Contribution of eminent mathematicians to the
development of mathematics - Aryabhatta,Brahmagupta, Baskara, Ramanujam, Euler,
Euclid, Pythagoras, Gauss.
ARCHIMEDES
Archimedes is remembered as the greatest
mathematician of the ancient era. He contributed significantly in geometry
regarding the areas of plane figures and the areas as well as volumes of curved
surfaces. His works expected integral calculus almost 2000 years before it was
invented by Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. He also proved
that the volume of a sphere is equal to two-thirds the volume of a
circumscribed cylinder. He regarded this as his most vital accomplishment. So,
he desired that a cylinder circumscribing a sphere ought to be inscribed on his
tomb. He found an approximate value of pi by circumscribing and inscribing a
circle with regular polygons of 96 sides. His works have original ideas,
impressive demonstrations and excellent computational techniques.
Some
of these which have survived are:
ü on the sphere and cylinder
ü measurement of a circle
ü on conoids and spheroids
ü on spirals
ü on plane equilibriums
ü the sand reckoner
ü quadrature of the parabola
ü on floating bodies
ü stomachion
EUCLID
Euclid is the most famous mathematician of all time.
"Euclid's Elements" is divided into 13 books.
ü the initial six are related to plane geometry
ü seven, eight and nine are pertaining to number
theory
ü number ten is regarding Eudoxus's theory of
irrational numbers
ü eleven to thirteen comprise of solid geometry
ü the last part throws light on the properties of five
regular polyhedrons and an evidence that there can be maximum five of these
These Elements have an impressive clarity regarding
the selection and order of the theorems and problems. There are minimum
assumptions, less extraneous material and an excellent logic in the
propositions. The Elements was first published in 1482.
The
other works of Euclid which survive are:
ü optics
ü phenomena
ü on divisions of figures
ü data
The
works of Euclid that have not survived are:
ü elements of music
ü book of fallacies
ü conics
ü porisms
ü surface loci
ARYA
BHATA
The Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata
(476 A.D) is well known for his work. He was born at Pataliputra near Patna in
Bihar. His most famous book is known as ―Aryabhrtia‖. In arithmetic, Algebra
and place Geometry Aryabhata suggested humorous rules. A few important rules
are enlisted below-
1. Area of triangle =
base*height
2. The value of Pi =3.1456
3. Area of the circle
(pi)2
To sum up Aryabhata was really one of the greatest geniuses
of his time in the field of mathematics and astronomy.
BRAHMAGUPTA
The ancient Indian astronomer brahmagupta is
credited with having put forth the concept or zero for the fist time:
brahmagupta is said to have been born in the year 598 A.D. at Bhillamala in Gujarat, western Indian. Much is
known about brahmagupta’s early
life, we are told that his name as a mathematician was well established when
k.vyaghramukha of the chapa dynasty made him the court astronomer.
In the earlier Roman and Babylonian system of numeration,
large number of characters was required to denote higher
numerals. Thus enumeration and computation became unwieldy. For instance, as E
the Roman system of numeration, the number thirty would have to be written as
X; while as per the decimal system it would 30, further the number thirty three
would be XXXIII as per roman system, would be 33 as per the decimal system.
This also made computation easier.
BHASKARA
Bhashara or bhasharacharya is the most well known
ancient Indian mathematician. He was born on 1114A.D. at bijjadabida in the
sahyadari hill. He is famous for his book siddhantashiromani (1150 A .D). it is divided
into four sections-leelavati (a book on arithmetic), bijaganita(algebra),
goladnayaya(chapter on sphere- celestial globe), and granoganita (mathematics
of a planets), leelavagti contains many interesting problems and was a very
popular text book. He gave an example idea of what is now called ―Rolle’s
theorem.‖ Unfortunately, later Indian mathematics did not take any notice of
this. Five centuries, later newton and Leibnitz developed these subjects. As an
astronomer bhaskara is renowned for his concept of tatakalikagati.
RAMANUJAN
Ramanujan was born in Brahmin family on December 22,
1887 at erode madras. He got his school education at kumbakoram. He won a
scholarship in matriculation examination. His teachers were very much impressed
by his injected and special gifted abilities in mathematics.
Hardy remarked: I had never seen anything the least
like them before. A single look at them is enough to show that they could be
written down by a mathematician of the highest class. His work thrown light on
divergent series. Hypermetric series continued fraction, definite integrals.
Partition functions, ecliptic functions the theory of numbers, fractional
differentiation and highly composite numbers.
