Many students know of his work, but almost no one knows the name. Pythagoras is known as the father of Geometry. That may seem boring until you hear of the mysterious life of Pythagoras. Pythagoras is known as the first true mathematician, dealing with the application of math instead of theoretical uses. Pythagoras created his school sometime around 530 B.C. in the town of Croton near the southern end of Italy. The school was very private and secretive. Many outside people thought Pythagoras had created a cult, they may have been right. (Mastin) Pythagoras created many rules and guidelines for his students. The students were split into two sections, the “Mathematikoi” and the “Akousmatikoi”. The Mathematikoi, or listeners, were not allowed …show more content…
Pythagoras never wrote down a single word of his findings. The world only knows the genius of Pythagoras from his students writing about him and his work, which was strictly forbidden. (Mastin) Pythagoras’s students revered him so much that they only regarded him as “That Man” or “The Master”. No student would say his name aloud; they believed that Pythagoras’s name was holy. (The Life and Philosophy of Pythagoras) The mathematical world does not really know how many of his discoveries should be credited to Pythagoras. All new discoveries that were found at his school were credited to Pythagoras, even after he died. (Allen) Pythagoras’s most famous discovery is the Pythagorean Theorem. Almost all students going through high school must learn Pythagoras’s greatest mathematical accomplishment (a2+b2=c2). Upon completion of the theorem to celebrate Pythagoras sacrificed 100 oxen. (A Brief History of the Pythagorean Theorem) Pythagoras and his students were crucial to the creation of Geometry, without them the modern Geometry textbook may look a lot different. The death of Pythagoras is shrouded in mystery. Some believe that Pythagoras died in the fire that killed over 50 of his students. Others say that Pythagoras was killed with his followers by the people of Croton. The most interesting account of the death of Pythagoras says that during the fire, Pythagoras’s students threw themselves on the fire to make a bridge for Pythagoras. He then killed himself out of grief. (The Life and Philosophy of
Through history, as said before, many philosophers have supported and developed what Pythagoras first exposed to the world. One of the most important philosophers to support Pythagoras’s ideas was Plato. In some of his writings he discusses the creation of the universe based on the musical proportions discovered by Pythagoras (Timaeus), and the explanation of the sound emitted by the planets, which is exposed in the “Myth of Er” in The Republic. It talks about a man who died and came back to life who narrates how he saw the space and how, in every “sphere,” there was a being singing constantly, each one in a different tone, so a perfect harmony was built. Nevertheless, not everyone agreed with this theory, being one of its most important critics Aristotle, who claimed that Plato’s arguments where false in his text On the Heavens. He acknowledges that it is a creative and innovative theory, but it is absurd to think that such music, which is imperceptible to us, exists in a harmonic way up in the heavens. I am not going to go deeper into that for it is not relevant for the text. As the years went on, many people continued developing this theory. Nevertheless, this philosophical theory, not truly explained until later on, was an inspiration for many artists and that is why not only philosophers but many other artists mention and base their works upon this theory.
Geometry, a cornerstone in modern civilization, also had its beginnings in Ancient Greece. Euclid, a mathematician, formed many geometric proofs and theories [Document 5]. He also came to one of the most significant discoveries of math, Pi. This number showed the ratio between the diameter and circumference of a circle.
In many ways Thales changed the world, but what makes him so popular is the theorems he made in math. I have not used this type of math yet, but I am sure I will use it in one of my future geometry classes. I may have used one or two of these things in my geometry class, but just can’t recall them.
The mathematicians of Pythagoras's school (500 BC to 300 BC) were interested in numbers for their mystical and numerological properties. They understood the idea of primality and were interested in perfect and amicable numbers.
...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.
There have been many great mathematicians in the world, though many are not well known. People have been studying math for ages, the oldest mathematical object dated all the way back to around 35,000 BC. There are still mathematicians today, studying math and figuring out ways to improve the mathematical world. Some of the most well-known mathematicians include Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Aristotle. These mathematicians (and many more) have influenced the mathematical world and mathematics would not be where it is today without them. There were many great individuals who contributed greatly in mathematics but there was one family with eight great mathematicians who were very influential in mathematics. This was the Bernoulli family. The Bernoulli family contributed a lot to mathematics, medicine, physics, and other areas. Even though they were great mathematicians, there was also hatred and jealousy between many of them. These men did not want their brothers or sons outdoing them in mathematics. Most Bernoulli fathers told their sons not to study mathematics even if they wanted. They were told to study medicine, business, or law, instead, though most of them found a way to study mathematics. The mathematicians in this family include Jacob, Johann, Daniel, Nicolaus I, Nicolaus II, Johann II, Johann III, and Jacob II Bernoulli.
