Greatest Mathematicians of All Time

The

Isaac Newton

Archimedes Carl Gauss Leonhard Euler

Bernhard Riemann

Euclid

Henri Poincar

J.-L. Lagrange

David Hilbert

G.W. Leibniz

Alex. Pierre de Grothendieck Fermat

The Greatest Mathematicians of All Time

ranked in approximate order of "greatness." To qualify, the mathematician must be born before 1930 and his work must have breadth, depth, and historical importance.

Isaac (Sir) Newton England

(1642-1727)

Newton is regarded as the Father of Calculus (which he called "fluxions"); he shares credit with Leibniz for the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus (that integration and differentiation are each other's inverse operation). He applied calculus for several purposes: finding areas, tangents, the lengths of curves and the maxima and minima of functions. In addition to several other important advances in analytic geometry, his mathematical works include the Binomial Theorem, his eponymous numeric method, the idea of polar coordinates, and power series for exponential and trigonometric functions. (His equation ex = xk / k! has been called the "most important series in mathematics.") He contributed to algebra and the theory of equations; he was first to state Bzout's Theorem; he generalized Dscartes' rule of signs. (The generalized rule of signs was incomplete and finally resolved two centuries later by Sturm and Sylvester.) He developed a series for the arcsin function. He developed facts about cubic equations (just as the "shadows of a cone" yield all quadratic curves, Newton found a curve whose "shadows" yield all cubic curves). He proved that same-mass spheres of any radius have equal gravitational attraction: this fact is key to celestial motions. He discovered Puiseux series almost two centuries before they were reinvented by Puiseux. (Like some of the greatest ancient mathematicians, Newton took the time to compute an approximation to ; his was better than Vieta's, though still not as accurate as al-Kashi's.)

Archimedes of Syracuse (287212 BC) Greek domain

Archimedes is universally acknowledged to be the greatest of ancient mathematicians. He studied at Euclid's school (probably after Euclid's death), but his work far surpassed the works of Euclid. His achievements are particularly impressive given the lack of good mathematical notation in his day. His proofs are noted not only for brilliance but for unequalled clarity, with modern biographer (Heath) describing Archimedes treatises as "without exception monuments of mathematical exposition...as impressive in their perfection as to create a feeling akin to awe in the mind of the reader." Archimedes made advances in number theory, algebra, and analysis, but is most renowned for his many theorems of plane and solid geometry. He was first to prove Heron's formula for the area of a triangle. His excellent approximation to 3 indicates that he'd partially anticipated the method of continued fractions. He found a method to trisect an arbitrary angle (using a markable straightedge the construction is impossible using strictly Platonic rules). Although it doesn't survive in his writings, Pappus reports that he discovered the Archimedean solids. One of his most remarkable and famous geometric results was determining the area of a parabolic section, for which he offered two independent proofs, one using his Principle of the Lever, the other using a geometric series.

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) Germany

Carl Friedrich Gauss, the "Prince of Mathematics," exhibited his calculative powers when he corrected his father's arithmetic before the age of three. His revolutionary nature was demonstrated at age twelve, when he began questioning the axioms of Euclid. His genius was confirmed at the age of nineteen when he proved that the regular n-gon was constructible, for odd n, if and only if n is the product of distinct prime Fermat numbers. At age 24 he published Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, probably the greatest book of pure mathematics ever. Gauss built the theory of complex numbers into its modern form, including the notion of "monogenic" functions which are now ubiquitous in mathematical physics. Gauss was the premier number theoretician of all time. Other contributions of Gauss include hypergeometric series, foundations of statistics, and differential geometry. He also did important work in geometry, providing an improved solution to Apollonius' famous problem of tangent circles, stating and proving the Fundamental Theorem of Normal Axonometry, and solving astronomical problems related to comet orbits and navigation by the stars. (The first asteroid was discovered when Gauss was a young man; he famously constructed an 8th-degree polynomial equation to predict its orbit.) Gauss also did important work in several areas of physics, and invented the heliotrope.

