Mathematicians

Question 1

Thales

Answer 1

~620BCE-550BCE, Greece, First greek mathematician and taught Pythagoras, made contributions to geometry with Thales theorem for triangles

Question 2

Pythagoras

Answer 2

~500BCE, Greece, Credited with pythagorean theorem (was known by other civilizations before), “All is number”, student of Thales

Question 3

Aristotle

Answer 3

~300BCE, Greece, taught by Plato in Platos Academy who was taught by Socrates

Question 4

Euclid

Answer 4

~300BCE, Greece, Wrote elements introducing proofs and documenting much of Euclidian geometry

Question 5

Apollonius of Perga

Answer 5

~250BCE, Greece, focused on conic sections, nicknamed the great geometer,

Question 6

Heron of Alexandria

Answer 6

~60AD, Greece, Contributed mostly to study of reflection with the law of reflection

Question 7

Ptolemy

Answer 7

~100AD, Greece, complied previous autonomy ideas into his book “Almagest” and developed the ptolemaic model

Question 8

Diophantus of Alexandria

Answer 8

~200AD, Alexandria Greece, number theorist concerned with Diophantine equations, Found a method to solve for pythagorean triples

Question 9

Al Khowarazmi

Answer 9

~800AD, Baghdad, Most influential Algebraist of this time, wrote Algebra Val Mutable

Question 10

Fibonacci(Leonardo Pisano)

Answer 10

~1202, Italy, Made contributions in algebra with his main work being Liber Abacci, important in bringing arabic-indian math to Western Europe

Question 11

Rafel Bombelli

Answer 11

1526-1572, Italy, credited with introducing imaginary numbers in his Treatise “Algebra”

Question 12

Rene Descartes

Answer 12

1596-1650, France, Made discoveries in math and philosophy such as analytic geometry and “I think, therefore I am”

Question 13

Pierre Fermat

Answer 13

1607-1665, France, Made contributions to analytic geometry and number theory

Question 14

Blaise Pascal

Answer 14

1623-1662, France, Made key contributions to number theory as well as work on probability theory, binomial coefficients (pascals triangle), and early calculus

Question 15

Issac Newton

Answer 15

1642-1726, England, studied at Cambridge under Isaac Barrow making breakthroughs in calculus, physics, and also doing some Alchemy

Question 16

Scipione Del Ferro

Answer 16

Teacher of Antonio Fior that developed a solution to cubics

Question 17

Antonio Fior

Answer 17

Student of Scipione Del Ferro who challenged Tartaglia to a competition thinking he had an advantage with Ferro’s method for solving cubics

Question 18

Tartaglia

Answer 18

Competed with Fior and won using his own method for solving cubics

Question 19

Cardano

Answer 19

Convinced Fior to show him the method for cubics then turned around and published the method in “Ars Magna”

Question 20

Ferrari

Answer 20

Worked with Cardano on method for cubics and fourth degrees