3 mathematicians biography and contributions
Home / Scientists & Inventors / 3 mathematicians biography and contributions
By his retirement in 1988, he published nearly 100 works on game theory, dynamic programming and statistics. He helped define math entities like point, line, plane, solid, circle, number, and even and odd, and defined concepts like prime numbers.
Learn more about Aristotle at Britannica Kids.
Archimedes
Sicily, 287–212 B.C.E
Archimedes spent his life trying to find math formulas that were related to physics.
John von Neumann
Hungary, 1903–1957
John von Neumann was a child prodigy who worked on quantum theory and the Manhattan Project.
She worked with Dorothy Vaughan, another influential mathematician, to provide data that was used in early space missions. Heron also gave a formula for finding the cube root of a number.
Learn more about Heron of Alexandria at Britannica. She completed the calculations that sent Alan Shepard and John Glenn into space and was an important part of the Apollo space program.
| Born | 495 BC |
|---|---|
| Died | 510 BC |
| Birth Place | Greece |
| Areas worked | Mathematics |
| Famous for | Pythagoras Theorem |
Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes was a French mathematician, a philosopher and scientist.
Euclid’s birthdate is unknown and 325 BCE – 265 BCE is an estimated time period of his life. She started her career as a math teacher and then joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to work on American space programs. However, his mathematical contributions live on in a tremendous way as his famous Fibonacci sequence continues to illuminate the mathematical structures of nature and the natural world.
Fun Fact: Fibonacci is credited with introducing the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to Europe, which eventually led to its widespread acceptance, simplifying and unifying mathematical formulas, equations, and computations.
6.) Sophie Germain (1776-1831)
Despite facing incredible adversity as a female mathematician in Paris during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Germain persisted and became one of the most famous mathematicians of all time.
Euler invented functional notation, f(x), and developed the trigonometric functions to show sine, cosine, and tangent.
Ptolemy
Egypt, 100–170 C.E.
Ptolemy is known for applying math to astronomy, like applying theorems of spherical trigonometry to astrological problems. Jackson was also depicted in the book and movie Hidden Figures along with Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan.
This crisis led to the birth of the next period of western history: the Renaissance (1400-1600 CE), a cultural movement marked by social change and intense cultural and intellectual development.
The core concept of the Renaissance is a revival of classical antiquity; Europeans wanted to revisit the ideas of the Ancient Greeks and Romans and surpass their discoveries and achievements.
He also worked on the areas of quadrilaterals, polygons, and surface and volume of cones, cylinders, prisms, and more shapes. He also influenced the theory of functions as a real variable, which is still studied today.
Watch this video about more famous 21st-century mathematicians:
If you liked this list of famous mathematicians, check out these Nobel Prize Winners Kids Should Know.
Plus, get all the latest articles, teaching tips, and ideas when you subscribe to our free newsletters!
17 Famous Mathematicians in History (and Their Amazing Contributions)
From Ancient Greece to Modern Day, Who are the Top 17 Most Famous Mathematicians?
While the study of mathematics is typically focused on learning how to apply mathematical operations and formulas, it is important to also learn about the history of mathematics to truly appreciate the beauty of the subject.
As the famous Isaac Newton Quote goes:
If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
The giants he is referring to are all of the incredible mathematicians who came before him.
325–265 B.C.E.
If you’ve studied geometry, you’ve heard of Euclid. But Heron’s work did not stop there. After years of studying number theory and calculation, he wrote the Liber Abaci (the Book of Abacus)—what solidified his legacy today.
The Liber Abaci introduced Europeans to the Hindu–Arabic numeral system as an alternative to other systems like Roman numerals.
He’s known as the inventor of pulleys and pumps, but his main interest was math.