Leonhard Euler Switzerland

(1707-1783)

Euler may be the most influential mathematician who ever lived (though some would make him second to Euclid); he ranks #77 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. His colleagues called him "Analysis Incarnate." Laplace, famous for

denying credit to fellow mathematicians, once said "Read Euler: he is our master in everything." His notations and methods in many areas are in use to this day. Euler was the most prolific mathematician in history and is often judged to be the best algorist of all time. (The ranking #4 may seem too low for this supreme mathematician, but Gauss succeeded at proving several theorems which had stumped Euler.) Just as Archimedes extended Euclid's geometry to marvelous heights, so Euler took marvelous advantage of the analysis of Newton and Leibniz: He gave the world modern trigonometry, pioneered (along with Lagrange) the calculus of variations, generalized and proved the Newton-Giraud formulae, etc. He was also supreme at discrete mathematics, inventing graph theory and generating functions. Euler was also a major figure in number theory: He proved that the sum of the reciprocals of primes less than x is approx. (ln ln x), invented the totient function and used it to generalize Fermat's Little Theorem, found both the largest then-known prime and the largest then-known perfect number, proved e to be irrational, proved that all even perfect numbers must have the Mersenne number form that Euclid had discovered 2000 years earlier, and much more.

Georg Bernhard Riemann 1866) Germany

Friedrich (1826-

Riemann was a phenomenal genius whose work was exceptionally deep, creative and rigorous; he made revolutionary contributions in many areas of pure mathematics, and also inspired the development of physics. He had poor physical health and died at an early age, yet is still considered to be among the most productive mathematicians ever. He was the master of complex analysis,

which he connected to both topology and number theory; He applied topology to analysis, and analysis to number theory, making revolutionary contributions to all three fields. He took non-Euclidean geometry far beyond his predecessors. He introduced the Riemann integral which clarified analysis. Riemann's other masterpieces include differential geometry, tensor analysis, the theory of functions, and, especially, the theory of manifolds. He generalized the notions of distance and curvature and, therefore, described new possibilities for the geometry of space itself. Several important theorems and concepts are named after Riemann, e.g. the Riemann-Roch theorem, a key connection among topology, complex analysis and algebraic geometry. He was so prolific and original that some of his work went unnoticed (for example, Weierstrass became famous for showing a nowhere-differentiable continuous function; later it was found that Riemann had casually mentioned one in a lecture years earlier). Like his mathematical peers (Gauss, Archimedes, Newton), Riemann was intensely interested in physics.

Euclid of Megara & Alexandria (CA 322-275 BC) Greece/Egypt

Euclid may have been a student of Aristotle. He founded the school of mathematics at the great university of Alexandria. He was the first to prove that there are infinitely many prime numbers; he stated and proved the unique factorization theorem; and he devised Euclid's algorithm for computing gcd. He introduced the Mersenne primes and observed that (M2+M)/2 is always perfect (in the sense of Pythagoras) if M is Mersenne. (The converse, that any even perfect number has such a corresponding Mersenne prime, was tackled by Alhazen and proven by Euler.) He proved that there are only five "Platonic solids," as well as theorems of geometry far too

numerous to summarize; among many with special historical interest is the proof that rigid-compass constructions can be implemented with collapsingcompass constructions. Although notions of trigonometry were not in use, Euclid's theorems include some closely related to the Laws of Sines and Cosines. Among several books attributed to Euclid are The Division of the Scale (a mathematical discussion of music), The Optics, The Cartoptrics (a treatise on the theory of mirrors), a book on spherical geometry, a book on logic fallacies, and his comprehensive math textbook The Elements. Several of his masterpieces have been lost, including works on conic sections and other advanced geometric topics.

Jules Henri Poincar 1912) France

(1854-

Poincar was clumsy and frail and supposedly flunked an IQ test, but he was one of the most creative mathematicians ever, and surely the greatest mathematician of the Constructivist ("intuitionist") style. Poincar founded the theory of algebraic (combinatorial) topology, and is sometimes called the Father of Topology (a title also used for Euler and Brouwer), but produced a large amount of brilliant work in many other areas of mathematics. In addition to his topology, Poincar laid the foundations of homology; he discovered automorphic functions (a unifying foundation for the trigonometric and elliptic functions), and essentially founded the theory of periodic orbits; he made major advances in the theory of differential equations. Several important results carry his name, for example the famous

Poincar Recurrence Theorem, which seems to contradict the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Poincar is especially noted for effectively discovering chaos theory, and for posing "Poincar's conjecture;" that conjecture was one of the most famous unsolved problems in mathematics for an entire century, and can be explained without equations to a layman (provided the layman can visualize 3-D surfaces in 4-space). Recently Grigori Perelman proved Poincar's conjecture, and is eligible for the first Million Dollar math prize in history.

