Sophie Germain To this mathematician, physicist and philosopher we owe the discovery of a type of numbers that bear her name: the prime numbers of Sophie Germain . It is a set of prime numbers whose double increased by one unit is also a prime number. If n is prime, 2 n + 1 will also be prime . Let’s check it out: 2 is…
Alan Turing We take a leap in history to plant ourselves in the 20th century and with it in the technological revolution. Everything learned and discovered in mathematics can now be applied to practically any technology we develop. One of the figures who began to germinate this revolution was Alan Turing thanks to his research in computer science . Likewise,…
Archimedes of Syracuse Archimedes, a great mathematician and physicist of antiquity, (287 BC – 212 BC) was one of the best known scientists in the field of machine invention. Antiquity was a period of great scientific discoveries. After studying astronomy with his father, he studied at the prestigious Alexandria school . He rubbed shoulders with great scholars and developed mathematical…
Rene Descartes Studying René Descartes in mathematics is an essential step in understanding the history of mathematics and how equations work. René Descartes, born in France in 1596 in the village of The Hague, was raised by his maternal grandmother in a bourgeois family, with a father advising the Parliament of Brittany. René Descartes wrote many scientific works during…
Isaac Newton Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was not only a mathematician, but also distinguished himself as a physicist, philosopher, and astronomer. Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Raised by his father and maternal grandmother, he was a distracted student in class but very talented at building machines of all kinds for fun. Do you really know Newton? His…
Euclid The life and discoveries of Euclid have changed many things in the teaching of mathematics. Trigonometry, algebraic reasoning, equations, fractions, logarithms, Euclidean axiom, Euclidean division, Euclidean geometry, Euclidean algorithm, there are numerous topics of mathematics that today form the basis of the mathematician’s research. Born in Athens (Greece) around 330 BC , Euclid was a professor at the…
Pythagoras Just before Thales’ theorem, the mathematics curriculum contemplates another well-known theorem : the Pythagorean theorem . Students know the Pythagorean Theorem by heart as it is one of the most important chapters in geometry. Pythagoras, whose name means “announced by the Pythia”, was born on the island of Samos (Greece) at the end of the 6th century BC . The history of…
Thales of Miletus The great ancient Greek philosopher Thales, often known for his famous theorem , Thales’ theorem, which we all end up learning in high school. But do we really know who Thales is? Thales was born in Miletus (ancient Greek city, currently in Turkey) around the year -625 BC. He is considered one of the seven sages of ancient Greece. The…