Pythagoras held that an accurate description of reality could only be expressed in mathematical formulae. “Pythagoras is the great-great-grandfather of the view that the totality of reality can be expressed in terms of mathematical laws” (Palmer 25). Based off of his discovery of a correspondence between harmonious sounds and mathematical ratios, Pythagoras deduced “the music of the spheres”. The music of the spheres was his belief that there was a mathematical harmony in the universe. This was based off of his serendipitous discovery of a correspondence between harmonious sounds and mathematical ratios. Pythagoras’ philosophical speculations follow two metaphysical ideals. First, the universe has an underlying mathematical structure. Secondly the force organizing the cosmos is harmony, not chaos or coincidence (Tubbs 2). The founder of a brotherhood of spiritual seekers Pythagoras was the mo...
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.
Hypatia is known as one of the earliest mothers of mathematics. She lived from 370 to 415 B.C. in Alexandria, Greece. She focused greatly on astronomy throughout the course of her life but also greatly enjoyed mathematics. Hypatia was probably one of the most fortunate women of her time. She was educated by her father, Theon. He taught her in the areas of literature, philosophy, science, mathematics and the arts to make sure she stayed very well educated. He also forced her to stay extremely physically fit in order to attempt to make her the perfect human being. Along with being naturally smart, Hypatia had the opportunity to become something big. She published papers and made comments on other famous people of her time such as Diophantus (Perl 1998). This gave her a lot of credit and lead her to be a professor at the University of Alexand...
Rene Descartes may have been most famous However, mathematics appealed to him the most for its innate truthfulness and application to other branches of knowledge. Later in his life, he developed both mathematical and philosophical concepts that are still used widely today. Overall, Rene Descartes should be considered one of the most influential mathematicians of all time for his work in analytic geometry, which set the foundation for algebraic, differential, discrete, and computational geometry, as well as his application of mathematics into philosophy.
Physics began when man first started to study his surroundings. Early applications of physics include the invention of the wheel and of primitive weapons. The people who built Stone Henge had knowledge of physical mechanics in order to move the rocks and place them on top of each other. It was not until during the period of Greek culture that the first systematic treatment of physics started with the use of mechanics. Thales is often said to have been the first scientist, and the first Greek philosopher. He was an astronomer, merchant and mathematician, and after visiting Egypt he is said to have originated the science of deductive geometry. He also discovered theorems of elementary geometry and is said to have correctly predicted an eclipse of the sun. Many of his studies were in astronomy but he also observed static electricity. Phythogoras was a Greek philosopher. He discovered simple numerical ratios relating the musical tones of major consonances, to the length of the strings used in sounding them. The Pythagorean theorem was named after him, although this fundamental statements of deductive geometry was most likely first an idea from Egyptian methods of measurements. With the help of his followers he discovered that the earth was a sphere, but he did not believe it revolved around the sun.
There are many people that contributed to the discovery of irrational numbers. Some of these people include Hippasus of Metapontum, Leonard Euler, Archimedes, and Phidias. Hippasus found the √2. Leonard Euler found the number e. Archimedes found Π. Phidias found the golden ratio. Hippasus found the first irrational number of √2. In the 5th century, he was trying to find the length of the sides of a pentagon. He successfully found the irrational number when he found the hypotenuse of an isosceles right triangle. He is thought to have found this magnificent finding at sea. However, his work is often discounted or not recognized because he was supposedly thrown overboard by fellow shipmates. His work contradicted the Pythagorean mathematics that was already in place. The fundamentals of the Pythagorean mathematics was that number and geometry were not able to be separated (Irrational Number, 2014).
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...
Euclid, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, lived from 323-283 BC. He was a famous Greek mathematician, often referred to as the ‘Father of Geometry”. The dates of his existence were so long ago that the date and place of Euclid’s birth and the date and circumstances of his death are unknown, and only is roughly estimated in proximity to figures mentioned in references around the world. Alexandria was a broad teacher that taught lessons across the world. He taught at Alexandria in Egypt. Euclid’s most well-known work is his treatise on geometry: The Elements. His Elements is one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics, serving as the source textbook for teaching mathematics on different grade levels. His geometry work was used especially from the time of publication until the late 19th and early 20th century Euclid reasoned the principles of what is now called Euclidean geometry, which came from a small set of axioms on the Elements. Euclid was also famous for writing books using the topic on perspective, conic sections, spherical geometry, number theory, and rigor.