Joseph-Louis de) Lagrange Italy, France

(Comte (1736-1813)

Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Lodovico Lagrangia) was a brilliant man who advanced to become a teen-age Professor shortly after first studying mathematics. He excelled in all fields of analysis and number theory; he made key contributions to the theories of determinants, continued fractions, and many other fields. He developed partial differential equations far beyond those of D. Bernoulli and d'Alembert, developed the calculus of variations far beyond that of the Bernoullis, and developed terminology and notation (e.g. the use of f'(x) and f''(x) for a function's 1st and 2nd derivatives). He proved a fundamental Theorem of Group Theory. He laid the foundations for the theory of polynomial equations which Cauchy, Abel, Galois and Poincar would later complete. Number theory was almost just a diversion for Lagrange, whose focus was analysis; nevertheless he was the master of that field as well, proving difficult

and historic theorems including Wilson's theorem (p divides (p-1)! + 1 when p is prime); Lagrange's Four-Square Theorem (every positive integer is the sum of four squares); and that nx2 + 1 = y2 has solutions for every positive non-square integer n.

David Hilbert (1862-1943) Prussia, Germany

Hilbert was preeminent in many fields of mathematics, including axiomatic theory, invariant theory, algebraic number theory, class field theory and functional analysis. His examination of calculus led him to the invention of "Hilbert space," considered one of the key concepts of functional analysis and modern mathematical physics. He was a founder of fields like metamathematics and modern logic. He was also the founder of the "Formalist" school which opposed the "Intuitionism" of Kronecker and Brouwer. He developed a new system of definitions and axioms for geometry, replacing the 2200 year-old system of Euclid. As a young Professor he proved his "Finiteness Theorem," now regarded as one of the most important results of general algebra. The methods he used were so novel that, at first, the "Finiteness Theorem" was rejected for publication as being "theology" rather than mathematics! In number theory, he proved Waring's famous conjecture which is now known as the Hilbert-Waring theorem. Any one man can only do so much, so the greatest mathematicians should help nurture their colleagues. Hilbert provided a famous List of 23

Unsolved Problems, which inspired and directed the development of 20thcentury mathematics.

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716) Germany

Leibniz was one of the most brilliant and prolific intellectuals ever; and his influence in mathematics (especially his co-invention of the infinitesimal calculus) was immense. His childhood IQ has been estimated as second-highest in all of history, behind only Goethe. Descriptions which have been applied to Leibniz include "one of the two greatest universal geniuses" (da Vinci was the other); "the most important logician between Aristotle and Boole;" and the "Father of Applied Science." Leibniz described himself as "the most teachable of mortals." Mathematics was just a self-taught sideline for Leibniz, who was a philosopher, lawyer, historian, diplomat and renowned inventor. Because he "wasted his youth" before learning mathematics, he probably ranked behind the Bernoullis as well as Newton in pure mathematical talent, and thus he may be the only mathematician among the Top Ten who was never the greatest living algorist or theorem prover. We won't try to summarize Leibniz' contributions to philosophy and diverse other fields including biology; as just three examples: he predicted the Earth's molten core, introduced the notion of subconscious mind, and built the first calculator that could do multiplication.

Alexandre Grothendieck (1928) Germany, France

Grothendieck has done brilliant work in several areas of mathematics including number theory, geometry, topology, and functional analysis, but especially in the fields of algebraic geometry and category theory, both of which he revolutionized. He is most famous for his methods to unify different branches of mathematics, for example using algebraic geometry in number theory. Grothendieck is considered a master of abstraction, rigor and presentation. He has produced many important and deep results in homological algebra, most notably his etale cohomology. With these new methods, Grothendieck and his famous student Pierre Deligne were able to prove the Weil Conjectures. Grothendieck also developed the theory of sheafs, invented the theory of schemes, generalized the Riemann-Roch Theorem to revolutionize K-theory, developed Grothendieck categories, crystalline cohomology, infinity-stacks and more. The guiding principle behind much of Grothendieck's work has been Topos Theory, which he invented to harness the methods of topology. These methods and results have redirected several diverse branches of modern mathematics including number theory, algebraic topology, and representation theory.

Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665) France

Pierre de Fermat of was his era the most brilliant with mathematician and, along

Dscartes, one of the most influential. Although mathematics was just his hobby (Fermat was a government lawyer), Fermat practically founded Number Theory, and also played key roles in the discoveries of Analytic Geometry and Calculus. He was also an excellent geometer (e.g. discovering a triangle's Fermat point), and (in collaboration with Blaise Pascal) discovered probability theory. Fellow geniuses are the best judges of genius, and Blaise Pascal had this to say of Fermat: "For my part, I confess that [Fermat's researches about numbers] are far beyond me, and I am competent only to admire them." E.T. Bell wrote "it can be argued that Fermat was at least Newton's equal as a pure mathematician." Fermat's most famous discoveries in number theory include the ubiquitouslyused Fermat's Little Theorem; the n = 4 case of his conjectured Fermat's Last Theorem (he may have proved the n = 3 case as well); the fact that every natural number is the sum of three triangle numbers; and Fermat's Christmas Theorem (that any prime (4n+1) can be represented as the sum of two squares in exactly one way, also called the Fermat-Euler Prime Number Theorem).

