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570 BCE
The Brilliance of Pythagoras
Pythagoras was an early Greek mathematicians. He was the brilliant man who came up with the Pythagorean theorem, which says that "a^2 + b^2 = c^2" -
500 BCE
Euclid and his Elements
It is not known when Euclid was born, but what is known is his contribution to mathematics. He is famous for his Elements, which brought about modern day geometry. The most important thing developed by him were his five postulates, which can be seen at this link: http://www.math.harvard.edu/~ctm/home/text/class/harvard/113/97/html/euclid.html -
The Modern Man of Descartes
Descartes was a French man who pulled mathematics out of the dark and brought it to the light of the modern ages. One of his most brilliant inventions is the Cartesian Plane, better known as the x-y axis. This discovery revolutionized mathematics and provided so many new ways to represent things in mathematics. -
Fermat, the Precursor to Newton
Before the time of Newton there was Fermat who was a lover of math, even though he never got a degree in it. He never published his work on his findings in math, but what he did find was brilliant. Here is a link to what is known as Fermat's Last Theorem, which was solved only twenty years ago, and the extensive work that went into it.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/17/470786922/professor-who-solved-fermat-s-last-theorem-wins-math-s-abel-prize -
Pascal, the Father of Probability
Pascal was a brilliant man who came up with modern day probability. He came up with the probability of what you would get from rolling a die. This work was revolutionary and opened doors to solving die rolls, and inventing new forms of gambling. Not only this but he also had the idea of a triangle that could help solve an equation very fast that wouldn't involving FOILing these extremely large numbers. -
The Brilliance of Newton
Newton is a name known to many. He is famous for his ideas of gravity, but more importantly his development of Calculus using Analytic Geometry. He was one of the first to develop Calculus on his own with correspondence between Leibniz and himself. -
The Tragedy of Leibniz
Leibniz is the other mathematician who developed Calculus at the same time as Newton, however his achievements were overshadowed by Newton. He was accused of plagiary and was shamed and shunned as such. However, his notation for Calculus was superior to Newtons and as such is used to this day.
