Greatest mathematicians of all time – Mathematics is a branch of science that deals with rational numbers, shapes, and quantity; it has been a medium for some vital scientific discoveries such as Cartesian axes, Euler’s identity, and discovering the secrets of DNA.
However, mathematics is fascinating to some people, while it is challenging. Nevertheless, it is a clear fact that mathematics has helped in evolution. It has dramatically solved a series of problems, such as knowing the distance of various planets to the earth, the creation of computers, and many other inventions.
Without the existence of some great mathematicians, some theorems will not have been existing, and these mathematicians have helped the mathematical world solve a series of problems and misconceptions.
Greatest Mathematicians of All Time
Have you ever wondered how many years it took those great mathematicians to come up with groundbreaking theories and discoveries on how to solve a specific problem?
To become a great mathematician, you must know the greatest mathematicians of all time and what theories they formulated.
1. Carl Friedrich Gauss
Carl Friedrich Gauss was a mathematics erudite and an ardent perfectionist who always tried to do everything flawlessly. This attests to his series of theories and contributions to mathematics and science, including the algebra theorem and his excellent mathematical prowess.
Born in 1977, Carl was never a prolific writer and feared what other people would think about his work, making him not publish some of his theories and conceptions. Even the non-Euclidean space, one of his theories, was discovered after his death.
Furthermore, the mathematics genius is often referred to as the “prince of mathematics,” having formulated the Gaussian distribution, which is undoubtedly the standard normal bell curve in statistics.
2. Euclid
The list of the greatest mathematicians of all time will be incomplete if we fail to mention Euclid of Alexandria (325 BC – 265 BC), who is considered to be the “father of geometry” and also a Greek mathematician who significantly contributed to optics and authored Euclid’s elements which have been one of the significant texts in mathematics.
Euclid’s elements contain 13 books containing different topics in mathematics, such as regular solids, solid geometry, number theory, and many others.
3. Leonhard Euler
Born in 1707, Leonhard Euler hails from Switzerland; he was a remarkable mathematics genius, astronomer, and scientist; he is one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, and likewise, in the 18th century.
Euler is an intelligent mathematician who has written more than 886 articles and books. He has pioneered a series of groundbreaking discoveries and conceptions, such as graph theory, infinitesimal calculus, and Euler’s identity, with various contributions to mathematics and physics.
The great mathematician is celebrated for inventing mathematical notations such as using the Greek letter lowercase pi (π) to denote the ratio of a circle, the Greek letter uppercase sigma (Σ) to denote summations and many other existing notations.
4. Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was an English mathematician, astronomer, and scientist known for his prowess and remarkable contributions to mathematics and physics. He got a sound education at the King’s School in Grantham and Trinity College (Cambridge).
Newton significantly contributed to a wide array of topics in mathematics and published the scientific legend book “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” in 1687, which entails the three laws of motion and a conception of the universal gravitation.
His seminal contribution to the study of power series, binomial theorem, and the development of the Newton-Raphson method is being recognized both locally and internationally, which led him to become the second Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge.
Newton’s second major book, Opticks, was published in 1704; a critique of his laboratory experiment that analyzes the nature of light utilizing refraction with lens and prisms, diffraction of light, and the behavior of color mixture with pigment powder or spectral lights.
Isaac Newton is recognized as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time due to his tremendous research and discovery that has benefited the mathematical and scientific world.
5. Srinivasa Ramanujan
Born in 1887, Srinivasa Ramanujan hails from India. He is considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. His remarkable and groundbreaking theories and research have significantly contributed to infinite series, number theory, mathematical analysis, and continued fractions.
However, Ramanujan did not have the chance to enroll in formal training in pure mathematics. However, he has complied with at least 3,900 equations and identities used to solve problems in mathematics.
Although Ramanujan lived a short life and died at the age of 31, he is celebrated for being the first Indian to be elected as the Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and one of the youngest fellows of the Royal Society.
To recognize Srinivasa Ramanujan’s groundbreaking research, researchers established the Ramanujan Journal, which is described as a scientific journal to publish the theories and notebooks of the great mathematician.
6. Archimedes
Archimedes (c. 287 – c. 212 BC) was a great Greek mathematician, physician, and scientist who pioneered a series of groundbreaking theories to solve essential problems in mathematics, making him one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
Although some of Archimedes’ facts and discoveries are nowhere to be found anymore, it is known that he derived the area and circumference of a circle, the principle of calculating the value of pi.
The great mathematician is celebrated for applying the knowledge of mathematics to real life, as he is known for designing innovative and defensive machines; Archimedes is indeed a multi-talent individual.
7. Pythagoras
Pythagoras is a Greek philosopher and mathematician who is always celebrated for his tremendous efforts in discovering the right-angled triangle theorem and proving the Pythagoras theorem which is still in existence.
The great mathematician is famous for establishing a mathematical theorem, and he went from concluding that music is mathematical to discovering rational numbers and groundbreaking numerology.
Due to his substantial efforts and relevant discovery to the mathematical world, Pythagoras has been recognized locally and internationally as one of the most influential and greatest mathematicians of all time. He has a school to his name.
8. Gerolamo Cardano
Born in 1501, Cardono was an Italian mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and scientist who contributed significantly to probability and established the binomial theorem and binomial coefficient. The great mathematician was celebrated to be the first European to systematic make use of negative numbers.
It is known that Cardono’s ideas to pioneer probability came through because of his gambling lifestyle, and he has more than 200 works and books to his name, which includes Liber de ludo aleae (Work on Games of Chance), and many others.
9. Terence Tao
Born in 1975, Terence Tao is one of the greatest mathematicians of all time; he earnestly loved mathematics and has substantial contributions to partial fractions equations, probability theory, and analytic numbers theory.
Tao was educated at the Research Science Institute and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree at Flinders University at the age of 16, he later went ahead to gain his Ph.D. at Princeton University, and then he rose to prominence by becoming the youngest professor in the University of California, Los Angles.
Terence Tao is a genius in mathematics as he has become the youngest person ever to compete at the international mathematics Olympiad and the most incredible living mathematician who has written up to 18 books and published nearly 350 research papers.
10. David Hilbert
Born in 1862, David Hilbert was a German Mathematician who discovered many substantial conceptions and made several contributions to cumulative algebra, invariants theory, algebraic numbers theory, and the foundation of mathematics.
Hilbert is celebrated to be the pioneer of proof theory and mathematical logic, and he has proved he has extraordinary mathematical abilities by posing 23 unsolved questions in mathematics, often termed Hilbert’s problems which have generated a wide range of attention and ideas from researchers.
Conclusion
These notable and outstanding mathematicians have deeply impacted many scholars to take mathematics seriously and see it as a science for solving universal problems. You must start learning mathematics, as it helps to improve one’s critical thinking and problem-solving ability.
Over the years, Mathematics has been an exciting subject for learners, while some students mostly dislike the discipline. We have written an article that explains more about why students hate mathematics.