Niels Henrik Abel 1829) Norway

(1802-

At an early age, Niels Abel studied the works of the greatest mathematicians, found flaws in their proofs, and resolved to reprove some of these theorems rigorously. He was the first to fully prove the general case of Newton's Binomial Theorem, one of the most widely applied theorems in mathematics. Theorem of Perhaps his most famous (published achievement was the (deceptively simple) Abel's Convergence posthumously), one of the most important theorems in analysis; but there are several other Theorems which bear his name. Abel also made contributions in algebraic geometry and the theory of equations. Inversion (replacing y = f(x) with x = f-1(y)) is a key idea in mathematics (consider Newton's Fundamental Theorem of Calculus); Abel developed this insight. Legendre had spent much of his life studying elliptic integrals, but Abel inverted these to get elliptic functions, which quickly became a productive field of mathematics, and led to more general complex-variable functions, which were important to the development of both abstract and applied mathematics.

variste Galois 1832) France

(1811-

Galois who died before the age of twenty-one, not only never became a professor but was barely allowed to study as an undergraduate. His output of papers, mostly published posthumously, is much smaller than most of the others on this list, yet it is considered among the most awesome works in mathematics. He applied group theory to the theory of equations, revolutionizing both fields. (Galois coined the mathematical term "group.") While Abel was the first to prove that some polynomial equations had no algebraic solutions, Galois established the necessary and sufficient condition for algebraic solutions to exist. His principle treatise was a letter he wrote the night before his fatal duel, of which Hermann Weyl wrote: "This letter, if judged by the novelty and profundity of ideas it contains, is perhaps the most substantial piece of writing in the whole literature of mankind." Galois' last words (spoken to his brother) were "Ne pleure pas, Alfred! J'ai besoin de tout mon courage pour mourir vingt ans!" This tormented life, with its pointless early end, is one of the great tragedies of mathematical history. Although Galois' group theory is considered one of the greatest developments of 19th century mathematics, Galois' writings were largely ignored until the revolutionary work of Klein and Lie.

John von (1903-1957) U.S.A.

Neumann Hungary,

John von Neumann (born Neumann Janos Lajos) was a childhood prodigy who could do very complicated mental arithmetic at an early age. As an adult he was noted for hedonism and reckless driving but also

became one of the most prolific geniuses in history, making major contributions in many branches of pure mathematics, and applied mathematics. He was an essential pioneer of both quantum physics and computer science. Von Neumann pioneered the use of models in set theory, thus improving the axiomatic basis of mathematics. He proved a generalized spectral theorem sometimes called the most important result in operator theory. He developed von Neumann Algebras. He was first to state and prove the minimax theorem and thus invented game theory; this work also advanced operations research. He invented cellular automata, famously constructing a self-reproducing automaton. He invented elegant definitions for the counting numbers (0 = {}, n+1 = n {n}). He also worked in analysis, matrix theory, measure theory, numerical analysis, ergodic theory, group representations, continuous geometry, statistics and topology. Von Neumann discovered an ingenious area-conservation paradox related to the famous Banach-Tarski volumeconservation paradox. He inspired some of Gdel's famous work (and independently proved Gdel's Second Theorem).

Karl Wilhelm Theodor Weierstrass (18151897) Germany

Weierstrass devised new definitions for the primitives of calculus and was then able to prove several fundamental but hitherto unproven theorems. He developed new insights in several fields including the calculus of variations and trigonometry. He discovered the concept of uniform convergence. Weierstrass shocked his colleagues when he demonstrated a continuous function which is differentiable nowhere. He found simpler proofs of many existing theorems, including Gauss' Fundamental Theorem of Algebra and the

fundamental Hermite-Lindemann Transcendence Theorem. Steiner's proof of the Isoperimetric Theorem contained a flaw, so Weierstrass became the first to supply a fully rigorous proof of that famous and ancient result. Starting strictly from the integers, he also applied his axiomatic methods to a definition of irrational numbers. Weierstrass demonstrated extreme brilliance as a youth, but during his college years he detoured into drinking and dueling and ended up as a degreeless secondary school teacher. During this time he studied Abel's papers, developed results in elliptic and Abelian functions, proved the Laurent expansion theorem before Laurent did, and independently proved the Fundamental Theorem of Functions of a Complex Variable. He was interested in power series and felt that others had overlooked the importance of Abel's Theorem.

