degree removing confusion and thus making improvement in Descartes’s work on analytical geometry. In 1659, he published another work which consisted on solutions of the cycloid problems posed by Blaise Pascal. His book ‘Treatise of Angular Sections’ was not published for almost forty
...nd a functional equeation for the zeta function. The main pupose of the equation was to give estimates for the number prime less than a given number. Many of his gathered results were later proven by Hadamard and Vallee Poussin. Riemann’s work affects our world today because he gave the foundation to geometry and when other mathmaticians tried to prove his theory they accidentally made other profound and significant contributions to math. Bernhard Riemann’s most influential assistors were his professors among them Gauss, Weber, Listing and Dirichlet. Perhaps of the four Gauss and Dirichlet had the most influence upon him, Gauss guided him as a mentor and Dirichlet’s work gave him the principle that his work was based on. Immortal are those who are forever remembered throughout history Bernhard Riemann past away in July 20, 1866 at the age of thirty-nine.
John Jay was born in New York City on December 12, 1745. John’s parents were Peter Jay and Mary Anna Van Courtland. His maternal family was of solid Dutch American background. They were the Van Cortlandts. Jay’s grandfather was Jacobus Van Cortlandt that served New York City twice as its mayor. Jay attended King’s College, which after independence became Columbia College and eventually Columbia University. As college graduation getting closer, he clerked as a law clerk, passed the New York Bar exam, and began practicing law in 1768. As a young lawyer in New York in 1768, John was very much in demand to serve his country. He graduated from King's College in 1764.
His knowledge was thus gained mathematically. His importance was not only by proving ideas through mathematics, but by proving the existence of God. He tried to build a reliable foundation for knowledge with the idea of God. As Descartes states, "If God is all knowing, all good, and all powerful, he would not let us live in constant ignorance." He gives other individuals incentive to find the truth, even if they feel the basis of finding the truth is impossible.
He took his teaching duties very seriously, while he was preparing lectures for his charge on variety an of topics about science. The first scientific work dates were all from this period. It involves topics, which would continue to occupy him throughout his life. In 1571, he began publication of his track. It was intended to form a preliminary mathematical part of a major study on the Ptolemaic astronomical model. He continued to embrace the Ptolemaic (Parshall 1).
Rene Descartes was one of the most influential thinkers in the history of the philosophy. Born in 1596, he lived to become a great mathematician, scientist, and philosopher. In fact, he became one of the central intellectual figures of the sixteen hundreds. He is believed by some to be the father of modern philosophy, although he was hampered by living in a time when other prominent scientists, such as Galileo, were persecuted for their discoveries and beliefs. Although this probably had an impact on his desire to publish controversial material, he went on to devise works such as the Meditations on First Philosophy and the Principles of Philosophy Aside from these accomplishments, his most important and lasting mathematical work was the invention of analytic geometry. It seems that the underlying point of Descartes’s philosophy is to specify exactly what it is that we are sure we know.
Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont France on June 19, 1623 to Etienne Pascal. His mother died when he was only 3. He was the third of four children and the only boy. He was described as a man of: small stature, poor health, loud spoken, somewhat overbearing, precious, stubbornly persevering, a perfectionist, highly pugnacious yet seeking to be humble and meek. Pascal's father had somewhat unorthodox views on education, so he decided to teach his son himself. He forbade any mathematic teachings or material to be given to him and had any such texts removed from their house. Blaise became engulfed with curiosity due to this rule. He started to work with geometry on his own at the age of 12. He discovered that the sum of the three angles of a triangle is equivalent to two right angles. When his father discovered this he then allowed Blaise a copy of Euclid. At the age of 14 Blaise began accompanying his father to Mersenne's meetings. Mersenne was a member of a religious order of Minims. His cell held many meetings for the likes of Gassendi, Roberval, Carcavi, Auzout, Mydorge, Mylon, Desargues and others. By the time he was 15 Blaise admired the work of Desargues greatly. At 16 Pascal presented a single piece of paper at a Mersenne's meeting in June 1639. It held many of his geometry theorems, including his mystic hexagon. In December 1639 he and his family left Paris and moved to Rouen where his father Etienne was appointed tax collector for Upper Normandy. Soon after settling down in Rouen his Essay on Conic Sections was published in February of 1640. It was his first great work. Pascal also invented the first digital calculator to aid his father in his tax collecting duties. For three years he worked 1642 - 1545. Dubbed the Pascaline, it resembled a mechanical calculator of the 1940's. This almost assuredly makes Pascal second only to Shickard who manufactured the first in 1624. Pascal faced problems with the design of the calculator due to the design of French currency at the time. There were 12 deniers in a sol, and 20 sols in a livre. Therefore there were 240 deniers in a livre. Hence Pascal had to deal with more technical problems to work with this odd way of dividing by 240. Yet the currency system remained the same in France until 1799, but Britain's similar system lasted until 1971.
