9 Mathematicians Who Changed The World
Mathematicians are the true hero but you don’t really know about them. I can recall two or three mathematician and that’s too because they were famous physicist. Yes, I am talking about Newton and Einstein! If you ask me to list 5 mathematician, I will fail and not the normal fail where you get one name wrong – I will get all the names wrong apart from these famous too. If mathematicians are heroes then why don’t we hear about them? Well the answer to this question is pretty simple – because most of us hate math or just not bother with it! It is a sad reality especially when you look around yourself and get to know that almost everything in your room include some kind of math or any calculation. You are bored and browsing on the internet – math. You want to get the accurate dimension of the room for a new carpet – math. The circuit, the bulb, the plug, and even the spider web on you wall have some kind of mathematical pattern or logic behind it.
We appreciate the glam of movie star but forgets to appreciate the inventors of camera. We love animated movies but forget to acknowledge the efforts of those who made is possible. This articles is an effort to appreciate our mathematician so if someone ask you to name a few with their invention – you know the answer!
1- Albert Einstein
He doesn’t need any introduction – he is probably the most known mathematician. Even though his contributions in the field of physics are notable and famous, his mathematical achievement are often not discussed. He contributed multiple equations to geometry and calculus, 10 of which are known as the ‘Einstein Field Equations’ published in 1915. He provide that how stress-energy can impact the curvature of space-time.
2- Carl Gauss
Carl Gauss was born in 1777 in Germany. Even though he was born in a poor family, he soon started to show the signs of a brilliant mind. He started elementary school at the age of 7 and his teacher was amazed when he summed the integers from 1 to 100 just by spotting that there were 50 pairs each summing 101. He was the discovered of Bode’s law, arithmetic – geometric mean, prime number theorem, binomial theorem, and law of quadratic reciprocity – all that while he was in college! He published his work title as ‘Disquisitiones Arithmeticae’ which provided the construction of a regular 17-gon nu ruler and compasses.
His second book was ‘Theoria motus corporum coelestium in sectionibus conicis Solem ambientium’ which was published in 1809. It provided the accurate description of the motion and movement of the celestial bodies. He also discussed conic sections, differential equations, and elliptic orbitals in the first part of his book. The second part was focused on the refinement of estimating planet’s orbitals.
3- John von Neumann
John von Neumann was born in Budapest in early years of 20th century and you can call it our luck as her designed the architecture served as the base for the development of computer. His work was so accurate that even today the same architecture has been used with minor alterations or improvements. Even the most advanced computers of this days are cycling through a series of basic steps over and over again. This is the processing behind playing video or doing literally anything on the computer and it was first proposed by John von Neumann.
He hold two Ph.D. one in mathematics and second in chemical engineering just because his father wanted it. He worked with Albert Einstein at Princeton University and made discoveries in quantum mechanics, computer science, set theory, game theory, and geometry.
4- Alan Turing
Alan Turing is known as the father of computer science and he was a British mathematician. He is well known for breaking Nazi crypto code during World War II. The code was protected by Enigma machine and breaking it gave the Allies advantage over Nazis. Some even say that it is one the main reason the Allies were able to defeat the Nazis.
Besides doing this huge favor to the world, Turing set the basis for the development of modern computer. Till this day computer operate similarly to the ‘Turing machine’ designed by Alan Turing. Turing test is used to evaluate how well an Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs works. Any program that can pass the Turing test can have a conversation (chat) with a human fooling him to think that he is chatting with a human.
His name is still a prestigious one in the field of computer science as Tuning Award is named after him – which is equivalent to Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
5- Benoit Mandelbrot
Benoit Mandelbrot discovered fractal geometry based on the complex shape built on simple formula. They are the basis of computer animation and graphics so you can think why Benoit’s name is included in this list. Without fractal much wouldn’t have been possible as they are also used to design computer chips and cellphone antenna.
These are just the few name who made it big in the field of mathematics. There are hundreds of other mathematicians who are neglected and their work is still being used in different sector. It is important that we know our ancestors and the effort they put into making this word an advanced place!