Ren Dscartes (1596-1650) France

Dscartes' early career was that of soldier-adventurer and he finished as tutor to royalty, but in between he achieved fame as the preeminent intellectual of his day. He is considered the inventor of analytic geometry and therefore the "Father of Modern Mathematics." Because of his famous philosophical writings ("Cogito ergo sum") he is considered, along with Aristotle, to be one of the most influential thinkers in history. He ranks #49 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. Dscartes developed laws of motion (including a "vortex" theory of gravitation) which were very influential, though largely incorrect. His famous mathematical theorems include the Rule of Signs (for determining the signs of polynomial roots), the elegant formula relating the radii of Soddy kissing circles, his theorem on total angular defect, and an improvement on the ancient construction method for cube-doubling. He

improved mathematical notation (e.g. the use of superscripts to denote exponents). He also discovered Euler's Polyhedral Theorem (V - E + F = 2).

Brahmagupta `Bhillamalacarya' (589-668) Rajasthan (India)

No one person gets unique credit for the invention of the decimal system but Brahmagupta's was very textbook Brahmasphutasiddhanta

influential, and is sometimes considered the first textbook "to treat zero as a number in its own right." It also treated negative numbers. (Others claim these were first seen 800 years earlier in Chang Tshang's Chinese text and were implicit in what survives of earlier Hindu works, but Brahmagupta's text discussed them lucidly.) Along with Diophantus, Brahmagupta was also among the first to express equations with symbols rather than words. Brahmagupta Bhillamalacarya (`The Teacher from Bhillamala') made great advances in arithmetic, algebra, numeric analysis, and geometry. Several theorems bear his name, including the formula for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral: 16 A2 = (a+b+c-d)(a+b-c+d)(a-b+c+d)(-a+b+c+d) Another famous Brahmagupta theorem dealing with such quadrilaterals can be phrased "In a circle, if the chords AB and CD are perpendicular and intersect at E, then the line from E which bisects AC will be perpendicular to BD." Proving Brahmagupta's theorems are good challenges even today.

Carl G. J. Jacobi (1804-1851) Germany

Jacobi was a prolific mathematician who did decisive work in the algebra and analysis of complex variables, and did work in number theory (e.g. cubic reciprocity) which excited Carl Gauss. He is sometimes described as the successor to Gauss. As an algorist (manipulator of involved algebraic expressions), he may have been surpassed only by Euler and Ramanujan. He was also a very highly regarded teacher. Jacobi has special importance in the development of the mathematics of physics. Jacobi's most important early achievement was the theory of elliptic functions, e.g. his fundamental result about functions with multiple periods. Jacobi was the first to apply elliptic functions to number theory, producing a new proof of Fermat's famous conjecture (Lagrange's theorem) that every integer is the sum of four squares. He also made important discoveries about theta functions, e.g. the Jacobi Triple Product Identity. He also made important advances in many other areas, including higher fields, number theory, algebraic geometry, differential equations, q-series, hypergeometric series, determinants, Abelian functions, and dynamics. He devised the algorithms still used to calculate eigenvectors and for other important matrix manipulations.

Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar (1887-1920) India

Like Abel, Ramanujan was a self-taught prodigy who lived in a country distant from his mathematical peers, and suffered from poverty: childhood dysentery and vitamin deficiencies probably led to his early death. Yet he produced 4000 theorems or conjectures in number theory, algebra, and combinatorics. He might be almost unknown today, except that his letter caught the eye of Godfrey Hardy, who saw remarkable, almost inexplicable formulae which "must be true, because if they were not true, no one would have had the imagination to invent them." Ramanujan's specialties included infinite series, elliptic functions, continued fractions, partition enumeration, definite integrals, modular equations, gamma functions, "mock theta" functions, hypergeometric series, and "highly composite" numbers. Much of his best work was done in collaboration with Hardy, for example a proof that almost all numbers n have about log log n prime factors (a result which inspired probabilistic number theory). Much of his methodology, including unusual ideas about divergent series, was his own invention. (As a young man he made the absurd claim that 1+2+3+4+... = -1/12. Later it was noticed that this claim translates to a true statement about the Riemann zeta function, with which Ramanujan was unfamiliar.) Ramanujan's innate ability for algebraic manipulations equaled or surpassed that of Euler and Jacobi.