...ibutions to analytic geometry, algebra, and calculus. In particular, he discovered the binomial theorem, original methods for expansion of never-ending series, and his “direct and inverse method of fluxions.”
Mi’esha Straughn 02 December 2015 4th period John Napier Essay The History of John Napier John Napier was a Scottish mathematician that lived from 1550 to 1617.John Napier was the first major contributor to science form the British Isles. He is also known as a physicist and an astronomer. John Napier was even the eighth Laird of Merchiston.
The development of this mathematical system would lay the foundations for Descartes other philosophical discoveries in which his most significant contributions to the modern world would be made. In the year 1619, Descartes left his mentor Beeckman and joined the Emperor for the Holy Roman Empire Ferdinand V. During his time in the army Descartes had three distinct dreams in which he believed gave him a path to follow later on in life. The basis of these dreams was truly the break between the classics th...
...st important scientists in history. It is said that they both shaped the sciences and mathematics that we use and study today. Euclid’s postulates and Archimedes’ calculus are both important fundamentals and tools in mathematics, while discoveries, such Archimedes’ method of using water to measure the volume of an irregularly shaped object, helped shaped all of today’s physics and scientific principles. It is for these reasons that they are remembered for their contributions to the world of mathematics and sciences today, and will continue to be remembered for years to come.
No other scholar has affected more fields of learning than Blaise Pascal. Born in 1623 in Clermont, France, he was born into a family of respected mathematicians. Being the childhood prodigy that he was, he came up with a theory at the age of three that was Euclid’s book on the sum of the interior of triangles. At the age of sixteen, he was brought by his father Etienne to discuss about math with the greatest minds at the time. He spent his life working with math but also came up with a plethora of new discoveries in the physical sciences, religion, computers, and in math. He died at the ripe age of thirty nine in 1662(). Blaise Pascal has contributed to the fields of mathematics, physical science and computers in countless ways.
Born in the Netherlands, Daniel Bernoulli was one of the most well-known Bernoulli mathematicians. He contributed plenty to mathematics and advanced it, ahead of its time. His father, Johann, made him study medicine at first, as there was little money in mathematics, but eventually, Johann gave in and tutored Daniel in mathematics. Johann treated his son’s desire to lea...
Carl Friedrich Gauss is revered as a very important man in the world of mathematicians. The discoveries he completed while he was alive contributed to many areas of mathematics like geometry, statistics, number theory, statistics, and more. Gauss was an extremely brilliant mathematician and that is precisely why he is remembered all through today. Although Gauss left many contributions in each of the aforementioned fields, two of his discoveries in the fields of mathematics and astronomy seem to have had the most tremendous effect on modern day mathematics.
Burton, D. (2011). The History of Mathematics: An Introduction. (Seventh Ed.) New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The 17th Century saw Napier, Briggs and others greatly extend the power of mathematics as a calculator science with his discovery of logarithms. Cavalieri made progress towards the calculus with his infinitesimal methods and Descartes added the power of algebraic methods to geometry. Euclid, who lived around 300 BC in Alexandria, first stated his five postulates in his book The Elements that forms the base for all of his later Abu Abd-Allah ibn Musa al’Khwarizmi, was born abo...