Mathematician Madness
Mathematician Accomplishments Lifetime Month
“Greatest mathematician of all time”
Published what all others had learned about geometry
330 BC – 275
Euclid and added his own important ideas
BC
October
Proposed the use of geometry proofs
Origin: Greek, spent most of his time in Egypt
King of Syracuse requested his help with unusual
problems. (ex. He built a lever to launch a huge ship all
by himself.
Discovered volume’s relationship to displacement.
Archimedes Discovered the number used to measure circles, 287-212 BC November
spheres, and cylinders – pi.
His work with pi helped make measurements more
accurately.
Origin: Island of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea
Wrote about algebra. (Algebra uses letters to represent
numbers.)
Also wrote about a number system that included a zero .
Al-Kwarismi He showed mathematicians how to work with very large
780-850 December
numbers more easily if they used zero as a placeholder.
Origin: Baghdad (present-day Iraq)
Discovered an interesting number pattern:
Leonardo 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21 (sum of # before it)
Discovered this pattern appears in our natural world 1170-1250 January
Fibonacci (flower petals, bones in our hand, etc.)
Origin: Italy
Discoveries were the beginning of modern math.
Invented a wooden clock that kept time.
Isaac Newton Invented simple way of solving complicated problems 1642-1727 February
called calculus
Origin: England
Joseph Louis Along with some other mathematicians, he created the
metric system 1736-1813 March
Lagrange Origin Italy and France
Charles Babbage First version of a modern-day computer
1791-1871
First computer programmer April
1815-1852
& Ada Lovelace Origin: England
Many think he was one of the smartest people who ever
lived
Developed the theory of relativity – how time, space,
Albert Einstein and mass are related. 1879-1955 May
He discovered that light moves incredibly fast.
He stressed the importance of living together peacefully
Origin: Germany